Surgical!

Nurse!

Looks like a UV map.

A who what? I did GIS stuff in Uni. Is that like, a printshop thing? :)

3d thing.

...It's a skunky thang, you wouldn't unnerstanyund.

This sis the face? And the little notches in the pattern pieces are some form of dart, I take it?

Pretty neat.

Correct on both counts *cookie prize* Fur is stretchy, so you don't need -too- many darts, just on the really curvy bits.

Yes they do! And folfs too. I'm sure we both have a lot of vacuuming to do.

Carpet rake ^.^

A friend gave me one. He had a Newfie a while ago.

I still have yet to figure out strategy for placing darts, and I feel like I use far too many... I don't suppose you know of any resources that might educate me?
And failing that, would you be willing to tell me your general strategy on selecting where to place them? I think many of us amateur fursuit builders could really use a tutorial on that.

I leaned from making teddybears way, way long ago. As the saying goes, a lot of practice to get the feel for it.

I suppose a good way would be to take a few practice shapes, cover them in some duct tape, and then remove/flatten the tape.

Where the largest bulges (say, something that sticks up off the table an inch or more?) cut a single line, and watch how the piece flattens down. Smaller bulges, you probably can get away with just stretching the fur. Play with these shapes. Try covering a cube, a round, and a triangle. From here, it's just a matter of trying with the various shapes you find on a costume piece.

Some examples: A very pointy ear. Likely there's going to be a dart at the tip of the ear/pointy part, a simple "V" usually. Just enough to take out the wrinkle as the fur folds over the tip. May need a few along the round edge of the ear as well, where /if the fur is folding over from one side of the ear to the other (like, from the back, curling over to meet with the inner ear fur)

The front of the muzzle, being a big round shape, usually need some darts. Can hide them on the underside of the muzzle where they are less in direct sight. Usually one on the left, one on the right, about where fangs would be.

Fur is very forgiving, especially if you have it overtop of soft foam. On harder surfaces, like resins, you may need more darting to take care of wrinkles.

What are darts? x3

So, you sew them together, place it on the fursuit base, and glue it on? ;3

In a nutshell, yep :)

how do you get such perfect shapes! like how do you get the patterns out... i tape the head with packing tape then cut them out and trace them on fur..
but i always have problems not getting the shapes correct.
anythign you can tell me to help me will be a blessing HAhaha

When you pull a tape pattens off your project, do give it a bit extra around the edges of each piece?

When you sew all the bits back together, you end up consuming some material along the edge. Adding that bit in may help you. I usually add about 1/8th of an inch as my seam allowance.

As for making round things lay flat as a pattern, darts! Remove little wedges of fur and sew the gap up to make fun shapes. More = rounder, deeper vs shallow darts, convex vs concave darts. They all change the shape. Best way is to just try em all out and see how the fur pinches together.

Fur also has some stretch to it, use that to your advantage as well :)

Haha alright thnx ^^

Hope it helps. :D