From The Fanfic “Steven And The Age Of Wonderbeasts”

Avoid reproducing in crowded areas (which would make them even more crowded)

i know literally nothing about dogs/adopting dogs but i've grown up thinking adopt don't shop is good/breeders=bad. if you don't mind explaining a lil bit about your pov i'd love to hear it

hey! i’m happy to explain. some of this may be slightly boiled down 

so like, right off the bat, my central ethos about dog ownership/adoption is that 

people should get dogs who are the right fit for them as a person, for their household, and for their lifestyle. not every home is good for every dog and not every dog is good for every home. 

all dogs deserve to be in circumstances that maximize their likelihood to have a home. this means making sure that dogs end up in appropriate homes to begin with, that dogs are successful in their current homes and don’t need to be rehomed, and that if they need to be rehomed, they have the highest possibility of quickly finding a new home

another right-off-the-bat statement: for many people, a dog at a shelter or rescue will be a wonderful fit, and that’s great! homeless dogs deserve homes. there is no argument here that is anti-dog adoption for those who want a shelter dog.

so like, two key points here:

not all dogs are interchangeable and not all homes are interchangeable

responsible and reputable breeders contribute positively to both ethical principles i mentioned above

what you have to understand about dog homelessness is that it’s not just, like, an arithmetic problem. it’s not like there’s, let’s say, 5 million dogs coming into existence and 4 million prospective adopters and if we could just have a million fewer dogs then all our problems could be solved. 

the reasons dogs become homeless (and the reasons dogs have trouble finding homes) could frankly be their own essay. i do want to particularly note marginalization, impoverishment, and a lack of resources for vulnerable dog owners – sometimes keeping a dog in a home can be as simple as fronting someone the money for a pet deposit. 

other reasons include things like behavioral issues, health issues, and breed. 

in many areas – like mine – the issue is not necessarily that there are all these adopters simply choosing not to adopt all these available dogs who would be a good fit for them, but that there are not many adopters for whom those dogs would be a good fit. 

for some people who are buying a dog for a specific reason, notably service dogs and other working dogs, like herding dogs, a purpose-bred dog is most likely to succeed in their situation. 

for other people, they need a certain amount of predictability or stability and can’t take on the risk of a shelter dog who won’t be appropriate for their situation. 

and some people are just passionate about a specific kind of dog and that’s the dog they’re going to be happy with! i don’t think those people should be obligated to get an animal they don’t want out of guilt.

so really quickly, i want to define what i mean when i talk about a responsible breeder. a responsible breeder:

performs all of the health tests that are appropriate for their breed

breeds temperamentally sound, relatively predictable dogs

has a clear purpose and vision for their breeding program (why are they breeding this breed? why are they breeding these dogs in particular? what are they hoping to accomplish?)

screen their owners to ensure that they and the dog will likely be good fits for each other  

are willing to take back their dogs at any time should the dog need to be rehomed (many breeders require this)

are actively working on early socialization and behavioral development – the first 12 weeks of a puppy’s life are developmentally crucial, and breeders have an extraordinary ability to set their puppies up to be successful down the line

are a resource for their puppy buyers for the lifetime of the dog (i deliberately chose a breeder who i think is more knowledgeable and a better trainer than i am!)

breeders who do these things are not a part of the dog homelessness problem, they are part of the solution.

they are choosing homes for their dogs where they are likely to succeed and are unlikely to be rehomed. 

they are willing to provide the dog a home if the dog should become homeless. 

they are providing their dogs a foundation in terms of health and behavior that will make it most likely that the dog stays in their home or is adopted if the dog should be rehomed. 

they are giving puppy buyers guidance to raise dogs that are likely to be well-adjusted and healthy, which maximizes the likelihood of the dog staying in the home or being adopted if the dog should be rehomed.

if all dogs were bred under these circumstances, or even most, it would be a net positive for dogs individually and as a population. supporting good breeders is, for me, an arm of preventative animal welfare along with behavioral care and access to low-cost resources. 

hope this helps! i know it’s long lol

Creating Fur in Blender (with particle system)

People often ask me about how I create fur in blender, so I decided to make a post about it with all the details. I will use my personal Kotie model as an example. It already has all the fur but I will create a new one with step-by-step explanation ~

I will only create the fur for the face, but everything I will use here works for the rest of the body as well!

Important:

I use Blender 3.6.

I don't know much about the new hair system; I don't work with it for now.

I'm not a professional, not a teacher, and not a Google or Youtube. I'm a chaotic self-taught hobbyist who does stuff for his own use only, so I don't know everything :'D

I don't know if will I do more posts like this. It's not easy, it took me many hours of work.

My main blender-related post.

So, met the hairless Kotie! He is ready to get some fur...

>>>>

I create fur through multiple Particle Systems. So, I created a new one and edited it a little, making the hair particles shorter. Then I use Vertex Groups to control where the hair will grow. For example, I want to create facial fur, so I create a Vertex Group for the face (I already have several) and paint it using Weight Paint. Red is for fur and blue is for places with no fur. Also Vertex Groups can be used for fur length, clumps, kinks and other settings. I sometimes play randomly with these.

Next, the fur needs to be combed and it is easier to do this symmetrically. Particle systems are never symmetrical at first, so I just remove the half and then mirror the other half.

There is a bug related to the symmetry of hair particles in Blender. I once made a post about it.

Combing works like… combing. I just need to comb the fur in a natural direction (if you are not sure how to comb it - look for photos). It also usually makes sense to make the fur thinner - this can be done by changing the "Diameter Root" in the Hair Shape settings. This will make the fur look more like fur and less like spikes.

Then I add Children to make the fur densier. At first it usually looks very smooth, even unnaturally smooth, so I need to make it messier. There are many tools for it - clumping, roughness, plus I can add some details by selecting random hairs and editing them separately. There are also the Length and Threshold settings in Children to make some part of the hairs shorter than others.

Another good idea is to make a duplicate of the particle system with a lower fur density and edit it separately (it's important for it to be a fully separate one, so press F9 when you duplicate it). I made the fur on the duplicate longer, fluffier, combed it a little differently, and added some clumping. The main fur is blue and the duplicate is red, to make them clearly visible.

A good way to paint fur realistically is to mix (using Mix Color node) few Color Ramps with Curves Info. This allows you to color the fur in every little detail, especially if you will also use texture masks.

I used texture with stripes as one of the layers, and this is what I got:

I use Cycles and Principled Hair BSDF

All other fur parts (neck, body, paws, tail) are created in a similar way. There can be as many of different Particle Systems as you need (and as many as your computer will allow you to do). To improve performance in the viewport, you can set fewer displayed hair children than in the render.

More color details can be added using texture masks - for example I drew one with spots for whiskers.

This is what I got + black one as a bonus/variation.

Fur settings are individual - for example, it can be more or less shiny, so it makes sense to try different variations and choose what looks best. 3D is always about experimenting and trying new things! c:

Also, each Particle System can have its own material. I gave Black material to some of them (they are red in viewport) and this is what I got:

That's all for now, thank you very much for reading! I hope this was useful to these who are interested in creating fur in Blender.

~ Vill Liedo <3

this is superior humor

Was she wrong though?

Nah, I'd just gaslight the hell out of them like: "no I was there. I promise I was. We hung out for a couple hours. You got wasted and we talked about our plan to go bowling next month. I can't believe you don't remember."

Yeah. That'll show 'em.

Toothless Roaming on the street. FYI it’s not CGI. It’s a real cosplay.

This is the best thing that could have come out of that.

Wakfu as Brooklyn 99 because I have too much free time

Gladly