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1->"''He found a formula for drawing [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit comic rabbits:]]''\
2''This formula for drawing comic rabbits [[MoneyDearBoy paid.]]''\
3''Till in the end he could not change the tragic habits''\
4''This formula for drawing comic rabbits made.''"
5-->-- Animator '''Robert Graves''', "Epitaph of an Unfortunate Animator", quoted by Creator/RichardWilliams in ''Literature/TheAnimatorsSurvivalKit''.
6
7A lot of [[WesternAnimation cartoons]], [[{{Anime}} anime]], and {{webcomics}} have [[FunnyAnimal Funny Animal]] characters. Many assume that the artists who create them are [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom furries]], and that this is why the characters are all [[SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism anthropomorphic animals]]. While this is certainly true in some cases, it's usually not.
8
9[[MostWritersAreHuman Most Artists Are Humans]], but unfortunately humans are fairly hard to draw. This has a lot to do with the principles behind the UncannyValley theory. We know what people look like. We see them every day. We have entire neural structures in our brains dedicated completely to picking up the incredibly subtle differences between human faces. If an artist's human characters don't look ''just'' so, those characters won't be appealing.
10
11Oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be much of an UncannyValley equivalent for animals, aside from photorealistically rendered CGI animated animals and real animals in live action films that talk or make humanlike facial expressions. There is almost no equivalent of UncannyValley for any [[CartoonCreature extremely]] [[InformedSpecies stylized animals]], monsters, alien characters, or giant robots. After all, there aren't any BeastFolk running around in the real world. This means that there isn't any right or wrong way to draw cartoon animals, so it's impossible to be close but not quite there.
12
13Also, while artists who limit themselves to humans are very likely to use [[OnlySixFaces a limited variety of facial designs]], furries and animals have several additional traits to help tell each other apart, from fur color to ears, to tails to paws -- not to mention species. As a result, an artist can easily make a CastOfSnowflakes just by randomizing each character.
14
15Further, while human body language can be on the subtle side (especially if you have trouble drawing people to begin with), animals have lots of features that are easy to use in this regard; tails, ears, whiskers... they all can convey meaning very directly. And since, as above, we are more familiar with human emotions by default, if you make a misstep with animals it isn't as noticeable.
16
17In some cases, but not all, this may be due to a LazyArtist. In particular, most webcomic artists are amateurs. Some of them [[SturgeonsLaw just can't draw that well]], so they borrow from the more professional Furry Comics as a shortcut. The audience tends to notice the difference in quality. Most art school students run a long, ''long'' gauntlet of figure drawing courses. An appealing human face is indeed one of the hardest damn things in the world to draw -- however, the rest of said human isn't any harder or easier to draw than any other animal. Many artists go on to create animal characters anyway -- but there is a noticeably greater attention to detail from someone who's trained on drawing humans. Furthermore, once you start drawing animals, you understand why you drew so many human figures. We're about as close to a "[[DoAnythingRobot Do Anything Tetrapod]]" as you can get.
18
19A lot of early 3D artwork and video games made use of this as well. It's awfully hard to make a convincing human out of a handful of triangles, but maybe, just maybe, that puddle of polygons is a [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot bandicoot]] or something. This is also a common reason why certain works that make it clear humans exist within their fictional universe [[NoFocusOnHumans choose to not portray them at all]].
20
21A major cause of FurryConfusion, if not handled well.
22----
23!!Examples
24
25[[foldercontrol]]
26
27[[folder: Anime and Manga]]
28* ''Anime/WolfsRain'' is one of the few works that turns this trope on its ear. The animators had far more experience animating appealing human characters; their animal characters tend to look a little off. So there are whole episodes in the series where the animal characters spend all their time [[HumanityEnsues in human form]] (ItMakesSenseInContext) when there is no particular reason to do so.
29* Yoshihiro Takahashi's works tend to invert this. Especially the anime adaptation of ''Anime/GingaDensetsuWeed'' - the dogs can look so strange as to be cringe-worthy. ''Manga/GingaNagareboshiGin'' suffers from this as well, but not nearly as badly. Humans in these series, on the other hand, tend to be rather well-drawn.
30[[/folder]]
31
32[[folder: Comic Books]]
33* ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo:'' Creator/StanSakai is perfectly capable of drawing recognizable and distinct humans -- but his "furry" characters allow new readers to grasp the essentials of his regular cast very quickly and easily. The character Katsuichi is powerful, insightful and reserved, so he's [[KingOfBeasts a lion.]] [[TheTrickster Kitsune]] is fun-loving and cunning but essentially amoral, so she's a fox. Gen is fearless, powerful and easily angered, so he's a rhinoceros... and so on.
34* ''ComicBook/OmahaTheCatDancer'' is pornographic -- its characters all have animal heads and tails, but the rest of them is quite human. ''Quite''.
35* ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'': Drawing all the characters as mice or other animals is the only significant [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality acceptable break from reality]] that this explicitly biographical comic tolerates. [[AnimalJingoism Cats vs. mice]] also makes for a convenient visual metaphor, though one that would turn the story into a BrokenAesop if taken too seriously. The book has a fair few fourth wall breaks where creator Creator/ArtSpiegelman addresses readers directly and discusses some of the metaphor's limitations. When Spiegelman is at his most medium-aware - the scenes where he visits his psychiatrist - he draws the animal faces as explicit masks worn by humans. There's also an ambiguous scene regarding a concentration camp inmate who claims to be a non-Jewish German; Spiegelman initially draws him as a mouse but then redraws him as a cat when asking his father's opinion on the truth of the inmate's story.
36[[/folder]]
37
38[[folder:Fan Works]]
39* Inverted in the ''Pokémon'' webcomic ''Webcomic/TeamRocketRoots''. The humans are drawn rather on-model, but the ''Pokémon'' are another thing. They're more noticeably off-model.
40[[/folder]]
41
42[[folder: Literature]]
43* Inverted in Creator/RobinJarvis' illustrations of his own ''Literature/DeptfordMice'' books. His drawings of mice have a distinctly uncanny vibe whereas his drawings of humans are much better.
44[[/folder]]
45
46[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
47* This is almost certainly why ''ComicStrip/{{Pluggers}}'' uses furries, since the strip is about Midwestern senior citizens.
48* This was the reason stated why German comic artist Peter Puck drew his character ''ComicStrip/{{Rudi}}'' as this. Dog snouts are easier than human noses, apparently.
49* Played straight by Creator/LewisTrondheim besides being a huge Creator/CarlBarks fan.
50[[/folder]]
51
52[[folder: Video Games]]
53* ''VideoGame/BloodyRoar'' averts this trope, even with resident CatGirl, Uriko. The Zoantropes look pretty realistic with human like proportions, but animal enough to look like furries. Without mentioning that they look like realistic furries, so for most of the time, no, they're not cute furries, quite the opposite.
54* ''VideoGame/{{Lugaru}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Overgrowth}}'' by [[http://www.wolfire.com/ Wolfire Games]] are LowFantasy [[ActionGame fighting games]] that take place an island that is populated entirely by {{Beast M|an}}en. There are [[WordOfGod three official reasons]] for that:
55--> 1. [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman They didn't want to depict human-on-human violence]].
56-->2. [[TakeAThirdOption They didn't want to be limited by]] typical MedievalEuropeanFantasy tropes and [[StandardFantasyRaces races]].
57-->3. This trope.
58* Inverted with ''VideoGame/FusionFall''. The official reason why animal characters, like Lazlo from ''Camp Lazlo'', weren't in the game is because the artists couldn't figure out how to make them {{animesque}} well.
59[[/folder]]
60
61[[folder: Webcomics]]
62* Tracy J. Butler, the author of ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'', says that she doesn't identify with the UsefulNotes/FurryFandom but uses cats because she finds them more expressive.
63--> "When dealing in sociopathic criminalism and gratuitous violence, [[CatsAreMean how could it not be cats?]]"
64** ...But rest assured, Tracy CAN [[http://tracyjb.deviantart.com/art/Feathers-and-Tinctures-30039284 draw people.]]
65** [[http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=184 Once in a]] [[http://www.lackadaisycats.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=218 while she also]] [[http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=312 draws the cast]] [[http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=328 as humans.]]
66* ''Webcomic/CoachRandom'' had some characters drawn as dogs because the artist was under a deadline. [[http://coachrandom.mrinitialman.com/comic.php?cid=comic_189 In one strip, he has humans and a dog side-by-side, showing the difference in how the artist drew them.]] His humans are quite detailed. The dog, not so much.
67* After seeing both humans and Furries as drawn by David Hopkins, the artist for the webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'', it doesn't take much effort to figure out why he very rarely draws humans.
68* ''Webcomic/VGCats'' -- though the artist had no idea what Furries were when he started.
69** Though the strip uses human characters at least as often as the cats, depending on what game is being mocked at the time.
70* Doc Nickel (artist for ''Webcomic/TheWhiteboard'') has explicitly stated that he used anthropomorphic animal characters because he couldn't draw humans for crap. According to several of his posts on the forums in August 2011, though, he was working on overcoming the problem with drawing humans, with more human characters being given actual details instead of undefined "floating bubbleheads", and [[http://the-whiteboard.com/autotwb1405.html the results]] [[http://the-whiteboard.com/autotwb1403.html were impressive.]] But a few months later he decided to drop humans altogether. He did use [[http://the-whiteboard.com/autotwb1481.html generic human faces]] to replace "the no-necks" when he retroactively coloured strips for winter and spring of 2012, but after that all one-shot characters have been anthropomorphic animals. Also of note is converting [[ThoseTwoGuys Larry and Daryl]] -- the no-necks who gained some depth over time -- to [[http://the-whiteboard.com/autotwb1853.html squirrels.]]
71* The creator of the web comic ''Webcomic/{{Harkovast}}'' originally struggled to draw animals, but after a few months of drawing nothing but animal people found human infinitely more difficult. Fortunately, the comic features no human characters!
72* Vince Suzukawa [[http://www.theclassm.com/faq/index.html gives a detailed explanation]] of why the cast of ''Webcomic/TheClassMenagerie'' were all furry. The main point was that animal faces can be more expressive (ears can move, fur can bristle etc). Also, it creates a comfortable divide from the real world, and problems of racial balance or resemblance to persons living or dead. He also demonstrates that he can draw humans and make his characters work in human form. Not to say it's fun to violate AnimalStereotypes. Like when a mouse [[{{Pun}} bullies]] a bull.
73* The artist of ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' has stated that he gradually made Marena's fox ears and tail more prominent because they make her more expressive. It's hard to show complex expressions on a stick figure.
74* The artist of ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'' attempts to avert his instances of OnlySixFaces by throwing in a few "beastmen" to diversify the cast. We've seen a cat-man SWAT officer, an insect-looking lawyer (talking to a buffalo-looking lawyer!).
75* Though the creator of ''Webcomic/CheapThrills'' can (and does) draw humans very well, she claims this as one of the reasons she draws in an anthro style: "When I started the comic, I couldn't draw human faces for shit. I could draw animal faces, though, so I went with it...If I were to start over, I'd probably do the comic with human characters instead, or possibly tinker with the comic's universe a little bit so that the usage of animal people made more sense."
76* Most of the characters in ''Webcomic/StubbleTrouble'' are furries for this reason, though some humans do appear as well.
77* Webcomic ''Webcomic/RankAmateur'' has only one human in the main cast, which the author has so far drawn only a few times. The cast also features two furries - Felix, a cat and Guardian, a bird - though the majority of the main characters are humanoid aliens.
78** Those aliens have snouts rather than human-like flat faces, so they fit the trope too.
79* T.J. Baldwin admits that ''Webcomic/KarateBears'' are easier to draw than people. Look at the [[http://www.karatebears.com/2011/06/cut-rug.html crowd scenes.]]
80* Ilya Savchenko claims he even can't draw animals other than toucans. His works include parodies of ''[[http://toucan-house.com/ House M.D.]], [[http://acomics.ru/~depth-of-delusion The Matrix,]]'' and ''[[http://acomics.ru/~stoolmaster Lord of the Rings.]]'' With all characters as toucans. (No translations, unfortunately.)
81[[/folder]]
82
83[[folder: Web Original]]
84* The art of ''Roleplay/RubyQuest'' is half this and half ShoutOut to ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing''. This series also clearly displays an interesting side effect of this trope: furries are easier to tell apart. ''Ruby Quest'' is done in a ''very'' simplistic style. The different animal features make it possible to identify who's who.
85[[/folder]]
86
87[[folder: Western Animation]]
88* Pretty much ''the'' reason why many, many cartoon characters were {{Funny Animal}}s during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation when the medium was just getting started. Artists at that time knew how to draw people, sure, but ''animating'' them was a whole other story. Cartoons at the time all shared a very similar art style due to FollowTheLeader and the fact that details were harder and more expensive to work in, so many characters tended to look exactly the same... what helped separate them from the masses were those one or two characteristics (ears, tails, etc.) indicating that X Character was supposed to be a Y Animal.
89* As Creator/WaltDisney sought to drastically improve [[ArtEvolution animation quality and standards]] in his cartoons throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, this trope became apparent in full force. Far and away the best and most revered Disney animation of the period tends to be either animal characters such as WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}, WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs, [[WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}} Jiminy Cricket]], WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}} and WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}} or stylized caricatures of humans such as [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs the Seven Dwarfs]]. Furthermore, Disney's [[WesternAnimation/TheGoddessOfSpring first attempt]] at animating a realistic human all from scratch had [[UnintentionalUncannyValley less than desirable results]]. As such, from the 1930s up until the 1960s, Disney used {{rotoscoping}} for the human characters in all of his films (while still keeping said humans stylized to avoid falling too deep into UnintentionalUncannyValley).
90* Because they found humans to be extremely hard to draw and animate with the technological limitations of the time (particularly NoFlowInCGI), most of Pixar's earlier films primarily had either [[Franchise/ToyStory toys]], [[WesternAnimation/ABugsLife insects]], [[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc monsters]], or [[WesternAnimation/FindingNemo fish]] as main characters. It wasn't until 2004's ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'' that humans became a large part of the characters in their movies ([[Franchise/{{Cars}} though not always]]).
91* Creator/WarnerBros' WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes, back in the day, had a lot more animal characters than humans. There were really only three recurring humans at the time: [[TokenHuman Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam and Granny.]]
92* ''WesternAnimation/WhenTheDayBreaks'': The animators went with barnyard animals after starting with humans but being unable to get a satisfactory look for the woman (the character that eventually became the pig).
93* A notable aversion is the work of Creator/{{UPA}} (United Productions of America). The founders of the studio wanted to avoid certain clichés of theatrical animation at the time, particularly talking animal characters, and so concentrated on creating human characters like WesternAnimation/MrMagoo and WesternAnimation/GeraldMcBoingBoing. [[LimitedAnimation Their stylized approach to design and movement]] helped somewhat to avoid the UnintentionalUncannyValley by making the humans highly caricatured.
94[[/folder]]
95[[folder: Other]]
96* Generally subverted in regards to making 3-D MMD (Miku Miku Dance) models of this type. Non-human models are more difficult and complex to make from scratch, let alone animate. A certain skill level and the right software are required to pull it off, so human models are more common.
97[[/folder]]

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