Mega Man Appears

The Anthrocon 2009 fursuit parade went by us fast. But I got a whole lot of pictures to show for it. I was particularly pleased to get a shot of Mega Man there. You may recall he helped me find my way to the Anthrocon Registration.

Sure this guy is a wolf. But look at those colors. Definitely Mega Man style. And if you saw the whole picture (it was way too big to display here), you would see that this furry guy had the arm and leg armor of Mega Man.

Wherever you are Wolf Mega Man, thank you for your support at Anthrocon. Here is the funny thing. Mega Man never said a word to me. He just used his mad pantomime skills to direct me to the registration line. I like a con where the people and furries are friendly right off the get go.

Creator of Wubbzy

Do you remember when I blogged about Bob Boyle, creator of the Wubbzy animated series? Well here is a picture of him giving me his autograph. I was surprised at the low turnout at the talk he gave. Bob was, after all, one of the three guests at the Anthrocon 2009 conference.

Bob shared some of his personal experiences with us in a candid way. He said he initially wanted to be a football player. However due to size limitations, he needed to find a different career. Bob said that success did not come easy for him. After moving to both New York and LA to make a career, he ended up being a bellhop. Ouch.

Luckily perseverance paid off for Bob. He has a lot of successful experiences under his belt. Initially I only knew of his Wubbzy creation. If you ever get the chance to hear Bob talk, I recommend it highly. He is funny. And even the story of how Wubbzy got to the screen is a complicated affair.

Caracature by Choe

Previously I had written about how I purchased a caricature of me at the Art Show. Well I finally got the Anthrocon pictures from my camera to my computer. Here is Choe talking to me while she drew a cat version of me. I asked her whether I needed to look at her while she did this. She hesitated a bit, and replied, "Well yes."

I tried my best to keep a straight face and look straight ahead. It was tough. I wanted to see how the cat caricature was turning out. Then came the tough question. The artist asked me how I wanted the body. I was not sure what that meant. I asked whether I could be some type of muscular dude. In retrospect that did not align with the cat. Choe said she could give me a cute body. I agreed with that choice.

At first I discovered this booth when somebody else was getting a caricature drawn. The sign was catchy. You lay down $5 and get a custom drawing of yourself as a furry. That's just good business. I will scan in my own caricature later and post it here.

Rules for Writing Fiction

The final session from Anthrocon 2009 that I attended today was Rules For Writing Good Furry Fiction. It was presented by Terry Wessner, who was the published and editor of "Fang, Claw, and Steel". You may recall that long running zine about lycanthropes.

This was a knock out session for writing fiction. The session ran way over time. But most of us stayed the whole time. I knew this was going to be a great session when a bunch of us were waiting outside the room prior to the session starting. At the start time, we busted into the room and disrupted the prior session that was trying to run overtime. I bet they were like, "WTF?"

Now I know I cannot go over all that I learned from Terry today. I took feverish notes the whole time. There were handouts provided at the end. But I had more than my share of notes from the session. Terry shared the secret of writing good fiction. For that you will have to consult my future blog posts on All Things Blogger.

Fursuit Parade

Yesterday we had a busy day at the Anthrocon 2009 convention. So by dinner time we were tired. That meant that we could not stay up for the late night Fursuit Dance Competition. However we redeemed ourselves today by seeing the Fursuit Parade.

We first positioned ourselves where the people in fur suits would come down the escalator. Unfortunately they walked forward away from us. Then we moved to another location, but the crowd obscured our vision. Finally we planned ahead and got to a place where we could see the whole procession.

I saw a number of characters that I had previously met at the con. There was the dinosaur dude. And there was the wolf with MegaMan weapons. There were also suiters who we had previously seen from a distance. We got a lot of pictures. When I get them on computer, I shall post a bunch here.

Video Game Industry

There was one main session I wanted to attend at Anthrocon 2009 today. That was "Furs in the Video Game Industry". This was a question and answer session with insiders from the video game industry.

At first nobody seemed to want to ask questions. So I did. Then when nobody else raised their hands, I told the panel that I would gladly monopolize the session with my multiple questions. After that there seemed to be more people ready to ask questions.

Now I imagine I should save the technical details for a Gaming Blog, but I will share some details here. There was a recommendation to show that you can get a project to completion. You should also be able to demonstrate that you can work in groups. A college degree is important to get a job as a game programmer, as is a good portfolio. There was a big discussion about crunch time that was initiated by a question from the audience. Stay tuned for more highlights of today's Anthrocon 2009.

The Art Show

While waiting for the next event at Anthrocon, we decided to head into the Art Show section. They checked us for badges at the front door. Immediately we picked up some t-shirts and badge necklaces. Then we went down each and every row to scan what the artists had to offer.

In the middle I thought I found some plastic figures that you could get customized with your own name. I returned to buy one of them. However I found out that the only name on them were the actual names of the characters they were modeled after. Bummer.

Luckily I had seen a girl who would do a caricature for five bucks. She drew your likeness on a piece of paper with black pen, but turned you into a furry. Of course I commissioned her to draw me as a black cat. It was tight. When I get home, I will scan in the results and show you what I got. Thank Choe!

The Wonderful Boy Boyle

The highlight of the day was a presentation called "Following a Dream to Hollywood". It was done by Anthrocon guest Bob Boyle. Bob is the creator of Wow Wow Wubbzy among many other things. He talked about his interests as a child, his experiences in college, and how he broke into the animation business.

Here I thought the creator of Wubbzy would be some famous high-flying animator. Bob was a surprisingly down to earth kind of guy. He started out doing animations for other people's projects. But Wubbzy was his own creation. Bob has worked on projects for Nickelodeon and Disney.

The best part of Bob's presentation was that he left a lot of time for questions. I think we found a lot out about Bob by asking a number of questions. It seems that the jobs in the business are mostly found by networking. The jobs are short gigs which last 6 to 8 months. It seems like it is a long process from idea to actual production of an animation. Thank you Bob for a great time at Anthrocon 2009.

Intro to Anthrocon

We slept in this morning. By the time we showered and left the hotel, we had already missed the opening ceremonies for Anthrocon. Oh well. I located a Chinese buffet close to our hotel. The walk seemed shorter in person than it did on the map.

After arriving at the Golden Palace Buffet in downtown Pittsburgh, we found the place empty. I did not see any buffet. So I asked the guy behind the counter where the buffet was. He directed me upstairs. We were seated. But it was strange. I figured we might as well help myself. But what about the drinks? I saw a soda fountain, but somebody had jammed some pitchers in the place where you get the fountain drinks. I stood there for a while trying to figure out what to do. Eventually an employee came and told me he would bring me some drinks. What were they waiting for? The food at this joint was not top notch. I would not recommend it.

Things looked up once we headed to the Westin Hotel for "So This Is Your First Anthrocon". We were early, and we sneaked into the side of the room to watch the end of "First Time Fursuiter Program". They were explaining how to deal with sweating in a fur suit. The intro to Anthrocon followed. The presenters were funny. They told a good deal of stories. I found out that Anthrocon is a non profit organization. We were also directed to make sure we eat right and get enough rest. There is some strange set of rules for using the elevators in the hotel. For the rest of the day we opted to use the escalators. The real treat came when we met the creator of Wubbzy. More on that later.

Standing in Line

While waiting in line to register, I spied a good number of furries in costume.

There was one lady with intricate wings. I assume she was a bird.

I thought the guy with the horse head had an appropriate shirt on. It was a horse joke I won't repeat here.

There were may people with just ears or tails.

The most shocking was what I supposed was a female cow. It did not have udders. This cow had breasts. And they were big. I just hope it was a woman underneath that cow suit.

Anthrocon Registration

I had finally made it to the convention center. The first order of business was to register. I had read on the Anthrocon blog that we needed to report to the "B" room to register. The map by the elevator showed that "B" was on floor 2. When I got to the second floor, I found some other lost people and some furries in costume.

So I asked the boys in suits whether they knew where registration was located. A dude in a dinosaur get up told me he could show me. Another wolf creature with Mega Man weaponry shook his head in agreement. I let Dinosaur Dude lead the way. We got stuck in the elevator for a minute or so. After banging on the 3R button, the doors finally opened.

The Dinosaur got lost himself. However Mega Man motioned that he knew the way. It was slow going as many people wanted pictures of Mega Man. Dinosaur also seemed to lag behind a bit. In the end, we found what seemed to be a long line for registration. It moved quickly though. We saw quite a few furries in costume there though.

Arriving at Anthrocon 2009

We had a long drive to Anthrocon 2009. It took us through some streets with many traffic lights. However we got lucky and MapQuest sent us down a path that got us into Pittsburgh quickly. I knew we were in the right place when I saw a fellow con attendee in full suit on the side of the road.

After checking into the hotel, we spotted a feline in suit on our floor. I said, "Hi there." The cat did not speak. However she waived her approval to us. That was my first experience with a furry phenomenon. Some of them do not speak. Will have to inquire about this tomorrow.

I thought I had a good setup. Our hotel is right next to the convention center. However this is a huge convention center. We went to the first door and walked in. All I saw was a dude screaming into a cell phone. We waited for the elevator as this deaf juvenile kept barking out dialog to the phone. The elevator doors took their time in opening. To be continued...