# Transformation art, anyone into that?



## Activoid (Jun 21, 2017)

I've been a big fan of art portraying transformations since I started reading Animorphs when I was like 9 years old and they first hit the stores. I remember my dad taking me to a second-hand bookstore to buy me a book, and seeing the #3 book facing up on a shelf. I thought the cover was so cool; it was a dude turning into some kind of bird of prey, _how totally radical would that book be, right_? Especially since most of the books I had been reading at that age were just Judy B. Jones and Nancy Drew books, none of which I liked. So this was the first book I read without pictures. My dad bought it for me, and I took it home and read it. Noticed there was a sick flip-book animation in the corner. Didn't really comprehend the story too well until I bought the other books in the series.

Anyways, I think transformation art is really neat. Now that I'm much older, I'm a big fan of anatomy and physiology and I think transformation art is a fun exploration of all the grey areas of what it means to be human and whatnot. I know some people out there like the fetish aspect of it, but that's not my cup of tea and I just think it's fascinating to look at.

So yeah, looking for fellow fans or artists of transformation art, or anyone who has an opinion on it. Pretty open topic. Talk about what you want regarding it!


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## ChapterAquila92 (Jul 3, 2017)

It happened to be by way of transformation artwork on TransFur (finding which was a byproduct of my interest in Warhammer's Lizardmen at the time) that I found the Furry Fandom.


Activoid said:


> Now that I'm much older, I'm a big fan of anatomy and physiology and I think transformation art is a fun exploration of all the grey areas of what it means to be human and whatnot.


Funny you mention that, since that's become one of the central themes to my longest running literary project. Not to toot my own horn on the matter, but I've also been rather interested in the Kafka-esque aftermath of such transformations; how the transformee(s) react to their new circumstance, how the world reacts to them, and so on. It's been rather rare for me to find it come up in transformation-themed literature, unfortunately.

With that said, I might have at one point enjoyed _Animorphs_ had I more exposure to the series early on. By the time I actually developed an interest in transformation however, _Animorphs_ held about as much appeal to me as the next youth novel series (including _Goosebumps_) and fell by the wayside in favour of novels by the likes of Tom Clancy or Jack Higgins, and I don't feel as though I'd get much enjoyment out of it now.


> I know some people out there like the fetish aspect of it, but that's not my cup of tea and I just think it's fascinating to look at.


You and I both.


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## Vinden (Jul 7, 2017)

Sort of tangentially relevant to the topic, what's a good word for drawing an anthro character with human photo reference?
Like anthropomorphizing, except from human form to anthro form, if that makes sense. 
I drawed this (NSFW) www.furaffinity.net: Nibbles by Vinden with photo reference for the pose.


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## Activoid (Jul 12, 2017)

@Vinden  I don't know if there is a word for it, per se... in the professional art community we just call it "using a reference". That's it. LOL. But hey, since you think there should be a word for it, go ahead and be the trendsetter and make up a word for it yourself.


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## Sumb0dee (Aug 5, 2017)

Oh man, Animorphs, talk about a blast from the past lol.  I enjoyed those books when I was younger as well, and it is one of the things that got me interested in transformations.  Someone else mentioned Transfur, that site has been a favorite for a long time.  For me, it's fascinating to think about how it would feel to transform, all the new sensations (tail, ears, etc.), how one would react to a transformation, that kind of thing.  I think it's fascinating.


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## Pipistrele (Aug 5, 2017)

Not into TF in a popular sense of this word, but a big fan of technical transformation, like Kamen Rider or various "Magical Girl" stuff - where you don't transform into other species biologically, but use some cool technical/magical device to turn into some menacing asskicker. Does that count?


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## kidchameleon (Aug 5, 2017)

Would probably enjoy it more  if the vast majority I've come across thus far hadn't been... fetishy. Like, the idea of a sequential transformation is quite cool and they often look impressive when they're done well, but so often there's some kind of non-consentual aspect to it, or outright sexualisation of the transformation, that just makes it seem really icky to me XD


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## fallout19980 (Aug 5, 2017)

You can say that I'm into transformation art, considering that a lot of the stories that I plan to publish do incorporate the themes of transformation/body horror. Hopefully, I'm going to release one of these stories today. 
I think I took an interest into the genre after watching the movies Tetsuo: The Iron Man ,Naked Lunch, and Videodrome and seeing the paintings of HR Giger.


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## Activoid (Aug 8, 2017)

@Pipistrele I have a few stories and characters that utilize exactly that kind of "transformation" you're talking about, where it's more like a "mode" of being or equipment upgrade thing, as opposed to a literal transformation. And yeah, that totally counts! I'm glad you also brought up the difference between transformation-centric work and "TF", because there's a pretty big gap between what is obviously fetishy (ie. what people call "TF"), and then something that just happens to feature some kind of transformation and it looks cool and isn't weird fap-material.

@kidchameleon I share your sentiments that a majority of TF artwork is fetish-centric, sexualized, and icky. Again, not my cup of tea, as I find those things simultaneously annoying and boring. Unless for some reason the artwork is absolutely, truly, immensely exceptional IMHO. Which 99.9% of the time, it is not. LOL

@fallout19980 dude Tetsuo the Iron Man is way cool, and yeah I like the body horror stuff as well. It's spooky and I like creepy stuff. Haven't seen Naked Lunch yet, but it looks interesting.


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## fallout19980 (Aug 8, 2017)

Activoid said:


> @Pipistrele I have a few stories and characters that utilize exactly that kind of "transformation" you're talking about, where it's more like a "mode" of being or equipment upgrade thing, as opposed to a literal transformation. And yeah, that totally counts! I'm glad you also brought up the difference between transformation-centric work and "TF", because there's a pretty big gap between what is obviously fetishy (ie. what people call "TF"), and then something that just happens to feature some kind of transformation and it looks cool and isn't weird fap-material.
> 
> @kidchameleon I share your sentiments that a majority of TF artwork is fetish-centric, sexualized, and icky. Again, not my cup of tea, as I find those things simultaneously annoying and boring. Unless for some reason the artwork is absolutely, truly, immensely exceptional IMHO. Which 99.9% of the time, it is not. LOL
> 
> @fallout19980 dude Tetsuo the Iron Man is way cool, and yeah I like the body horror stuff as well. It's spooky and I like creepy stuff. Haven't seen Naked Lunch yet, but it looks interesting.


Unfortunately, the last movie of the Testuo series is sub par to say the least. Body Hammer is probably my favorite.


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## Activoid (Aug 9, 2017)

I actually watched Naked Lunch on Youtube last night, I regret spending my time that way. I couldn't even get through it. LOL. Way too abstract and nonsensical to me, it struck me as being the kind of work that someone who has permanently fried their brain from drugs would produce. And then I looked up the history behind the movie and the original material behind it, and was like "OH" and was disappointed to be correct in that assumption. LMAO. It had some good monster designs though, I liked the typewriter bugs.


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## fallout19980 (Aug 9, 2017)

Activoid said:


> I actually watched Naked Lunch on Youtube last night, I regret spending my time that way. I couldn't even get through it. LOL. Way too abstract and nonsensical to me, it struck me as being the kind of work that someone who has permanently fried their brain from drugs would produce. And then I looked up the history behind the movie and the original material behind it, and was like "OH" and was disappointed to be correct in that assumption. LMAO. It had some good monster designs though, I liked the typewriter bugs.


the typewriter is a symbol of his homosexuality. In fact the whole movie is riddled with sexual symbolism.


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## Activoid (Aug 9, 2017)

fallout19980 said:


> the typewriter is a symbol of his homosexuality. In fact the whole movie is riddled with sexual symbolism.


I mean, I figured it was something like that, especially considering the bugs looked like they had an anus for a mouth. And the fact that he killed his wife. And went to go live in a weird secret dreamlike society filled with young gay men. And yeah there's loads of obvious sexual symbolism especially regarding closet homosexuality but damn it was unclear as to what that movie was about otherwise. LOL


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## fallout19980 (Aug 9, 2017)

Activoid said:


> I mean, I figured it was something like that, especially considering the bugs looked like they had an anus for a mouth. And the fact that he killed his wife. And went to go live in a weird secret dreamlike society filled with young gay men. And yeah there's loads of obvious sexual symbolism especially regarding closet homosexuality but damn it was unclear as to what that movie was about otherwise. LOL


Just think of it as Burroughs's biography, on his perspective on acid.


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