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Hand (pr paw) anatomy

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Dreamer at 19 Dec 2006: 10:30

Hallo ladies and gentlemen,

I notice at least two different ways people draw the hands of furry creatures - briefly, with four digits, or with five. Generally speaking, anyway - I know there are exceptions of three, or none, or whatever.

The reasoning for this makes me curious. (For that matter, why do most "cartoony" cartoon characters, human or otherwise, have only four?) I have had four dogs so far, and I've spent some time pondering their paws. They do have five digits, though - four short fingers at the end of the long metacarpals, and one thumb up near the wrist (I think this is also called a dewclaw).

So why the four/five split? Is it just easier to draw?

--

Also, looking closely at dogs' and cats' paws and at X-rays of them, it looks like they have only two finger bones where we apes have three. First, is that so? Second, if you were to create a creature that had only two finger bones and maybe relied on its claws to make the rest of the finger length (such as C. J. Cherry's "hani")... how would that hand work?

Thanks preemptively for your time and I hope this was in decent English.

:3

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at 19 Dec 2006: 11:42

Except in the ungulates, where bones have fused together into a hoof, the skeletal structure layoutof the extremities for most mammals (and others, not too surprisingly) is pretty much the same. Most of the differences are in proportions of the individual bones, with some cases of atrophy (dewclaws, for instance). The joint's locations can often confuse some people. Digitgrade critter's "wrists and ankles" are located much further "up" the limb than most people think, giving rise to the 'backwards knee' you hear about. The bones are there, just not in the location that's familiar to humans.

The three fingers rather than four arose from lazy cartoonists and animators for the most part. They're easier to contend with when simplifying things yet still manage to work as a hand. Two fingers would be carrying it a little too far. :)

 The reduced number of digits has  managed to carry back over into contemporary use and gained back their realism in some cases.  If it works for Bugs Bunny...

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at 19 Dec 2006: 14:03

The four-fingered hand began as a shortcut for animators, easier to draw hundreds of times and less confusing to keep track of the fingers. Also, most animal paws appear to have only four toes, the dewclaw or thumb is either vestigal or remote. It's a simple matter of choice when anthropomorphizing an animal how "human" or realistic their hands should be drawn.

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Dalamin at 19 Dec 2006: 15:23

Well, you cant consider it being the dewclaw most artists remove when they go down to 4 digets, because that is pritty much an animals thumb, and I rarely see morphs withought thumbs.

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at 19 Dec 2006: 18:49

Imagine drawing in the dewclaws... it'd look pretty strange =p

Something else that bugs me on the hands/feet stuff, is how come most artists draw very very animal-like feet, but then very human hands, the contrast just seems... off. A furry can work perfectly well with paw-like hands, just check out Extvia's characters.

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Skunkworks at 19 Dec 2006: 21:20

The hands on my characters contain 2 knuckles each, similar to a paw.  As the OP pointed out, this does indeed allow the character to use the curved claw as a third segment of a digit.  While I may not have done so originally (12 years ago), I now draw the furry characters with pads on their hands and feet, so each paw is similar to the others, and does not result in the "human hands with ridiculously oversized dog feet" syndrome many folks like to employ.  I use four fingers/four toes because it is more balanced and symmetrical.  The human foot, while functional, is an ugly thing.  By using only four toes, and keeping their properties similar to whatever animal I'm drawing, it seems to flow much smoother.  Just my two cents, man.

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itoril#e0pMofP/AM at 20 Dec 2006: 19:33

>>5 I think that's when artists want their humanoid furries to look as animalistic as possible, but without sacrificing the potential for dexterity, were they to use some kind of tool at some point.

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