More than likely, those in the anthro community on deviantArt have noticed little 95 x 95 pixelated pictures, featuring a slew of different characters and colors. Most of them are labeled as "ports," which goes completely above the heads of anyone not familiar with them. What are ports? What makes them special? And why should they be considered an art and not an avatar?

First of all, a "port" is short for "portrait." In the game Furcadia, it is used to represent your character. However, I would personally not classify it as a strict avatar, since you can create it yourself and it doesn't follow any design guidelines, other than being pixelated (in some circumstances), being 95x95 pixels, and sometimes following a certain color palette. I'll get more into specifics later. For now, enjoy some samples of what a portrait looks like in game.

An example of the default Furcadia avatar for "musteline."

An example of the same character using a non-remappable portrait.

An example of a different character using a remappable portrait (notice the portrait has similar colors as the character in the game screen)

What goes into making a port? Many artists usually sketch, line, then color/shade the picture, just like many CGed or pixeled pieces. However, with a remappable portrait, you are put under some restraints. In order for the picture to change colors as the character in the game screen changes colors, the artist must color and shade using specific restrictions. For hair color, they must use a specific strand of pink colors. For skin/fur, they must use gray. For trousers, cape, and vest, they must use purple, orange, and green (accordingly). Below is an example of the palette with the restrictions removed for ease of shading (normally the palette has 236 colors):


Here is an example of the palette with all the colors included, but with the colors used pulled aside (this is a brilliant example by the way):


Here are some portrait tutorials posted by our own deviantArt members, showing how they create portraits:

I want you all to know that there are many other WONDERFUL tutorials out there, but I chose these for specific content.

You will notice that with most of these tutorials, when it comes to shading the remappable portions, the artists use the same colors as given by the palette. The game will remap these automatically everytime the player chooses to change the colors of their character. Below are some examples of remapping portraits:


Now, here are some examples of some non-remappable portraits. These can use colors not on the palette, but many artists choose to stick to the palette anyway and just don't follow the rules of remapping (the game offers you the option to either have the portrait remap or not):


Many of the nonremap ports could be considered "avatars" of sorts, like what you would find on livejournal or a forum, but they are pieces of art that are meant to express the character as something different than the default the game has set for them.

Why am I writing this article? Because I want everyone to realize that doing a Furcadia portrait is NOT easy. It's not an Oekaki (the scale is much too small). It's not an avatar. It's what would happen if pixel art, CGing, and icons all got together in a wonderful orgy and had a love child. Many people make their livelihoods specifically around these pieces of work. And even if you can't respect the fact that the content may or may not be anthro, then please do respect all the effort and passion put into these minimasterpieces.

Thank you.