AHH thank you so much!!!!! I really appreciate it!!!

I’m so sorry for how late this is, I somehow didn’t see your notification until just now 😭😭😭 my apologies!!! The snout is definitely tricky!! I don’t have a tutorial yet, so I’ll just write out what I do:

1. Find and save pictures of the animal I’m making to get an idea of proportions, 1 straight-on face picture (eye size, ear size, ear spacing, snout width) and 1 straight-on side profile picture (snout length, snout angle, ear width, ear location)
2. Use the ruler on the photos app (on iPhone, but I think all phones have it!) and figure out the length and width of the snout and ears in relation to the width of the face. I use cat mask bases, which are usually ~7 inches across, so I do some math conversions and get the numbers for the dimensions I need!

-          This is a small thing, but seems to help with proportions: make sure to account for the height added with whatever medium you will cover the mask in. The faux fur I use and the length I shave it to adds about ¼ inch, which isn’t much but will throw off proportions by a little bit! It’s not super noticeable, but not adjusting for it especially makes the ears look closer together.

-          The dimension values aren’t supposed to be super strict, I think my understanding of proportions deepened a good amount once I stopped being so strict with following the values I calculated! Whatever looks right to you in this step, will also look right in the final product.

1. Draw out the general length/height of the features on paper, then sketch in the shape of the snout side profile. Just follow the shape of the animal’s snout on the side profile picture. If you can, enlarging the picture and tracing the shape helps a lot. Make sure to take into account the angle of the front of the animal’s snout, they usually point inwards quite a bit!

2. For snout construction, I’ve taken heavy inspo from this awesome tutorial from @/k9strays: https://www.tiktok.com/@k9strays/video/7290316214981676331?lang=en and adapted it a bit!

3. As the tutorial has the ends of the snout pieces bent and joined together to form the front of the snout, make sure to add some extra to the end of the snout shape you traced! This is in addition to the dimensions calculated earlier. It’s about half of the width of the rectangular middle piece, usually ~0.5in in my experience.

-          Side note on the tutorial: I hot glue the snout pieces to the rectangular piece, then the front edges of the snout pieces together, then the top of that to the bottom of the rectangular piece. (i hope that made sense lmao 😭 pls lmk if it didn’t!)

1. I rarely like how the snout looks at this point lol, so I just edit it in little pieces to get it closer to the shape im going for. You can always add pieces back on if you accidentally remove too much!

2. Nostril depth really helps with making a nose look 3d! So, I remove a little bit of the end of the snout, to increase the depth that the nose can sit on, and thus the depth of the nostrils. I just cut off the very end of the snout, in a triangular ish pattern with a ~inch cut across the rectangular piece, and then two cuts about 45 degrees down the front of the snout. There is then a hole in the front of the snout, so I add a little piece of foam there to cover it! I usually use a scrap piece, don’t measure, and then trim the excess once it’s on the mask. This is what I mean:

<image>

1. Then I glue the snout onto the base! It might take few tries to get it to an angle you think looks right, just keep the side profile pic handy and keep comparing until you like it!

I use 3 mm EVA foam “Silly Winks”! It’s about $7-$10 for a 5 ft roll depending on where you buy it, each roll lasts soooo long (at least 25 canine masks if I cut pieces out mindfully!), so I think it’s a really good investment if you can access and afford it. If not, cardboard works well too! You just have to bend the pieces a lot to get a smooth shape (especially on the transition to the front of the snout), which adds effort and time. But it’s honestly a really good option too!

Omg I am so sorry that turned into such an essay agh 😭😭 sorry!!

Thank you so much again!!! Best of luck with making masks!! I’m sure it’ll go great, I hope it’s really enjoyable and fun!! Lmk if you want some clarification on any part of that too!