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I got those figures from a chart listing brain and body mass for a bunch of different species. The wolf brain was 119.5g and the human brain was 1320g, so I was already cheating with the 10-20% figure.


A wolf's head is already larger than a human's head, so scaling it up would make it enormous.


Wolves weigh half to a third as much as people because they have much narrower bodies and thinner, shorter legs. Much of a wolf's apparent volume is actually thick fur (up to 3 inches long). Still, like most quadrupedal animals, they're very strong for their size. It's a matter of leverage.

(I tend to give wolf form somewhat more human proportions, giving them heavier bodies and longer, thicker legs than a normal wolf, but that's a deliberate artistic decision. My werewolves aren't "really" wolves, but large, intelligent, wolflike creatures. Goldenwolf does something similar with her Kierrn.)

I finally found cranial volume measurements! (Harder than I expected...)
Wolf: 150 to 170 cm3 (from here)
Human: 1200 to 1500 cm3 (from here

Cranial volume is not quite the same as brain size, as there's a fair amount of cerebrospinal fluid in there as padding. Still, it's close enough for our purposes.

That yields a wolf cranial volume of 11-12% of human cranial volume, 15% if you're generous and match large wolf to small human cranial volume. That's fairly close to the previous measurements based on brain weight, and within the "fudge factor" I provided earlier.


On the other hand, you could easily increase a wolf's cranial volume by a fairly large factor without significantly affecting its appearance. I'd say you could double its cranium in each dimension for a total factor of eight, putting it very close to human range. Because of bone thickness, the external size of the cranium wouldn't increase quite as much, so the visible change isn't overwhelmingly large. It'd be very easy to hide that under thick fur, especially if the body were larger.

OK, I'm happy now.

Ralith Lupus wrote:(I'm following a conservation of matter idea; all forms having the same mass)

If you follow conservation of mass principles, the gestalt form would look smaller than the human form. Ugh.

Maybe that's what you were going for, but that does NOT cut it for me.

Would it? Remember; fur realli increases apparent size, and digitigrade legs would make one significantly taller.

I didn't think the volume difference would be so large! But, as you said, change could be made to accomidate and hidden under fur. The head might end up looking a bit big once things are adjusted to make enough room, but that's tolerable.

Timber-WoIf wrote:umm... isn't a large portion the brain unused? or was that just unused for thinking?

No.
We use all of our brain, just not all parts are used all the time.

Hey, how's it goin' Chillin? Killin?

I'd say that the 100 percent wolf look is cool looking, but in respects to realism a line must be drawn.

Mentioning the weight of a wolf's head and a human head there is a great difference. The placement of the brain, frontal facial features and the spinal column are alein to each other.

So, look at other movies and see how they did it. Van Hellsing, even through it sucked up to 90% of the way, was a good concept in dealing with the transition of the head. To give it the full wolf head would make the werewolf mentally impartialed to humans. The brain would shrink if one would try to change like that. The mass of the head should stay pretty much the same. Yes, it does make it look like it is a gorilla in some aspect, but it does have the appearence of the cross between human and wolf.
The final form should be a cross between those two. The jaw would be fixed into place, with little movement to sway back and forth. Brain pan would be unaltered. Spinal column would cock forward, giving the hunched and making it possible for even more neck movement than before. I tried drawing werewolves and I have yet to come to a sketch that really represents it to the proper degree. The muzzle is my main concern.

At last I have found a nice head!

This is a reasonable approximation of what I think a werewolf' head should look like. Not completely and totally wolven, but definitely similar. Somehow, more primal and beastly. If this werewolf were to relax it's facial muscles, it would still look intimidating, without looking scary. However, if it snarls, it will be scary. That's kindof a requirement for me. If it's not busy looking scary, then it should be looking intimidating or impressive. Anyway, enjoy!

http://us-p.vclart.net/vcl/Artists/Mythray/red.jpg


Edit: Okay, maybe those canines are a little long. But, whatever!

Excelsia wrote:Okay, maybe those canines are a little long. But, whatever!

A little.

"Come no further, for death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth"

Excelsia wrote: http://us-p.vclart.net/vcl/Artists/Mythray/red.jpg


Edit: Okay, maybe those canines are a little long. But, whatever!

It does make for a nice picture, though.

this is it for me. the full thing

Cute, though too short at only five and a half heads tall.

Ultraken wrote:Cute, though too short at only five and a half heads tall.

I doubt the werewolf itself is "too short", it's just the proportions used. The size of the head in relation to the body is what's making it look cartoony.

That's what I meant...

That CGI of the werewolf above...does it have a tail or is it just...hiding?

Leighlia wrote:That CGI of the werewolf above...does it have a tail or is it just...hiding?

Its hiding. It doesn't want to show itself.

Wait!! There it is!! --->

Ultraken wrote:Cute, though too short at only five and a half heads tall.

Hmm, I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. It still looks pretty good though.

wolfbound wrote:this is it for me. the full thing

This is roughly what I think a werewolf should look like. Not exactly, but darn close.

I'd have to agree there. It could be a little taller, and there are a few minor changes I would make, but as long as it really does hav a tail I agree.

Excelsia wrote:

wolfbound wrote:http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/ ... Xiraco.jpg

This is roughly what I think a werewolf should look like. Not exactly, but darn close.

Both hand and foot paws are off to me, but other than that it looks good.

Lupin wrote:

Excelsia wrote:

wolfbound wrote:http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/ ... Xiraco.jpg

This is roughly what I think a werewolf should look like. Not exactly, but darn close.

Both hand and foot paws are off to me, but other than that it looks good.

Hmm..I know there is 2 types of chests for the werewolf. Is there two types of head positions as well? Or does that depend on the different type of chests?

The position of the head on my avatar doesn't match the one in the picture above.

There's barreled and humanish chests, and there's heads attached to the spine by the bottom, humanish, and those attached by the back, lupine. Your avatar appears to be the latter, while that model's the former.

Personally I prefer the humanish head attachment.

Ralith wrote:There's barreled and humanish chests, and there's heads attached to the spine by the bottom, humanish, and those attached by the back, lupine. Your avatar appears to be the latter, while that model's the former.

Oh...so can there be a combination of the 2?


like this...


barreled chest, head attached on the bottom

barreled chest, head attached on the back.

Humanish chest, head attached on the bottom

Humanish chest, head attached by the back.

Figarou wrote:Oh...so can there be a combination of the 2?

Sure, but it seems more likely that if you have the barrel chest that you're going to have the lupine head attachment.