I just started wondering a bit about this. This isn’t an “I need help making an OC” thing - lord knows I have enough OCs as it is, even if you just count the fluffies - but just … thought about how some fluffies could easily be turned into non-fluffy OCs, but others are so deeply entrenched in the fluffy lore and fluffy-specific mannerisms, it would be near-impossible to change them into anything other than a fluffy.
So when you make a fluffy OC, how do you do it? Do you start off with “this is what fluffies act like, what can I add/change to make it more fun and unique” or “I want a character with this personality, how can I make that personality work for a fluffy”?
Does the “fluffy” part enter your OC making process at all, or is it more of an afterthought? Do you create the entire personality and lore before figuring out the visuals, or do you simply draw a fluffy and then say “yeah this guy looks like he’d steal milk” and proceed from there?
Or do you just figure out the story you want to tell and then create the fluffy to be a prop for that story, only for it to stay around longer than anticipated?
For those wondering, my process is mixed but they’re mostly accidental creations.
Minnie, Dr. Crazystein and several others started as one-off doodles, and then I kept expanding on those doodles as long as I had funny ideas, which caused them to evolve personalities.
Snowcone and Wawa were specifically made to be the protagonist and fake-friend antagonist of a fluffy-themed and death-heavy game, so they were given designs to fit those roles. Snowcone’s personality came later and was “traits a fluffy needs to do the things a player would do”, while Wawa was deliberately given personality traits that didn’t quite fit a fluffy to underscore that something’s not right with him.
Thirteen’s entire thing is that he’s a totally generic fluffy dropped into a weird situation, but thanks to being a CYOA protagonist, he’s got potential to gain weird personality traits completely outside my jurisdiction. I believe some of the suggestions had him specifically be fond of tacos and concerned about getting home so he could check his mail.
So what’s your process? I’m curious!
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It varies.
When I wrote policefluffs, one aspect of it was to take “random concepts connected to police work” and find a way to make them “into fluffies”. It was the same with Steamfluffs. But those were one kind of stories. But they were made with thinking abiout fluffies first, and how they’d change the specific setting (a cyberpunk in the first one, a steampounk setting in the second)
Now that I think about it, more often than not I think of a fluffy related concept, and idea, and from there, tailor-make a character to the concept. For instance, Prince was based off the lack of “all-white” fluffies in Carpdime’s art - Carpdime only drew one pure white fluffy. Joseph, aka my take on Squeakyfriend fluffies 
was based off how unique they were when compared to other fluffies.
I think the most interesting fluffy I created was “Martin” from Strangers in Moscow, as those were based off one Russian depiction of fluffies, .i.e. how artists like artist-kun and egoralexeev drew them. The story became a way of exploring the different origins that fluffies would come about in Russia, though that story itself sported its own unique origin to fluffies.
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Poopie pwace go PRRRRRRTTSWOOOSHPPPRRRRT
Yeah, that pretty much sums up how I come up with fluffies
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I’ve mentioned before that Josef and Crimson were never meant to be used beyond their initial story, and with Crimson I just wanted a senseless villain to fill a role. It was upon reading more on Fluffies and realising that level of sadism wasn’t the norm that I started wondering what could have made a Fluffy turn into something like Crimson.
That opened up the door to the Rex backstory and once I had it in my head that Crimson was literally born out of cruelty, that gave me the freedom to make him as cruel and sadistic as possible.
Often times I won’t even realise what works with a character until I get them onto paper, Mother from Technicolor Smarty Herd wasn’t the haughty, snooty bitch until I realised how much fun it would be to take a stuck-up Fluffy down a peg or two. Crowley from Before The Storm never had a tragic backstory until I realised the pieces I’d placed down left questions about his backstory and why he was so forgiven towards his asshole of a son. There’s very much a case of seeing what fits in that moment and how malleable the story can be to fit that in.
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Just take “the book” (accepted fluffy community canon) and throw it out. Use it partially or not at all. What matters is if ur story is fun and addictive. Make ur oc with all that in mind. 
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While that is good advice, I wasn’t asking for tips! Just curious how you specifically do it. I’ve already got enough fluffy OCs, haha.
Though I’m gonna guess that is your method?
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Oic. I pick a subject that interests me and sounds fun to delve into, then i make an outline, then I write write write. I never work on more than one story at once. As far as OC stuff I just think about something that makes sense; that I could change in a way that readers would appreciate. Sometimes it backfires, but usually bravery is rewarded.
For example, one could easily delve into the Hasbio corporation laboratory. They could make a rare prototype, one that is very different from normal fluffies. It’s risky, but if written well and made to be believable, it’ll be received well.
And if not, write it anyways! My Jellenheimer story is a flop (compared to The Longest Winter at least) but I’m finishing it anyways because I’m having fun writing it.
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I write and see what they end up as.
I prefer to allow the characters to develop themselves organically.
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most of my fluffies are fluffified versions of other characters of mine. i have fun taking their original story/concept and finding corresponding parts of fluffy “canon“ (the pirate crew being a herd with Captain as the smarty, Calico being a toughie, the ship’s slaves become enfie pals, Ramòn is no longer ostracized for being an antisocial vampire but an antisocial alicorn, Riket as a pillowed enfie pal, Greg being an absolute FUCKING moron lol)
When making fluffy ocs from scratch i usually have a design in mind first, then add little tidbits of personality as i go (see Bongwater & Buttroach, and all of the Happy Pillow Farm fluffies)
sometimes im making a character for a specific purpose or to fill a specific role (Rosco as the POV antagonist for Wumble In The Gumgle, Galinda to be the smarty trying to kill the white foal, Red Rocket to antagonize Chunk, hell the entire Fluffwich Herd exists bc I wanted to write about Xeno killing a Bad Smarty)
also sometimes you just need a cute annoying punching bag
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Like Oculus said, it varies.
Sometimes, I’ve got an almost fully-formed idea of what I want the fluffy to be like from the start, and I work out the finer details along the way.
Sometimes, I introduce a generic fluffy in a bit part, and then decide to develop them into a full-blown character, giving them their own unique traits.
Sometimes, a fluffy character is quite clearly based on a character from a different non-fluffy work, and the fun part is fluffifiying the traits of the original character.
And sometimes, it’s a bit of all three.
With how, well, chaotic my headcanon has become, there are times when even I don’t know how things are gonna play out.
So yeah. When I introduced Marley, I didn’t know then that he’d become the world’s strongest fluffy, and I wasn’t even planning to give him powers at first. When I introduced Blueberry, I wasn’t originally planning to continue his story after he went off to be reincarnated, and even him being reincarnated at all wasn’t planned from the beginning. When I introduced Lavender, her sole narrative purpose was to be the reason Chris Oldman was impaling fluffies in his garden, and her somehow sensing that Chris was nearby was entirely accidental foreshadowing.
But usually, the fluffy thing is an important part of the thought process, despite what certain people might say.
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Napoleon and Hippolyta were destined for stupid jokes. I don’t even remember the original ones now (like, before I even drew them), but that was it. If I’ve got OCs that go with me? That’s them.
I suppose my characters in stories qualify? But they were generally fitting a need I had and I don’t have any sort of special attachment to them independent of their stories. Jade, for instance, doesn’t mean much to me outside of “July Babies.” They’re context dependent, and generally don’t exist outside of that context. I had an idea, I got it out, and I’m pretty much done with them.
But Napoleon and Hippolyta? Oh, they’re still my special idiots 
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Didn’t even put that much thought into it.
Just kind of decided “I want the fluffies in this story to be like this, they relate to the humans like this, and their names are these.”
Flew by the seat of my pants from there.
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When doing pictures with a single fluffy, I usually go with just a default fluffy personality. However, when there are more than one fluffies in the same scene, I plan each of them with slightly more weight towards specific type so they won’t feel the same.
For example, in the Hurty Nummies comic, I had the purple one screaming the most as he powers through the pain, yellow one wallow in it’s lament at the fate befallen it, and the blue one spasming most energetically as the pain wracks him. Then I continued through the rest of the comic, keeping their personalities consistent with how I imagined each fluffy.
And in Making Babies I made the green one more energetic and excited, while the purple one is more gentle for contrast.
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I largely stick to the standard fluffy lore and behavior, and make small edits to adjust for the specific story. I personally don’t tend to like any story where the fluff in question is too different or too human. A fluffy is a fluffy, nothing else. Otherwise, what’s the point?
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