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40–49cm Dolls Analeil - learning & process

Feb 4, 2024

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    1. Hi everyone! As you can see, I'm starting a process journal. We'll see where this little project goes, and if it even makes it to completion LOL

      • This (both my post, and the project) are for a class I'm doing, where I need to continuously post in my community of choice on a project I'm working on.
      • FEEDBACK IS WELCOME IN THIS THREAD. Like, more than welcome. I went through art school, you truly cannot hurt my feelings, I promise. feel free to dm me if you don't feel like posting here <3
      • Any feedback, if I receive any and then write about it in my final observations when I submit my project, will be anonymized and quoted in the "it was pointed out that X anatomical part didn't look right". No screenshots of the forum will be inserted in my final paper. The paper is mainly just "I posted screenshots and people probably looked at it" Lmao

      That being said, here's some info about my project ideas and of course, current pics! If you didn't read the spoiler, feedback is encouraged (here or just dm me) and you can't hurt my feelings by pointing out any anatomical/sculpting and later jointing mistakes lol I'll also post in the actual crit forum when I feel like I need more concentrated/actual critique.

      Anyways. Lets start with the initial sketches:

      [​IMG]

      Analeil is the name of one of my World of Warcraft characters, a Night Elf priest. I previously shelled my nelf druid Adelleigh with an RS Mei a few years ago, but was unsatisfied with the size/proportions. I've wanted Analeil for a long time, so I decided to sculpt her body and head myself. The initial sketch is based on the Nelf game model, adapted into my artistic style... it's more of a jumping off point though, as I have a feeling I might elongate her torso more. I have an issue with compacting torsos in favor of legs in my regular illustration so I actively tried to make it longer in the og sketches. Right now, I'm focusing on her body.

      [​IMG]
      Ortho front

      [​IMG]
      Ortho Side

      [​IMG]
      Perspective front

      I opted to sculpt the body in full first instead of doing it piece by piece, and then cut it up later. If this doesn't actually work then I'll probably just start from scratch and try again haha.

      She's lumpy and round. This is ok but makes me chuckle. Her bottom needs to be filled out more, but it also might not need to be since I was trying to envision vague joint placement. I'm doing this in Blender to force myself to re up my blender sculpting skills vs my modelling skills - I've transitioned my sculpting to nomad but I felt it a bit too limiting in what I wanted for Ana.

      I think that's all for now, thanks for looking! If you do feel like posting and have some more experience with 3D modelling bjds - do you feel it's more beneficial starting with the entire body and then cutting it up, or is it better to go piece by piece? When I'm messing around on Nomad, and with the one other body I made and printed, I did more piece by piece, but it felt a little...inefficient and some parts felt disproportionate in a way. Blender though it seemed like it made more sense to start with a full sculpt. Either way, it'll be perfectly fine anatomy and character sculpting practice, but I am curious.
       
      #1 Karra, Feb 4, 2024
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    2. Looks as if you are off to a good start!

      I am a traditional sculpter, so I can't give any useful critique of the practical side of the sculpting process itself, but as someone who has made a few ball jointed dolls in the past, I do have some observations from the engineering side of things.

      You don't have most the joints themselves drawn into the blueprint. It may be good idea to draw them in to get a visual on what shape and size the joint will be. On a superficial level it will help ensure that there is room for the joint in the doll, and on a deeper level it will help inform you on the dolls preformance.
      If this is your first time sculpting a poseable figure with friction joints, it can be hard to judge ahead of time, but even if the plan ends up changing later, it's good practice to make a plan. It gives others a chanse to help you spot potential problem areas and it also helps you start thinking in the terms of doll parts rather than just a pretty sculpture. The later will become more and more important when getting close to casting (if you intend to take the project that far) as shapes, thickness of joint walls etc. can have an impact on moldmaking and casting.
      You also need to take the cutaways into account, so that they don't ruin your dolls pretty outline too much. It may be better to take them into account right from the start and sculpt around them, or at least culpt with them in mind.
      Channel size and placement is also a vital aspect of how the joints work, as they impact where in the joint the pivot point is, so maybe draw those in as well.

      A few observations about the joints from what is there so far:
      The sholder joints pictured on the front view in the first sketch are very shallow. To get good movement you need a joint ball that is closer to a sphere. If you shape the joint as you have in the picture you'll get back and forth rotation, but the doll will likely not be able to hold the arm out from the body without it wanting to snap back. See if you can reshape the joint to maximize the surface of contact within the joint itself and make sure that the joint mantains as much surface contact as the joint is positioned in different ways. The larger the surface of contact within the joint, the more friction and the stronger the joint will be.

      Looking at the thighs on the front view sketch, there doesn't appear to be room enough for a joint with the same curve as the joint drawn into the side view. While it is possible to make thigh joints oval rather than spherical, it will limit the movement of the doll, making the legs unable to rotate at all. This gives a doll that won't be able to stand with it's feet apart, won't be able to do a "man spread" when sitting etc.

      So, take all this for what it's worth. I've never worked with digital sculpting and I have a very hard time wrapping my head around doing the enginering aspects without tactile feedback, but I know some people manage, so it's clearly possible. Be prepared for a lot of test printing of joints and such as you go, though.
      I mean, the main difference between a BJD and just a pretty figurine is the joints and how they preform so they realy shouldn't be an after thought, IMHO.

      Best of luck with your project! :)
       
      #2 Lillith, Feb 4, 2024
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    3. Thank you for that info re: joints!! I’ve sculpted and printed a different body in nomad, with the joints fully mapped on the sketch (she’s not in a project journal) and while her joints fit and worked (after many revisions, since, y’know) there was something that left me… hm. It felt weird in a sense that they felt too disjointed - yes they worked but no amount of refining them made everything seem right aesthetically without it just being an entirely new body in a sense? ????? I’m truly not sure how to explain it. I think I felt the method didn’t feel right. So I moved to a bigger screen and am attempting this way, but what you said still makes logical sense to me. I have a few iterations of these files so I might start a second one where I experiment with a joints first sort of method.

      Revising Revising!! Perhaps having more fully sketched out will help too - with the other one with working joints I had a stringing map and everything, but I thought maybe it was too much and that was what was stopping me. But again, what you said made me realize: It might not have aesthetically worked but it worked engineering wise. So I shouldn’t lose sight of that bit.
       
      #3 Karra, Feb 5, 2024
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    4. Makes sense. There is a similar dilemma for traditional sculpting. To either make a full body first and then cut it apart and make the joints after that, or to build a jointed base, make sure it preforms and then sculpt the doll on top. No right or wrong, just preference.

      Aesthetics and engineering is always a balancing act for dolls. I'm sure most of us have seen examples of what can happen when one outweighs the other. I sure have a few dolls that I love because their pretty sculpting makes me forgive their bad posing abilities, and vice versa. It's not like it's a mortal sin to priorotize one over the other, but in a perfect world, both should be priorotized.

      I think including the joints in the plan, even if you don't actually include them in the 3D sculpt until a later stage, may be a good idea. Just to make sure that the sculpt allows for them. Mostly to save time and not accidentally spend a lot of energy on something that may have to be reworked later. I'm a lazy sculptor and always look for ways to not have to do the same job twice. :sweat
       
      #4 Lillith, Feb 5, 2024
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