Hi all! I am making my own anthro cat doll and am at a point where I have just about everything done except hands, feet and ears. However I am running into a problem deciding which ear type is best. I have dolls with sculpted ears as well as some with magnetic ears, and honestly I really tend to prefer sculpted ears since magnetic have a tendency to fall off way too much. Problem is, I want my doll to be able to wear wigs and while it's pretty easy for me to make a wig with ear holes i'm worried that if I ever give one if my dolls to someone else it will be a hassle for them. I'm also concerned with the fact that sculpted ears seem like they would be easier to break. Anyway I figured I would post this and get some opinions from you more experienced doll makers on which type of ear structure is better. Thanks
I think it'd be a unique figure. Since I agree that most ears are magnets now. I don't like them as much, but they are covenant for not cutting into the wigs. As for breakage, I don't think it'd be a problem if they're made sturdy enough and wrapped carefully during shipments. I'd like to see the doll, it sounds interesting.
Hi wyverngem, thanks for your advice and opinions . There are some pictures of the head in my critique thread here -> http://www.denofangels.com/joints/showthread.php?5249-Critique-on-an-anthro-head&p=28904#post28904 , and I'm posting some more here since I've done a lot since that thread was started. I should probably make a WIP thread but I feel like I'm spamming already lol. This is the last picture of the head I have before I primed it. This is when I first started making the body and It looked a bit like a turkey for a while. This is where I am with it now. There's still a ton of work to do refining and sanding, the arms are in the clay covered straws stage, plus I decided the legs needed to be fatter so I'm currently in the process of adding more clay to them hence why one leg is a lot larger than the other. I spend a lot of time changing things since I opted to work without a blueprint because I am really bad at drawing so everything is an exercise in trial and error.
Very pretty anthro face! I would say use magnets personally.. I don't mind magnetic ears though. Either that or whoever has the doll(s) in the future will have to make or order a special wig.
One thing that I don't see very much with bjds is cat sculpts with the ears off to the side of the head. It is common with anthro drawings that I have seen, but does not go into sculpts too often. I dislike magnetic ears, for the same reasons you do. One puffy wig or one stray move of the hand and the ear is lost. This problem might be solved by multiple mags in the ear (swivel ears are not fun) to make it stronger.
Some older BJDs like Serendipity Sharmin have a non-magnetic system to change ears. The ears are right on the headcap line, and you hook them into holders inside the head, then put the headcap on to hold everything in place. Maybe you could use a hybrid system like this, aided with magnets.
I'm also struggling with the same problem: I am busy designing and sculpting a fox doll. I own a doll with a system like Alewife described: A Unoa Lusis. All Unoa's, whichever version (1.0, 1.5, zero, chibi) have similar systems to attach optional ears or horns: Usually, they fall into a slot between the faceplate and the headback. All you have to do is make two tiny incisions in the wig. This is hardly visible, even when you're just putting the wig on without the ears. Here's a picture of a Unoa headback with horns: http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e309/EvilErnikiller/P3060811.jpg This person has used some wire to lock the horns in place (Unoa horns have a reputation of falling out, more so than the cat ears). I often find that the cat ears of my girl need some eye-putty in order to stay in place when she's moved around, but other than that this system works pretty well. I think a magnet system should still do the trick if you were to set the ears on poles, and let the poles fall into a slot in the head where the magnet is. That way they should stay in place nicely. The only problem you might have is when the doll is wearing an extremely voluminous wig... But if you make the slot so that the pole actually falls THROUGH the head, locating the magnets to the side of the holes, you would have some room to spare for bigger wigs. Might be tricky not to hit the back of the eyes, though... That's what I'm still trying to find out in my own design.
