how do you guys make characters out/about your dolls?

Well, there are a lot of completely different ways people do it but my process is pretty subconscious... I just take it easy with them, and ideas sort of gradually flow into them. I let myself be open to thinking about things each doll might remind me of for whatever reason, combined with what types of interests I more consciously have at the time or ideas I consciously want to explore and I muddle it out gradually. For me, everything is less about reaching an end destination and all about the process. As I experience my process I feel like ideas about their personalities, backstories and experiences come up and fuse together naturally.
I think for other people who think this way and like to develop their dolls this way we rely on superstition of coincidences to an extent. Funny random things happen and then they become cannon sometimes. I like to do things this way because it makes me feel more like the dolls are authentic seperate people from myself rather than my personal artistic creations. And when I start to feel that it also makes it ok for dolls to outgrow original ideas and transform into different things, which helps me feel I can enjoy them for many many years more easily.

 

It's kinda weird but dolls usually "speak" a character to me when I see them. Like there's just a style or personality I start to associate with the sculpt. From there, I'll usually decide on some sort of style of clothes for them, like my Resinsoul Ming is casual punk, my Volks Rinon is high femme leaning a little into lollita style, my Soom Garnet is fashionable tom boy, etc. Then I decide on what hair and eyes fit that style and personality that I've set up so far and start sketching out ideas for the character. Granted, when I turn my existing characters into dolls, I've learned that I have to wait until I see a doll that just "looks" right. If I try to force a doll into a character, I just end up very frustrated and selling the doll usually. I also try to wait several months before buying a doll if I can, so I can be sure I'm actually invested in shelling the character and not just into the idea of a new doll.
I do agree with AlisonVonderland though, its a very personal process for how you make characters and, in my opinion, just requires experimentation and trial and error to some extent. I suggest just sitting down and writing or drawing whatever comes to mind. Creativity is like a muscle, the more you work at it the better you'll get!

 

For me, the stories vaguely swirl at the edges of my imagination, hard to pin down. But I can pull out fabrics & start sketching an idea that feels "right" for that character & then enjoy the process of finding or creating patterns in order to sew their clothes. Or pull together props & a backdrop & create a scene with them after buying or sewing clothes for them. And that's how I capture those elusive characters. But to tell their stories, or write about them? Nope, I'm just awkward as heck. ;}
Hope you find your best way to enjoy your dolls & imagination.

 

@kiraabsol - Oh, I thought I was the only person who uses that phrase, "speaking a character." So other people experience this too! ^^

Doll character development is the main reason I play with BJDs. I love char dev so I'm gonna ramble about it!

I start off with nebulous character ideas floating around in my head -- names, vital statistics, personality archetypes and traits, symbolism, relationship with existing dolls, etc. But I keep them pretty vague and hold them loosely. Then when I browse for dolls, I wait for one to either grab one of my vague ideas and hand it to me, or speak a completely new character to me. Basically, a doll has to say, "here I am! I'm not merely a doll, I'm me!"

This is critical: the doll has to move into my head first before it moves into my home. No matter how attractive a doll sculpt is, if it doesn't take up residence in my head as a distinctive character, it remains a pretty but empty face that I have no reason to own. The character doesn't have to be fully formed (more on that later), but it has to be someone, and that someone is This Particular Doll Sculpt. So far, I haven't sold any doll that has given me a character like this.

When a doll comes home, the character development process shifts gear completely -- and this is where it becomes quite unique. See, dolls are physical objects with presence in the material world. As someone who has created characters for art, world-building and fiction-writing since I was a small child, I discovered pretty quickly that I can't develop a character in my head/on paper beforehand and then foist that fully made character on the doll shell. (I've tried this in the past: it ended in tears, frustration, and selling the doll shell.) Instead, I have to cooperate with the physical doll and develop their character through physical means: painting their faceups, changing hair/eyes, dressing them up, playing with them, taking photos, and just seeing with my two eyes what looks and feels best for them. Playing with the doll is an integral part of character development and I can't rush this process.

When a doll comes home, appearance is the first thing we decide together. I say "we" deliberately: it's a dance of cooperation between me and the doll sculpt. By the time a doll comes home, I've made a character sheet and brainstormed appearance and personality and role in the world setting: but all these are suggestions that I try to hold loosely. I follow my character sheet and try out a limited range of wigs/eyes/clothes on the doll to discover what looks and feels best on them. Generally, whatever appearance feels best on the doll ends up being their forever appearance, especially wigs and eyes.

This has worked pretty well so far. Most of the time, the doll claims something from my range of suggestions, but I've had rare encounters where a doll looked downright wrong in a certain wig or pair of eyes. It's like they refused what was offered, and I have to give them a different option to try. And a doll always has the final say over my suggestions. I mean, if a particular wig/eyes/clothing looks bad on them, it looks bad on them -- nothing I can do about it except tweak the suggestions or try something completely different. So I experiment until I find something that look good, and then update my character sheet.

Once appearance is settled, I further develop the doll's personality by playing with them, alone or with others in my crew, and taking photos. I usually have ideas about their personality, but sometimes a sculpt takes those ideas in a different direction. And if I don't have ideas, I play with the doll to discover what personality they might be. Again, this play is integral to character development, and also how I start developing backstory and history between the chars. What @AlisonVonderland said is true - sometimes stuff happens or ideas develop while I'm playing with my dolls, and those coincidences get integrated into my dolls' stories and backstories. It's like discovery-writing a short story or novel, but instead of writing on paper I'm discovering the story by physically enacting them with my crew. It's also amazing how a sculpt can dictate a lot of its own personality. For example, my two single-jointed dolls have a more limited range of movement in posing, which means they tend to appear more reserved and formal. Both characters have become aloof, calm and quiet personalities. On the other hand, my double-jointed girl is a much more open, curious and demonstrative personality... because she has a wider range of movement and can make more expressive poses than my single-jointed pair. I love how my dolls' faces AND bodies are contributing to their personalities.

All of this takes time. I buy dolls slowly because I need time to get to know each one of them, and integrate new dolls into the existing crew, their world setting and storylines. And they don't just occupy my home, but occupy my mind too -- can't have too many tenants moving into my head all at once, lol! I'm definitely a small collection doll owner, but I find this slow getting-to-know-my-dolls process a lot of fun, and it's what makes the BJD hobby so meaningful to me.

 

Before I get a doll, I already have a character in mind. I like to draw and have made characters over the years through my doodles. Usually I gain inspiration for a character from a show, movie, or book that I enjoy. Be it the setting, a particular character within the media, and whatever else. As I draw I think of them as a person. A lot of the personality can be shown in their clothes, expression and pose you draw them in. I add more details the more I think of. Before I know it they are a full character with a backstory and life outside the 2D drawing. If I like them enough, I pursue getting a doll of them. Which is the hardest part lol!

 

It probably depends on what you are planning to do with your dolls. Each one of them can have a separate backstory and a "world" where they came from. Or a crew of dolls can have a shared background world, like characters in the same novel or the same anime.

If you are into character creation but not world-building, you can consider using a character sheet from table-top RPGs and literally roll a set of attributes for your character as the basis. A good number of folks I know have shelled their DnD (Dungeons and Dragons) characters into their dolls, for example. A friend of mine is in the process of shelling their VtM (Vampire the Masquerade) character into a doll right now. It seems to work pretty well.

If you are into the world-building process as well as character creation, then it's more about a process of choosing a genre that speaks to you, finding a story line, coming up with the characters that would fit into the story and matching them to your dolls. I'm in the process of writing a shonen-manga style story for my crew and I am reshelling all of them. It's a bit more work, but it's rewarding work!

Good luck!

 

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I usually start with a single concepts and go from there.

Sometimes the doll comes first, sometimes the charachter, but I never fully develope a character before I have the doll, since the chance that the doll won't "agree" with my plans are pretty high.

A couple of examples:
My first BJD was a doll I fell in love with, after just generally looking at pictures and admire them from afar, she was the first BJD I could defend the cost for. While waiting for her I came up with a partial backstory, but when the doll arrived I realized she felt older than I had planned, so I kept the story but moved it further into her past and figured out a new precent situation for her.

Then I wanted her to have a friend. In her story it would make sense for her to have a room mate, so I hunted for a doll that I liked and that would match the scale well enough. I bought her and after a while realized that they were not in fact just room mates, but a couple. And then I developed the story of how they met and what their relationship is like and through that I also developed their characters further.

And so on.

I have a doll that started as "a cousin of my first doll" one that started as "I hear a lot of good about this body, I want one of those, where can I fit him into the story" and such. Sometimes personality comes first. "Chill surfer dude, kind of guy." and "Quiet and kind, but very sure of herself" are examples of that.
And It doesn't always work out as I plan it, even with such vague concepts. Sometimes I have to edit my plans quite heavily, but it usually turns out for the best in the end.

Beyond that initital spark I just let things develope of their own.

 

I'm continuing what I did with my dolls as a kid. They had characters, relationships and adventures, much of it a reflection of entertainment media back in the 1960s (dating myself here).

When I first started collecting BJDs in 2005, I hadn't planned on the cast of characters that I have now. Making friends through another doll chat board, and seeing what they were doing, even having our dolls interact gave me the spark to have them be more than pretty objects. BJDs seemed to lend themselves to having characters more readily (for me) than my vinyl fashion dolls, which I'd started collecting in the 1990s.

Long story short, for me it's an organic thing, and not to be forced

 

For me it is a part of my process of convincing myself to buy the doll Rather than having a character first and scouting a doll to match them. (Although I sometimes have some prerequisites in mind like, "I want a doll with elf ears" etc.)

Sometimes a name will pop into my mind when I see them, and then I will let the name or its meaning inspire me. Other times, I will come up with sort of a character after I've picked a fashion style for them and something that they like. Once I make up rules about "who" they are, I can fine tune my vision for how I'll dress them up. And maybe more details will follow.

Recently, I got a doll and had a specific image for her in mind. But while the face up I received was adorable, it was not giving off the impression I wanted I had my little tantrum about how she didn't match my character Until I remembered, that this "character" only existed as an excuse to buy the doll....
I've decided to let the artist's work shine by changing her look and character to flatter the make up, rather than fighting against it and wishing it would fit my original plan. By letting her character evolve in this way, I'm loving her even more than my original idea

Another of my dolls got some character depth added to her from my real world experience playing with her. I had already decided that she was obsessed with plushies and a certain TV character. Basically, just an excuse to someday photoshoot her with my plush collection
When I could not get this skinny little darling to stand for the life of me and I was suddenly inspired, and connected some dots. Decided that she is weak due to a chronic illness, and after moving out of her parents' home to go to school in the city, she wound up becoming a shut-in instead. Because to her it feels safer to stay in with her toys and TV, rather than risk a health crisis alone in the huge and dense city But she has so far kept the fact that she dropped out of school a secret from her parents, so they are still funding her
As for her dolly sister, I worked it into her story too. Instead of spending time with her friends after school, she will spend hours at the crane machines or visiting special pop up events, to bring pictures and videos, or some rare loot home to her sister on the weekends. Wishing these efforts will inspire her to face the big world outside again, while worrying about whether she's enabling this shut-in behavior.
Okay, so this is not an exciting or interesting story, but when I hit the buy button, my ideas for these girls was just, "this one will wear purple! and this one will wear blue! And they love plushies!" But by playing with one of them, suddenly two of them had backstories

Anyway all of this to say that a character can come out of your doll in so many ways and it may grow over time. For me, it's about connecting some dots and making it work. It makes me feel like somewhat of a problem solver.
If you're feeling stumped about "who" they are, you don't have to just wait around for something to happen. Seek out inspiration by trying new things. Maybe changing their look, choosing their name, taking their photo, deciding what they "like" and reading random Wikipedia articles about it just spend some time with them or thinking about them, and something will eventually spark.

 

Sometimes I have an idea in mind before the doll arrives, like my Doll Leaves Teenage Dream (still in Waiting List Limbo for now). She's going to be the older sibling to my YoSD-sized dolls, and a goth girl.

Sometimes, like with my Teenie Gem girl Lucrezia, the doll comes first and the OC sort of fills itself in later. Lulu's mischievous personality, her love of cute sundresses, and her trans-ness all came to me well after the doll herself had arrived at my home and I'd started sewing clothes for her.

I'm working on a personality for a large OT doll at the moment, but even a name escapes me for that lovely lady. I'm sure it'll come to me as I sew.

 

Their stories usually just come very...randomly to me? The first idea I had for Fable (currently my only doll) I got while on the tram, I was listening to one of those ballad-like, storytelling songs (I *think* Witch of the Westmoorland?) when I saw a guy who looked like he just stepped out of a storybook. He had those Vibes, you know, that make the imagination run wild (and not even in a horny way this time)

I ended up using a different story, from a book of loosely related fairy tales, that have other characters that now I feel like I have to shell too, but of course I'll tweak them all a little and mostly start where the stories "left off" and bring all of them together eventually, it's going to be DELICIOUS.
I continue to get inspired by fairy tales, myths, songs, poems a lot.
But I think this varies WILDLY. I've seen someone have all their dolls from this great big original world they made, and I've seen someone have all of theirs be from their favourite show. It's all good. Don't force it.

 

I wish I was better at making up characters but my ideas sort of go as follows; I think of different types of character concept I would like a doll based off. For example; I wanted a rockstar and another time I wanted a goth girl so I picked their sculpts based on what I felt might work for these sorts of characters and their styles etc. I actually have multiple dolls based off similar concepts but all their styling is a little bit different. What I am not so good at is naming dolls I wish I was better at it but I always seem to end up naming them off their sculpt names. Some of my dolls like Eiji my MNF Shiwoo came with a very well defined character from their previous owner(s) so that was a plus.

 

... Excellent question, actually. I kind of don't know?

I'm going to specify that this is about doll characters only; I'm also a writer, but my process for that is completely different. Anyway, it starts with looking long and hard at the sculpt. Sometimes the character just pops out of that, fully formed, and other times I get little hints of an idea. The expression might tell me something about their personality, any imperfections might hint toward life events. Shapes and details give me ideas.

After that, I'll usually have a base idea of who/what the character is supposed to be, so I'll base their aesthetic around that. I'll troll the internet for clothing ideas, looking at artwork and traditional costumes for fantasy, and real-world clothing for non-fantasy. An example: something about my Dream Valley Dean said "desert wanderer" to me, so I went with a fantasy version of what a desert-dweller would wear. The sculpt has a kind of haughty expression, but with a faint smile, so I also thought this character would be flashy- thus I covered him in gold. I told the faceup artist my idea for his character (in the broadest terms), and they gave me a look that complemented everything. I started with a seed of an idea, and everything followed suit.

Of course, sometimes things will just fall into place. Another example: my Studio Naiko Chovi. The sculpt has furry ears and fangs, so I immediately knew "non-human". The sculpt also has one closed eye, so I knew there would be something to that. I gave him a wig that was honestly sort of an experiment, but I wound up liking it, and it was dark blue. Around the time I was working on him, I happened upon some fabric in my stash that was covered in blue eyes and, oh hey, that fit my vague eye idea. At the same time, an etsy eye maker I love released a set of eyes modeled after the "evil eye" beads you see in jewelry (which happen to be usually blue). I had to have them, and this doll was the obvious choice on who to give them to. "Non-human, evil eye" hit something in my brain- there's a character in Celtic mythology, an evil fae with an evil eye named Balor. So this doll became Balor, my version anyway. After that, I themed his outfit pieces on Celtic traditional wear and the evil eye.

As for "story", I don't go too in-depth with my doll characters. That's a rule- I can't make any dolls out of existing characters, and I can't create a fully-fledged story based on my dolls. If I break these rules, I'll have to get more dolls of all the story characters, and that's just not feasible. So what I do instead is give them a brief backstory, sort of like you would for a Dungeons and Dragons character. Third example: my Crobidoll Zia; her story is that she was a socialite in the 1920s who was killed and became a ghost that haunts a locket. The locket came into the possession of a secret paranormal military organization, so now she works with them. And that's it! It's enough of a story for me to make all my decisions regarding her look and the pictures I take of her, but it's not so complex that I need to write it down. (And it all came from me just buying her a locket.) All my doll "stories" are this simple, I can sum them up in a few words: "sheep-boy shepherd", "cyberpunk centaur prince", "shy werewolf doctor". Stuff like that.

Writing this out was helpful, it got me to break down my process. I hope it's helpful to you in some way. Just take one little seed of an idea and snowball it. Bounce it off a friend if you have to. If you want more complex stories, first get your concept and then look up advice on plotting a novel. You don't have to write a novel, but those brainstorm techniques are great. Have fun making characters!

 

Some dolls were chosen to be my characters—my recent feeple60 Sia never had any choice but to become Vidania—the character pre-existed the doll and the doll was chosen for her fit to the character. That choice I made because the skull head was a little too perfect for my recently resurrected death cleric, and so I impulse-ordered one on DDE when full sets started to arrive.

some dolls are the opposite—I buy them because I like the doll, and then I have to improvise a character for them. If they’re blank, I make a lot of those choices while I do their faceup, seeing what colours suit the sculpt, and what kind of person comes out as I paint it. I did this to my most recent doll, a Twigling Oryx, because I grabbed her on a really reasonable sale, but had no clue who she was. If the doll has a faceup I’m attached to, I try out different wigs and eyes and styles of clothes to see if I can pin down who they are—eventually something clicks into place. Cole, for instance, never told me who she was until I plunked a pink wig on her head, and then her character started to come together. It’s a lot of experimentation until I jog something that helps me create a character.

As for how I create characters on a more generalized level, I often ask myself who one of my stories needs. Does someone need a love interest? A friend? A coworker? Who is the world missing right now, and how can I add them in?

If that doesn’t jog anything, I listen to some music, and see what comes out as I listen. I made a character who has no connections to anything else right now based on Slipknot’s vermillion and a kinda fucked up writing premise that admittedly I also then proceeded not to write. Some songs have characters hidden in them and when you listen you can find them.

if I still haven’t jogged anything, I look to other things I’ve read. What did I want out of something I read recently that I didn’t get? Can I create a character that gets me that? I’m writing a piece called letters to Ophelia that’s based on how I wish Buffy addressed one of the obscureish minor characters’ backstory, but it’s set in a human universe and the characters are renamed. What piece of fiction hasn’t quite reached the places you want it to, and how can you make it reach them in your own way? Sometimes I even 1-to-1 lift characters, like how one of my dolls is straight up Paradise Lost Satan, with a slightly different arc to account for the existence of vampires.

hope some part of this resonates or helps you create characters!!

 

I typically start with the doll and then plan the character.

If I see a doll I want online, I’ll take a few days/weeks to plan out a name, personality, style, and appearance for them. If I am able to come up with all those aspects, I will order the doll. If not, I typically won’t.

I use Picrew to help me plan out the way they look sometimes by creating the same character in different art styles and I use my notes app to jot down personality traits, backstories, etc.

 

I have to have characters figured out before I get a doll. I've figured out that I need more than just a vague idea of what kind of character a doll *could* be, or I just won't get around to working on them and will get frustrated I don't have a clear idea.
Some of the dolls I'm customizing are characters I like from books, so I don't need to figure out their personality and backstory, just how I want to show how I picture them in sculpts, clothes, etc. I don't mind starting with a more vague idea there personally, but I'll sketch out outfits ideas to get an idea of how things work (which is just my process fro any clothing thing I make, whether it's for dolls or for me).
Some of them are OC's from DnD, so I have their personalities and backstories worked out to varying degrees, and it grows and changes as the campaign goes on. But I have general ideas of those things and their appearance, either from sketches or dollmakers and picrew. Coming up with a DnD character is really random for me. Sometimes I'll have a clear idea of a smaller aspect I want them to have and grow them around that (I call my bard discount or knock off Shakespeare because i wanted all his vicious mockery and inspiration things to be Shakespeare quotes xD Though he's grown and shifted a bit from that). Other times, it's a vague kind of idea, like with my current character who's my next customizing project, where I knew I wanted to make a character with a water theme, so I built her based on that, and her backstory was inspired by one of the dragon age origin's character stories with input and ideas from the DM. I also inadvertently gave her my adhd, because I didn't get a diagnosis until recently so didn't know i had it when I decided on her personality and flaws lol
All of that does mean I can take a long time finding the "perfect" doll to be a base for the character, and working on mods I've found to be a little frustrating when they don't go the way I expected or pictured them (partly from expecting things to be perfect my first try).

 

I do a lot of different things, some characters have existed in my brain for years, some are inspired by sculpts I see, but in regards to dolls I mostly create a character I think fits the doll. I have OCs I want to shell onto a doll, but all the characters that I have shelled already are because I got the doll first and then the character inspo came second. It can be hard to find a doll that matches a character I've had for a while, as I am quite particular. I do have a doll coming currently which I had an idea for, but now that the doll is close to arriving I'm completely lost lol

 

This was beautiful! So much resonates with me and I learned a lot here also. My dolls tell me who they are. Playing with them helps me to hear them.

 

Most of the time I write the story first. I have the concept of the story, and might have even done the story boarding in a lot of cases. Knowing the character that I need, and having the concept for it, helps me decide on the doll that I am going to get for the role. Often times while working on the storyboarding if it is a new character I will search for the 'actor' for the role while mapping out how I am going to want thing to look in the final pictures of the webcomic. I buy dolls to fit the characters. Occasionally I will stumble across a doll that will make me change my entire concept of the character, and then it is rewrite time.

The story for me is what encourages the original concept for the character. I think of things that are most important to me about the character and how I want them to develop as a person. How does the person behave? What are their strong points? What are their quirks? What was their childhood like? Where do they want to be in a few years? What are their goals and dreams? For me being able to answer these questions can help with writing my dialogues.

I few mistakes I've seen people make, that I try to avoid. Not ever character needs a dramatic childhood. It's fine for someone to have just normal parents or even great parents, a normal amount of dysfunctional parents is also fine, as it adds more realism. If you want to do something with a traumatic background do some research, don't just victimize the character and make the trauma the core part of the personality, that's not a personality, it is something that happened to them. If you are working with a sexuality that you know nothing about, please do research and portray it accordingly. Also, as with the traumatic past, sexuality and gender identity is a trait, not a personality. While a trait can help to outline a personality, it is not the core of a the personality.

A good example: Earlier this year I posted on here because I had minor character that was becoming a more prominent person in the story. He was dating a girl, because that is what he had always been told to do, even though her was far more interested in her brother. He was based on some of my own friends. 'gay' 'jock' 'frat boy', but of course my real life friends were much more then that or they wouldn't have been my real life friends. My problem was that even though I had friends like this, I personally had never experienced being like this, so getting a grip on his personality was hard for me. I got so much great advice that I was able to get a hold on his full personality and define him more as a person. The link to that post is here, if you are interested: /threads/fleshing-out-a-characters-personality.878737/

Don't just let one thing define the character, and try to know them as a person and how they would react in life to many situations. Once you develop the character the story and words will just form around them naturally.

 

Great advice!