I'm super excited to finally see my final sculpt IRL. I'm definitely happy with it -- not 100% happy, but that's never going to happen. It's good enough to be going along with, as they say. Next step: A lot of sanding. ^_^ Older: View attachment 124 View attachment 85 View attachment 104
^_^ It's very well done. I'm really not into animal with human body dolls, but the expression of the face is very appealing. You also sculpt very well digitally, though the purpose? Are you planning to animate the cat at a later time?
Thanks! I'm sculpting digitally because it has some advantages -- disadvantages too, of course. Specifically: 1) Automatic symmetry. Anyone who's ever held a head up to a mirror can appreciate this one. 2) Undo. The ability to revert to a good version lets me experiment freely. Beyond this, zBrush lets you slide between a changed version and the original. Often the best effect is somewhere in-between. 3) Easy proportion changes. When I realized the lower half of Kit's head was too wide in proportion , it took me a few minutes to fix. In a physical medium, I would have had to resculpt most of the face. 4) No casting. My previous medium was wax. I love wax. Unfortunately, it's not a suitable material for an actual doll, or for a master for reproduction. For that, you need to cast. And I hate casting. 5) Easy variants. I always wanted Kit to be able to be multiple kinds of animals. Working digitally, it's easy to change the face a bit to match. Now some disadvantages, for anyone considering jumping on this bandwagon... 1) Cost. Shapeways isn't cheap, even for a small doll. 2) Learning curve. It's steep. I spent weeks floundering around in zBrush, and I have previous 3D experience. 3) Inability to test joints as you go. You sort of can, but it's a pain to do in zBrush, and you still don't know how they're going to behave under tension. I'm still not convinced my hip joints are going to work. 4) It's a computer program. Expect bugs and crashes. I haven't seen data corruption yet, but I'm still saving a new version every few hours. So, yeah, there's pros and cons.
The face is very cute from the front, but the side view seems very squished or something.. I don't know, something about it seems off. Maybe the head is too far back on the neck. If you haven't already, I would recommend modeling the elastic and then moving around the parts/elastic to get a better idea if it is going to work well in real life. This way you can make sure the holes are big enough, and that the elastic won't stretch weirdly in various poses and cause parts to snap back. Also, double check everything is the size you think it is going to be, especially thickness. I make a 2mm diameter ball and move it around to make sure nothing is thinner than that, except for parts that taper, then I make sure the smallest part is at least 1mm. Also make sure that none of the edged tapper at too small of an angle. Shapeways says anything under a 10 degree angle won't print, so keep that in mind. I don't know what material you are planning on using, but you might want to shop around first. I only have experience with Shapeways and InterPro (the few other companies I contacted quoted me much higher, but that was years ago before Shapeways), and I am pretty sure Shapeways is cheaper for some materials but InterPro is a cheaper compared to the detailed material. I like Shapeways, but InterPro had amazing customer service - they even called me a year later to see how things were going, and I'd personally use them for bigger projects. If you can, make your parts hollow! Make a hole on the inside as big as you can without interfering with the important areas, and shell them out to around 2 or 3mm and it will save you a ton of money. Shapeways lists a minimum thickness but you want to be careful and do a bit more - they have pretty good detailed instructions. I know Shapeways just charges for volume of the piece itself, and I'd assume InterPro does too (the hollow parts require a support material so some companies charge for support material, which is going to be need anywhere there is material above the open space). I don't know how to effectively do this in zbrush, but in max sometimes the edges get messed up so you have to mess with it or relax it to make it a solid object. I think that is it ^_^. Good luck!!
Thanks, Firefly! That sphere trick is a really good idea. Unfortunately, zBrush is kind of wretched for moving things around. I've tested all my joints in Maya, but probably not as carefully as I could have -- never actually modelled the elastic. for one thing. And that bit about the angle makes me wonder... I have an order pending that I'm pretty sure has sharper angles than that. But they do round at the edge, so maybe that's enough... And yeah, I think there is something weird in the profile... hm. *fiddles* Anyway, thank you for your advice!
Thanks, Twigling! Congratulations on Ingenue, by the way, she looks amazing. *goes back to de-squishing*
Bump for still-squished profile. I swear everything more drastic I try to do to fix it makes it look worse instead of better...
Looks like her whole nose needs to come out some, and the bridge part of her nose shouldn't be near so convex: View attachment 121 I think fixing that will fix at least most of the "squished" look in profile.
I dunno I like the squished profile.... The cross over between Panda and Kitty and the slightly comical look to her from top to toe is awesome, if the profile is more "to life" it could unbalance the comical look to her...? Just my 2c LOL
I don't think you should change the face at all, this is the Kitpandi that we have come to know and love, but maybe you can pull out the back of the head a bit more to make the profile more round? That way you'd be able to move the neck hole further back too. Looks like the body is quite roly-poly (in a good way) so not sure if the head would seem flatter in profile when placed on the head, compared to the rest of the proportions.
Thanks, folks. I did end up de-squishifying a bit: View attachment 125 Please disregard the eyes, I know they're terrible. :P Other than that, I'm pretty happy with it, and I'm probably going to call it done... if only to keep myself from fiddling with it indefinitely. :dead Although you make a good point about the back of the head, Twigling... hm. Okay, just a little more fiddling. Oh, and for those interested in 3D printing, I was very pleased with Shapeways' sandstone material. It does have ridges, but they're not that much more prominent than the (much more expensive) detail plastics. Thin edges aren't as crisp, and they're definitely more fragile, but for many parts I think it will work well.
So cute! She looks great; it is great to see her in real life. Good luck with the sanding - I know how fun that is. The print lines don't look too deep so hopefully it won't be too much of a pain.
Print out looks great, but unless you want the matte/bumpy texture (assuming it's primer?) I would suggest sanding the surface with 400 grit sandpaper, then 600, and then 8/100 and 1500 or 0000 steel wool. The surface will then be glossy but you can spritz with MSC to dull it down and have a more subtle matteness. With all the sanding some of the primer might get taken off, which would mean re-application though. Another trick is to use primer/filler plus thinners in an airbrush which would give a finer misting coat than using a can or a gun. And be careful that you don't loose the detail around the nose and mouth under layers of paint. But I love her she is really cute and I am looking forward to a resin version so I hope I can snag one.
firefly: Thanks! The detail plastic is pretty nice, although there's definitely some spots that need attention. twigling: Yeah, priming before doing any sanding was silly of me... I just wanted to see what she looked like, and the translucent detail plastic just doesn't show detail, ironically enough. Is there a reason you'd use steel wool to polish when you want a matte surface? It just seems like an extra step. That's an interesting point about airbrushing the primer... I think my mom might have an old airbrush somewhere. I can't use cans, unfortunately... something in them reacts with the plastic, and the primer never dries. And yes, I definitely want to keep an eye on the mouth/nose detail... it's already a little 'soft,' I may end up doing a little bit of real-world sculpting on the nose. And I'd be delighted to swap a Kitpandi towards an Ingenue... that new head of yours is stunning enough to make me forget that I don't collect big dolls.
The steel wool and super smooth sanding is to remove any underlying texture before applying the final matte coat. As any primer will dry with it's own texture, plus in Kitpandy's case the printed surface might have had a texture of its own, to erase this surface with the help of primer + sanding just makes a clean and smooth surface for a final light coat of MSC or equivalent. It also ensures there are no scratches from any previous sanding grits that might show up in the molds.
I have NO experience with 3-D printing, but find it intriguing...why does it not print smooth? Did you put some sort of texture in your ZBrush file? And if so, why?
La vie en rose: Do you see the pics under "older," or are they all missing? twigling: Yeah, the printed surface is kind of like woodgrain. Definitely some sanding & primer required there. And removing sanding from previous grits makes sense. Thanks for the info! I doubt it would have occurred to me to use steel wool. oddfae: The printers put down the plastic in very thin layers... but not so thin that you can't see them. The "Frosted Ultra Detail" plastic has the finest grain, which is why I used it for the face. Here's a pic of the thigh, printed in sandstone: Sandstone has more grain, and it's more fragile than plastic, but it's also much cheaper to print!
HA you put them on the first post, when I was expecting them on the last page *me stoopid* Frosted details is soooo cool, so less post process than with Strong&Flexible (or sandstone in your case).
