This journal is about Ludella, my BJD which has used 3D printing for protyping. She's 50cm tall and has 18 points of articulation. I sculpted her from scratch in Blender i.e she started life as a cube:-). I then developed a very simple female mesh which I made sure I kept in "the 8 heads high" convention - I know I would distort to a degree but wanted a firm base to start off from. I chopped her up and and started plan articulation and detailed sculpting (that sentence does not even begin to describe this process..oh my goodness:-)). Pretty much I had no idea what I was doing because I don't own a doll myself. I bought some books and started to study and play. For my job, I do quite a lot of mechanical design and 3D modelling which I think gave me an advantage. As I give away some models for free, I thought I would build a fairy that people could download and print. However, to make a complex model accessible to most people and to be printable on even the most poorly calibrated machine, I knew from experience would have to make many design compromises and I decided I didn't want to(like the plastic pants/bra and hair and lovely flat feet?:-)). Although here is a quick picture of one of the prototypes with wings: You can also see the pins where I was playing around with springs as well I was going to make her as I liked and cast her. There was too much of my blood, sweat and tears to give her away as free files. To be continued... as there are only 3 pictures per post:.
After much work, I reached a point where I am happy with her proportions and joints. Here is a picture of her in digital space: Although a long legged beastie, I've still kept her within human proportions. Here she is, printed in blue (surface not finished in any way) with a viscose wig I made and some eyes which I modeled in Blender and then cast (I am happy to write about the eye and wig adventures if anyone would like me to). I am going to start junk casting in the next few days. I've been very impressed with the work I've seen in other journals here and look forward to sharing my experiences with you all.
This is a really cool doll! I like the shape of joints a lot, this is how I would like to design them too, but I don't know how to do it yet :P How did you make this curvy cut (around the knee and the elbow joints)? Is it hard to do in Blender? Also may I ask you what kind of plastic is this mysterious blue lady printed with? I am just playing in Sculptris right now, did not get anywhere close to the "cutting stage" yet, so it is really exciting to see someone else's progress with similar project. Good luck with casting!
Thank you for your kind words and feedback. Ludella is definitely a labor of love and I still have the feeling I've only just started:p To answer your questions: Ludella was printed in PLA. This particular filament was made by a company called Filamelt and the color is Sky Blue. Even though I am resurfacing but coating with clear resin and then sanding before the preliminary casts (I'll post about that later on), I wanted to ensure I would still have a reasonable surface so everything was printed with a .1 layer height except for her thighs and calves which were printed using .15 and .2 layers heights respectively (mainly because I was running low on this filament color and I wanted the parts to match for pictures). Blender is not easy to use, but then no comprehensive 3D modelling software is. The advantage with Blender is that it is free and tutorials abound. I have looked at Sculptris, but as it's basically "taster" software for ZBrush, it lacked the functionality I wanted - i'd also invested a lot of brain time in learning Maya and Blender so I didn't persevere (Blender does do dynamic sculpting very well, in case you were wondering). My method would be to build your sculpt with most of the detail in place and then determine where you want to place the joints and cuts. How you place cuts is going depend on your model as you want the lines to flow as much as possible. Blender has a grease pencil tool which allows you to cut a model along drawn lines which for a "sculpted" model i.e one with a lot of geometry would probably be your best bet. To be honest though, there are many,many ways to achieve the results you want and you'd need to experiment with the software to find what works best for you. This answer could end up being pages long,so I shall stop now Good luck with your doll.
Thank you for such detailed reply! I will definitely try Blender grease pencil/grease cutter, it seems to be a really useful tool. Prusa does not use support material, or does it? Just curious whether you printed individual parts in one piece or segments. Sorry if I'm asking too many questions
All printers can use support material of some kind(either special dedicated material or using the material you are printing your model with), depending on what type of printer it is and (most importantly) whether your model requires it or not. The following description is going to be fairly basic, so I don't end up rambling I'll stop showing off now:p). You can either build supports into the model itself which can be the best option if you know exactly where you want them to go and can minimize post print clean up (but can cause problems if you ever want to scale the model when printing) or you can tell the slicing program (the software that turns your obj or stl file into gcode instructions for your printer) that you want it to generate supports for all parts of your model with overhangs of $angle. If your slicer is correctly configured, these supports can be easy to detach and leave minimal marking. Obviously, there is more to it than that, but you get the general idea. As a rule of thumb, for printers like the Prusa i3, unless you are very clever with your modelling, overhangs of 45 degrees are going to need supports. Human BJDs do not lend themselves to support free printing without some serious design compromise. This is one of the reasons that I decided not to do a "public" version of Ludella. In order to make it printable for most people (and most people do not have their printers well calibrated), I would have to really change how she looked. Whereas before, I was happy to be devious and use modelling techniques for the sake of support free design, I didn't want to do this with Ludella. I wanted to cast her as a resin doll and thus my skill as a support free model maker would become irrelevant with the end product - beauty beat brains here (sort of). However, supports don't solve everything and here are some pictures to illustrate. Here is Ludella's chest piece: It would be impossible to print this without supports. Not only does the bust area not even touch the bed, but even the slightly flat area that I put in to ensure some adhesion (working with rafts alone can be tricksy although possible), still needed extra help. Here is a pictorial expression of the gcode I used for this model: I factored in extra support generation and a generous brim to ensure it stayed on the bed. Even then, I plan to alter the sharp edges during junk casting through manual sculpting and sanding to get the smooth "clay made" effect I want. I guess if I went though a company who has printers which are worth tens (or even hundreds) of thousands of $$$ then this issue might be reduced, but you know what? I love printing at home, I get my models when I want them, in as many iterations as I want. It also means I am not afraid of experimentation. I guess it costs me more in time, but I don't mind that. People usually split models up because the print area of the printer may not be able to accommodate their model or possibly they would rather deal with getting rid of a seam during junk casting rather than do extra form sculpting. I don't know, ways of working are as varied as the people themselves. Anyone who thinks 3D printing is the easy way to make a doll or "cheating" is woefully misinformed. Please feel free to ask questions. As you can tell, I enjoy talking about the subject:-)
I never tried printing anything with support, I always assumed it would be too hard to remove, but it is obviously worth trying. Thank you for sharing! I was looking at your Thingiverse models earlier and then Prusa site (trying to figure out if it used different material for supports) and the dragon did look rather similar. Now I know why!
Preparing for the junk cast for her head. I've not done this before, so definitely an experiment. I took the 3D printed model and coated it with XTC-3D (although this is rather expensive and I should think for this purpuse any clear resin would do). I have then sanded it, to get it as smooth as possible. I have attached some before and after shots. You can see pieces in the background which have been coated but not sanded. Mold making tonight:-) Wish me luck.
Fresh from the mold and of course, much refinement and clean up to be done. Still, first cast of her head! YAY! Will up date with mold pictures tomorrow. So happy! My two part mold worked. No bubbles either (at least not from my examination so far:-) Oh excuse the yucky resin colour. I'm using the cheap stuff for the initial molding tests because I am such a noob. Surface imperfections picked up from smoothed 3D print.
Oh, wow! Great result! She has a very interesting face I admire people, who can 3D-model dolls I've never tried, but something tells me it's haaaard. How much time did it take you to design her?
Thank you very much for the feedback - it's most encouraging. I have sculpted with clay(although it has been a while) and I sculpt using digital technology. I would say they are as challenging as each other for different reasons (focusing on the requirements of doll making): With 3D modelling, I've played with a lot of software and would say the following have what takes to make a doll from start to finish: 1) Blender 2) Maya (although I've never used the sculpt function and have generally ported the model to Mudbox and there is a bridge between the two pieces of software) 3) 3DS Max 4) ZBrush All except Blender are very expensive(Blender is free. Yay!) and all have a very complex user interface. I don't believe this is done on purpose, it's just the application has an awful lot of functionality. There are simple programs like TinkerCAD, but I doubt you'd be able to build a functioning BJD with them (I could be wrong). The advantages with 3D modelling are that you can easily save iterations of your work, you can work in detail way beyond what the human eye is capable of (even enhanced),also because you can "undo" any changes easily, I think it encourages experimentation and certainly, some of the new joint technology with floating caps etc.. would be very hard to plan and design just using clay. I think the argument that the symmetry/mirror functions are "cheating" is bogus. If you lack the determination to be a good designer and haven't studied human anatomy and the mechanics of joints, then your doll won't be pleasing to look upon or work well regardless of what medium you used to design it. The only difference with using 3D modelling is that these problems will be mirrored on both sides of your doll. Conversely, If you produce awesome dolls with clay, then you'll do the same with 3D technology. Personally, I only used the mirror for very basic joint function, but for sculpting I'm doing everything by hand. I want her to look more alive and if she has perfect symmetry then she won't. And now we get to the point where I would seriously consider doing my next doll completely old school or at least part of her anyway:-). I want Ludella to look like she was sculpted in my hands, to have those imperfections. Doing that using a tablet and working with a 2D screen is really hard - it also involves scary amount of geometry. So often I just wanted to reach into my monitor and grab a piece to work on and I can't. I suspect if this project hadn't started out as something I was going to put up for free download, then I would probably started with traditional methods. I don't know. Certainly, if I didn't have a well equipped home for 3D work, then definitely. Using Shapeways just doesn't appeal to me, but I can fully understand how it is a useful option for some. Ludella has probably taken me close to a year to do so far. Partly because I changed the objective of the work part way through and partly because I don't own a doll and had to learn through books. I've really fallen in love with doll making though. Sorry for the essay:-)
ANYWAY - I have been doing some work on Ludella. In fact, I redesigned most of her body - she poses much better and has more of a shape:-) Please see pictures. anything not blue is new - I know the colours are an eyesore but this is for test (Ludella hates them too:-P). Her head is in fact a resin one I cast, but that's not a proper face up, I just added a little definition with some pastels (although looking at it - I may be tempted to actually do an undead Ludella with a nice lacy Victorian shroud:-)) Her eyes are resin cast too - painted with nail polish and using 2mm diameter black beads for pupils - clear resin used to create the "lens". Opinions most welcome
Wow, the drama is rather spectacular. Sorry your work was used in such disrespectful manner... There's definitely an overlap with recasting, but I think the 3d printing of publicly shared models for profit is going to become a much bigger issue, simply because the community is much larger and growing fast. I kinda like to see the doll in all different colors, gives the whole project an engineering feeling The shoulders seem wider than hips on the pictures, I think you could make either hips and butt a little bigger, or the shoulders narrower for a more feminine look. The posing is very nice Completely unrelated question: what kind of quadcopter is sitting in the corner there?
Thanks - exactly the type of feedback I'm looking for. I've included two shots before/left (as Ludella is now) and after/right which has her shoulders narrowed and her hips widened. I think your recommendations works well but would you suggest further tweaking? Obviously, I would put a much better curve on her hips - this is just messing around in PS. Edit: I'm even trying her out with longer legs now (hence 3 examples) - although I wouldn't go much longer because it'll affect some posing as she doesn't have thigh joints. Also added curve to the outside of her thighs to add more of a feminine look. last edit I swear:XD Seriously, I am all for absolute honesty and I've a very thick skin. LOL Feel free to "draw" on my photo's and upload if you wish:-) before_after_and_after_reduced_v2 by Louise Driggers, on Flickr Yeah -re: the drama. I'm very used to people stealing my work but the reaction from those guys was a whole new level of special. Oh - the quadcopter is one of my frame designs - my husband and I run a little side business. He does the electronics I do the the canopies and frames - PM if you like talking about flying stuff xx PS: Got the BB code figured out - for an engineer I am sometimes really dumb:-P
I think you could also shorten the torso a little and add a little more volume to lower leg and forearm (at the widest part, just below the elbow joint and below the knee). If you shorten the torso too much, the limbs will look unnaturally long, but everyone's taste is different, some peopIe like dolls with exaggerated long and slim limbs like Doll Chateau. (I have a Doll Chateau Zora, I really like her spidery limbs with extra joints )
She so interesting, to be honest I'd really like to own her. Her shape looks so much better after adding a little bit of hip. The only thing I'd say is perhaps making the calves a little longer, but in pants they may look just fine :^)
thank you so much for all the feedback and I have taken the comments on board. Please see this screenshot of a revised Ludella: ludeella_revamped_arms_at_rest by Louise Driggers, on Flickr ludeella_revamped by Louise Driggers, on Flickr I have made the following changes: 1) Narrowed her chest piece and reduced the angle of her shoulders (modified upper arms) to narrow her shoulders and give them a more feminine sloping look. 2) Shortened her torso. Reduced the width of her rib cage and widened her hips. Again to balance out with her shoulders and to achieve a feminine hourglass shape. 3) Lengthened her legs (mainly the calves) and added more shape to them overall. 4) Widened the tops of her forearms - possibly may need to do more work here. 5) Reshaped her knees to fit in with the other changes to her legs. I decided I would show digital images before diving in to print her again as this will take many days to complete. Feedback actively encouraged and thank you for all the help so far
I would narrow shoulders even further, but I may just like dolls with super narrow shoulders and cartoony proportions in general... I think the hip area looks more natural now. I noticed that the upper arm looks shorter than the forearm on the Blender model, but on the print it actually looks almost the same length, so I guess it must be just the angle on the Blender model.
Dear Anna - thank you so much for your feedback and yes my doll looks much better for the recommended changes:-) Doing a big print now. I think this does highlight the whole challenge of modelling 3D in 2D - what can seem quite pronounced on screen looks quite muted IRL. Plus, with dolls, people are of course, very aware of what a doll or a human should look like. The standard is much harder to reach.
I have followed people's advice and remodeled her body (again:-)). ludella_redone_standing by Louise Driggers, on Flickr ludella_redone_sitting by Louise Driggers, on Flickr ludella_redone_sittin2 by Louise Driggers, on Flickr ludella_redo_sitting3 by Louise Driggers, on Flickr ludella_lying down by Louise Driggers, on Flickr I actually enjoy playing with her now as opposed to just having the challenge of making her. I now can't wait to cast her, paint her etc.. As usual, frank feedback is welcome:-)
Niiiiiice! I love how sleek she is. Her range of motion is also really impressive. The shape of her body parts individually are lovely and the whole together is very graceful. If I were to nitpick to my personal aesthetic I would make her calves a shade longer (or maybe it's just the length of the knees that makes them feel short?) and push her thighs back a little farther toward her butt in her hip sockets (they look a little off in the last photo). Again, that's my imagining she was for me and what I would want personally. She remains marvelous, regardless.
I have very little to contribute aside from "OMG this is so cool!"... I get overly excited when I see someone successfully printing something complicated at home... I really like how her body shape came out, the hip and waist look very nice. I agree with Glyndon, the way the knee joint is designed makes the calf look a little too short. I think the double jointed knees are generally very hard to make look natural (unfortunately for the doll makers the nature did not design the knees as two joined spheres....) And in my opinion her knees look better than some other dolls I have seen, there is no weird pointy overhanging parts or gaping in the joint. I would also set the hip and rib (waist?) joints a little deeper and maybe make the hip joint bigger, but it is hard to say if it would look more natural or not without actually seeing her in person...
As usual the advice here was spot on, so many thanks. To correct the problem with her legs, I shortened the thighs and lengthened the calves. This has the effect of pushing her knees further up her legs. I did experiment with shorter knees but it does impact how well her legs pose, (at least the way the rest of her is built to work with her knees - if you see what I mean) so I went back to the old ones. I have also set her hip/thigh joints further back into her body as recommended. This has the double advantage of increasing her stability (although she did stand pretty well anyway) and because her bottom is more rounded and is a more defined socket, her her legs don't look as though they are about to pop out. The reason her calves are a different colour is because I ran out of the flesh coloured filament:XD. Also, if you notice a small line by her bottom, it's because I had a print fail right near the end and had to print and stick on the missing piece. Which isn't stuck on neatly because I managed to spill a whole bottle of super glue over myself Anyway, on to the pic spam. I am not one of those people who sees inanimate objects as alive, but she is developing a personality of sorts. as you can see, she's quite a show off. Wonder where she gets that from...:p ludella_new_body_thighs_calves by Louise Driggers, on Flickr ludella_new_body_thighs_calves2 by Louise Driggers, on Flickr ludella_new_body_thighs_calves3 by Louise Driggers, on Flickr ludella_new_body_thighs_calves4 by Louise Driggers, on Flickr ludella_new_body_thighs_calves5 by Louise Driggers, on Flickr ludella_new_body_thighs_calves6 by Louise Driggers, on Flickr ludella_new_body_thighs_calves8 by Louise Driggers, on Flickr
Thank you - that is so kind and you weren't being nitpicky at all. I certainly take feedback from this forum seriously. I am a designer and not a doll owner, so it's tremendously helpful to have a perspective from folk who are both collectors and artists. This forum rocks - I just wish more people were active on it, but doll making is a difficult and arduous process as we all know. Ludella will be the doll I always wanted as a child but never existed, so eventually, she'll be a wizard, an alchemist, an engineer, a maker (I plan on designing computerized accessories for her), all manner of things for her to do. She's about 48cm tall, which I have since learned is an unusual height, but for me it's not too big and not too small. I've cast her head and plan to start work on making molds for the rest of her in a couple of weeks.
