So, I'm a Brony. Which means I'm not a 6 year old little girl, but I'm ridiculously in love with the new My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic cartoon. I have no shame Anywho, I'm making this out of Sculpey, and I wanted to get some input on the design. Here's the drawing: And here's the character I'm making: Her name is Derpy Hooves, and she's supposed to be wall-eyed. As you can see, it's very stylized, and the knee and ankle of the hind legs are very close to each other. The joint I figured would work best is basically a double knee joint, but with the top half reversed. One thing that I'm having trouble figuring out is the best way to attach the mane. I want to either make it out of brushed yarn or needle felted wool, but I'm not sure how to attach it. I'm already getting some interest in customizable blanks, so I need to figure out a way to attach the mane in a way that it's removable, and a way to make it look right without having to attach it to the neck. I'm assuming that it can't attach the same way as a wig on a human doll, since it's basically a mohawk? I've never seen a real BJD, so I actually don't know how the wigs work :/ And one more question. I'm making it out of Sculpey, and my idea for the armature/filler is paper pulp, I figured I could sculpt on top of the dried pulp, and once it's baked, I could soak it in water and dissolve all of the paper out of the inside. I was going to use foil, but I'm afraid that I might not be able to pull it all out, or take the sculpture apart without breaking it. Does that sound like it would work? I do have some floral foam, but I'm assuming that it can't go in the oven? Also, I don't have anything to cut the clay other than an exacto knife after I bake it, so I thought that I would sculpt it all in one piece, and make deep scores in the spots where I would cut before I bake it. I'll let you know how well that works Thank you
HAHA! Oh please make this real. I've not seen the show but I know of you bronys. Make a blueprint of the exact size of the pony, make a foil armature backed up with wire/something that will guarantee it stays upright, and sculpt the whole thing. Once you're done you can poke it out with a pencil or pull it out with tweezers. You only need a channel so make sure the clay is quite thick and the foil armature is thin. (Also because sculpey can collapse if it's too tightly strung) exacto should cut it fine but rummage through your family toolbox for a good ol' bone saw. Make the mane out of hair extensions and wefts. Gothic extention stores on eBay tend to do them in tons of colours. If you made a slot down the back of the neck you could make either tuck wefts in or long haired fur fabric (the Luxury stuff, only the best for ponies! ) The ends differ in width with the thickness of hair so you ought to make a 1-2mm gap for customs. Also, back legs should just have knee joint. Ankle joint is just so close it wouldn't even matter. *Invades project* :XD
I fleshed out the schematics more. The green is the hollow/armature, and the black lines are how I imagine it would be strung. I'm actually having a hard time imagining the best way to string a quad doll, I can't find ANY information on how others have done it, so I would be very grateful for some feed back on that. Also, I'm making it bigger. Not exactly sure how much yet, but it will be closer to 8, maybe 10 inches tall. I''m already getting some naysayers (or neighsayers, haha) stating that they don't think the head will stay up or that the back leg won't work. I think the head will be fine as long as it's not too heavy and it's strung right. Yes but I really, really want both the knee and ankle joint to be able to move. One of the things about the cartoon that I love is that they have animators that actually understand how animal anatomy works, and the walk cycles are an animation nerd's dream come true. Not only that, but I'm really big into anatomy and biomechanics. I would love to have a fully articulated horse doll one of these days. If I absolutely cannot get the ankle joint to work, then I'll fuse it. I'll be damned if I don't try Same with the neck, I don't want it to only be articulated at the head, but if I can't get it to stand up, I'll fuse it at the bottom.
I like the idea of a my little pony bjd since I love the toys growing up. I am interested to see how this pans out. I also have a quad doll in the works, but he is only in sculpting stage right now. I have some ideas of how to string him but they are just ideas at this point. I am thinking the head to the front hoof would be one string. The back legs on their own. The body with the tail? I haven't tried it yet since I haven't gotten to far. You can also look up bjd centaurs for some ideas for your pony.
I'll draw you a diagram tomorrow on how a quad pony will work. The tail doesn't need to be strung or anything, does it? If it's all long silky wefts it'll be a small hole for a magnetic tail holder to switch tails for braiding or different colours... Also, the balance would probably be best if the head leaned back slightly and the rump is completely solid apart from a hole & cup straight through the middle for the hip joint... The diagram will show how it'll be more evenly balanced. Oww. I hope this works
Thank you, that would be very helpful. No. I didn't mean to make the drawing look that way. I'm not sure how I will attach the tail yet. Yeah I was going to angle the head back a bit. I didn't think about weighing down the back end though... good idea. I'm thinking I'm going to make her 6 inches tall like I originally planned to. I know Sculpey can be heavy anyway, and it sounds like this will be a lot easier to get right if it's a bit smaller.
Interesting project, and I'm a fan of MLP:FIM too. It might be helpful to take a look at Daisy Dayes' centaur doll http://www.jpopdolls.net/store/product.php?productid=2448&cat=266&page=1 or other centaur dolls, if you haven't already. For the mane... my little idea would be to sculpt an indent where the hair would attach. Then put a strip of velco in, and attach velcro to the mane piece (hair wefts or whatever you decide on).
I've made quad dolls before. Generally, my dolls have had a moveable tail, so I'd string the head to the tail and the legs separately like how the arms are strung on human bjds. If you aren't going to have a moveable tail, then i'd suggest stringing the head to the back legs, and the front legs separate.
Diagram is here. What an eyesore The elastic from the head NEEDS a tounge-like thing on the back (yellow) so that it doesn't get pulled forward in a looking-down position forever. In theory the pony should be well balanced.. The feet are strung the same way as arms but that makes things tricky because you have to invent locks to make sure she doesn't fold up when you stand her. The Fennec Fox on here has the same problem currently. Sculpey seems like a bad material for this though. Especially for ooak.. Over time it bends when strung with elastic and it crumbles.
That's clever. I get how the tongue itself works, but I'm not sure I understand how and what it attaches to. Hmm, I think I know what you mean. I'll have to look for some photos to see how they work. Ugh... yeah I've been thinking about it, and I'm going to switch to air dry clay. I only have one pack of LaDoll, so I'll use that and use DAS for the thick parts like the torso. That being said, could I get away with using a hybrid of mine and your designs, as in the neck still being long and a little straighter? I just don't see the head really being all that heavy if I make the cavity as large as I have it shown. I really don't want to go off model more than I have to. Especially if I end up casting and selling these. Bronies are first and foremost nerds, and I'm afraid that if it looks too different, no one will want one ( you should see the stink over one of the toys being pink instead of white like she is in the show). Anyway, thank you so much for all of your help and input, I'm sorry if I seem difficult. The mechanics of this fascinate me, and I'm trying to find a good balance between form and function.
I'm working on a dragon right now, which I dont really want to post progress of, because for some reason if I post progress here, I lose interest in the project haha. Anyway, It has along neck and I was worried about the looking down problem, but I'll show you what I did for the neck. First a pic of the dragon so the drawing isn't so confusing! Here's the drawing. the neck style makes it slightly mrore difficult to string, but if you use something flexible to lead the elastic through, its not too difficult Sorry if its confusing. Let me know if you don't understand.
Derpy Hooves!!! Ahahaha this is fantastic, I love FiM and can't wait to see your work on this project! I have a set of the main ponies but really feel they should have done a better job with their merch.. the plastic is two different materials for the head and body, they're so small, they only have cutie marks on one side, the hairstyles.. I COULD GO ON. So yeah, a fully jointed customizable pony form is awesome and would definitely be popular. I was also gonna say the two hind leg joints might not be necessary/be more of a hinderance than effective, but I totally understand about wanting accuracy.. Nothing wrong with at least trying it out. & I'd probably make the joints attached to each leg piece rather than a double joint, but don't listen to me if you have a good idea how that would work. Agree with jphobia about the rump piece being solid to add weight. About the 'tongue piece'..maybe the clay just needs to be thick enough there to bring it down to an equal level with the body hook (so it doesn't force the neck forward all the time)? idk, I used reverse neck joint on my fox (like clarinetplayer) and just had to make sure the neck stringing channel ended far enough down the torso to avoid the same problem .. omg i'm sorry if this doesn't make any sense. jphobia: Actually that's not quite the problem with the fennec. He had locks too but because the body is so heavy and the legs are so thin and with such a curve to them the elastic wasn't strong enough and the heels would pop off easily.. I'm not sure how much of this has to do with the weight of the sculpey vs resin. If a stronger elastic could be used it would have been fine.. but I've had to revise the joint altogether instead. Derpy's legs are a lot thicker and the hind legs are so much straighter they shouldn't have the same problem. They might not even needs locks to stay put, depending on how straight the stringing channels can be cut, but it's hard to say. Depends on the right balance between small enough stringing channels to keep the legs heavy enough but large enough to use strong elastic. oh also seconding the neck slot idea for the mane.. thats how all my childhood horses were made so xP
Haha, all this talk of ponies.. I started watching the show and I fell straight in love with it. Reminds me of when they used to make those good cartoon network shows like Dexters Lab or Power Puff girls. I also want to make a unicorn...But that would be rude! Mebe a Manticore will suffice :3 (Another one on the list!) Crow: Sorry for the mistake! There are so few quad dollies and that's one of my favs so it came to mind ^^; Spiral: Makeitmakeit!
It's pretty funny that you mention those two shows, Jphobia, because you know who created them? Craig McCracken. You know who he's married to? <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0269260/">Lauren Faust.</a> Bam! Who needs seven degrees? SpiralHorn, have you seen these <a href="http://kp-shadowsquirrel.deviantart.com/gallery/24487513#/d4843gh">models on dA?</a> I've linked to Celestia, because dammit Hasbro, she's obviously white. And looks like this. You can get the obj files, if you were interested in poking at them in 3D.
Thanks for the info Wulfae. It makes a lot of sense. Damn, I was looking at the MLP Hasbro toys and they're so shitty. From the vintage ones all the way up to the present they're just appalling toys. I wonder if there's a way I could contact them and work for them XD ... And also, I have no idea if you're making it anymore but the eyes are going to be bloody 18mm+ and glass is damn heavy. Might mess with balance.
A Bjd of MLP most beloved fan character! I've been planning a Sapphire Shores one for a little bit now maybe I'll start mine soon too. Good luck! I'll be cheering~
