PulkiDoll

Haha, thanks everyone ^_^. I am happy with how the elbow turned out. I can't wait to printing the fixed inner parts so I am make sure it works perfectly.

I haven't made much progress on the knee.. I was hoping to be done by now but I always get distracted and with 3D it is even easier just to keep fiddling around not actually accomplishing anything. I always think something won't take long, but it seems that something that I think should take an hour ends up taking 10.

Anyway, I have been procrastinating jointing by working on faces. I am trying to make them more realistic by using more references. I am also turning off symmetry much sooner than I used to - pretty much right after I roughed out the shape, and then just trying to keep symmetry as I go. I think the result is better than working with symmetry the whole time and changing it at the end.

Here is my first face. I was using Cintia Dicker as my main reference, though now I think she looks more like Jennifer Lawrence from the side. The render does not have the freckleyness I desire.. Really freckley dolls have been some of the best I've seen so I'd really like to do one.

For comparison, here is Thaleia. She looks very fairy-like compared to my newer face. After working on my newer one for hours she looks weird to me. I hate how much my perception changes based on what I am working on...


Here is the second. Yaya DaCosta was my main reference. I can't really get her right though - I keep spending hours working on it and then going back to what I had before. This is after some changes that I will probably undo. She also needs better hair - I want her to have hair like this picture. I kind of have a thing for fros and tight curls so I will probably make a few black dolls with the intention of having natural hair. I probably shouldn't have done the bright lips but I was trying to match the picture..



Without the bright lips:


I have larger versions of the pictures here:
http://imgur.com/a/sTEcR

 

I think I figured out what is bugging me about the second face and how to fix it.. but I need to stop working on that and finish up this knee so I am resisting messing with it.

I made a bit or progress - it is still rough. The previous screenshot looked smoother since I didn't add depth yet.. The hard cut line will be smoothed a bit and hopefully I can get the knee cap looking good and working - that will be the only hard part, the main joint is fairly standard.

So my idea is to have a floating, 2-part knee cap. I realized the biggest thing preventing it from looking smooth when bent was the bulge for the knee when standing. But, I didn't want her not to have a knee when standing, so I decided to make it a separate part (it is kind of thrown on there for now).


Now, when it bends, the top part of the knee will bend and make the knee cap look like the way a knee protrudes when bending, and keep the line smooth. Knees have that 2 part look so I am hoping with the right cut and pivot it looks natural. It looks kind of low currently, I can probably fix it a bit, but it makes my life easier to have the whole knee part move with the calf (I think.. I'll have to play with it a bit).


As the calf moves the knee will pull into the calf part.


Then this inner part will move out. I tried a ton of different ways to make this bend and I think this is the smoothest (it is rough right now). It also conveniently fills in the gap that I needed to cut in the back of the leg. Since this pivot point would have to be too close the the back of the leg, it is going to use locks to hold it in place. I should be able to make a good lock on the inside, since the top of the part can have a good shelf to it and the tension will push it nicely into the locks.


This is showing what I mean about the knee getting in the way if I don't make it a separate part (it doesn't look any better attached to the thigh or split between the two):

Now, I could just make the knee part smooth around the knee, but that messes with the sphere shape at the top of the calf (it would need to be much bigger and then wouldn't fit nicely when straight) and it still just doesn't look natural at all when bent. So, I think the extra parts are worth it, if I can get it working well.

Now I really want to go and redo the shoulder to make it shouldery, but since I could easily just spend the next few years redoing joints over and over, I am going to let it go for now. I also want to make a waist joint (I've been playing around with it and it would give some good movement) but that is another thing I am not going to do until much later.

 

Thank you . The old ones have a smoother face, the face itself is larger compared to the head, with bigger eyes and a smaller nose. Kind of animeish.. I think - it is hard for me to judge, it may just be that this new face is the weird one and they just look weird to me in comparison. I just posted on the critique section about it.

I've been working on the face some more even (huh.. I think I just spent 12 hours straight on it..) though I promised myself I would focus on the knee.

Here is my favorite render of her (I messed up her eyelashes a bit):

And a few more:




Are these images too big? I have a pretty big monitor..

More views here, along with comparisons with Thaleia and Oriana (I think they are at the bottom):
http://imgur.com/a/jFHUA

I think I want to do Lupita Nyong'o next. I already have a face that will be a good starting point. Is it ethical to model doll faces after real people? I've always liked the challenge of trying to replicate something perfectly (not that I can) and I enjoy the process more than just trying to wing it.

 

The ankle is almost done! I still haven't finished the knee.. when I work on a part for awhile I get kind of bored and it is hard for me to focus on it, so I decided to do the ankle, then finish the knee.

I was debating on if it is work having the ankle move side to side. If it doesn't, then I don't need the separate ankle part so it look better, but I want her to be able to stand with her feet flat on the ground even if her legs are out to the side.

I still have to smooth out the hard edges. The cut will be less drastic. I am also going to smooth out the bone protrusions on the side a bit more.







The up and down motion is just the foot moving, while the left and right is the ankle part.

 

Thanks! The toes aren't too long, are they? I use myself for reference for the hands and feet, but I have tiny size 5 feet and short toes, so I knew I needed to compensate for that, but I am not sure if I went too far.

I really hope this actually works. The ankle bones gave me a good amount of surface area on the inside so I think it will hold well. This is how I have the ankle working on the inside:

I do worry about the holder part breaking.. but I think it should be thick enough on the side. I was sad because the bottom of the ankle had a lot of really good surface contact area, but I had to cut a big part of that for the holder to work. But, since the elastic isn't actually bending for that movement, and the elastic holder also has friction inside the ankle part, I think it will hold pretty well. I hate s-hooks so I try to avoid them, but I worry that I am not thinking of something and that this won't work well.

I also am unsure about the exact elastic size, since the diameter changes when it is stretched and I want the elastic to fit perfectly. I have it right now a little under 4mm (3.6 I think I did).

I think the ankle is finished now. I smoothed out the sides, but I didn't round the edges because the way I cut it would have made it a pain. I am better off just sanding the hard edges down a bit.


Since I wanted to make a thigh rotation part, I had to make some part of the top of the thigh a perfect circle. I already had the hip mostly done from a year ago, but when I changed the thigh I had to adjust where the parts went together more than I thought I would. I really didn't want to redo this joint, but now that I will need to make new cuts, I decided to take this opportunity to work on the whole area and just do it over, since it was bugging me anyway (hopefully it shouldn't take too long now that I have a guide from my old work.. though I did spend weeks getting the butt part lined up properly).

Here is the old version (which I fixed a bit after jointing before, but I had to start with the unjointed version again). I had to thicken the thighs out to the side, since that is where rotation joint will be. I like it better anyway, but the may be a bit too wide now. I think the thigh crease is too narrow or deep but I am having trouble working with the geometry in that area.


I am also going to fix the chest joint a bit. I don't want to modify the joints themselves, but I messed up the back by shortening it after jointing, and I want to give her some subtle shoulder blades. I also want to fix the shoulder holes and make the cut a bit curvier.

So much to do! I can't believe it is already Friday. I got Run Away by Real McCoy stuck in my head randomly the other day, then spent hours on a 90's eurodance binge... I really wanted to finish by the end of this weekend. I still have hope.

 

Thanks!

I need opinions! I am horrible at making decisions, especially choosing between two options.

Since I was redoing the torso, I decided to just redo the chest because that joint only takes me a few hours. But, I was thinking (and wanted to be lazy), and if I just use a sphere then I can get a much better range of motion, and a more stable joint. But, some poses looked much better before.

You can see the old one looks much better bending forwards and backwards:


Both can go to the side pretty well:


The difference is the new one can twist (the old one overlaps):


The new one can rotate all around pretty nicely:


Is the new one worth the awkwardness of the front and back bend?

 

Yes, the new one is on the left. It has that harder curve because I made the sphere to just fit in the widest part, so in that direction I am only getting the top of the sphere. I am not really willing to change the top of her torso to a perfect sphere shape, so there isn't too much I can do but smooth out the edge a bit. Though, the more I smooth the edge the less smooth it will look standing, and the more gaping there will be. I'll see how much I can smooth it out without affecting the shape too much.

Edit:
This is about as much as I'd be willing to smooth the edge I think. I just did this all quickly so the edges aren't exactly where they would be - right now the tip of the edge of the chest would be too thin so I'd have to either scale up the bottom a bit, or just relax that hard edge up.



Gaps in the new one:


I'd want to fix the edge of the old one to make it look a little nicer if I was to stick with that. I think I am leaning towards the new one because I really like the twisting movement - I think it is much more expressive. I just have to convince myself it is okay if not all movement is a clean line...

 

So this hasn't been a very productive week since my migraines have been acting up, but I just finished redoing the head and faceplate joint, and have two faces that I am about to print. I am not sure what to name them...
This is the face I have been working on:

And a new face:


I finished redoing the chest, but that was pretty easy. I also simplified the thing that holds the arms - it was way over-complicated.

I almost have the hip joint done. Before I had the butt-plate thing locking into place between the hip and the thigh, but since that was annoying and would limit the movement, I figured out that I could (hopefully) use a rubber band or small piece of elastic to keep it up and against the back of the leg, since that is where it should be anyway. I also have it so its pivot point moves along a straight line within the thigh for the whole range of motion, so I can anchor it in place to better control the movement.

Here is what it looks like standing and sitting (it is still a bit rough):


It isn't perfect. Since I made the thigh thicker to make the rotation joint, it cuts into more of the crotch area. I am going to try to make it look a bit better, but I am not sure how much more I can do. My goal was to not have that double butt effect that most (if not all) dolls have. I hope the smoother lines overall make up for the harsh cut lines. It should also be very stable, since the hip holds most of the sphere for the thigh, and should have a realistic range of motion without any locks or stopper.

I also think I figured out how to make my life easier with the knee, but there isn't much to show yet, and I am almost done fixing the part of the elbow that wasn't working too well.

I really want to show a prototype at dollism! I have to finish up soon (probably next Friday by the latest)! Going crazy.

 

I made 2 more chest sizes (and slightly modified the old one) while procrastinating jointing!

I think I'll do a smaller one at some point too. Not sure if I want to do a larger one.. this one is already pretty big.
I'm going to try to finish the knee today. So sick of jointing.. but I need to get it done.

Sitting in front of my computer working on this all day makes me so hungry. I think I've gained 10lbs this summer and now I can't stop eating these cookies that my stupid boyfriend got a big box of. And they sent us the wrong cookie, so they let us keep them and now we have so many cookies and all of my friends have moved so we must eat them all ourselves. They are really good cookies.. My life is really hard. Anyway, I can't wait to be done. I am somehow actually looking forward to sanding..

 

Thanks!

At this point I am just going to print it all and hope it works.. not very smart but I want to display her at Dollism so I don't have time to do multiple tests. I am pretty good at visualizing how all the physics will work, but you can never be sure.

Hmm.. they might be too full. Since my eyes adjust to what I am looking at, I tend to make the same mistakes. Both models I was referencing for these faces have pretty full lips though. I'll look out for that. When I sand down the printlines it will bring down the edge a tiny bit too, so I do try to keep that in mind, but it shouldn't be too much of a difference.

I did fix her lips a bit.. though now it looks like she is smiling and I don't even remember pulling the edge of the lip up...


I am so not confident in my face making abilities. I think I am getting better but I still don't trust what I am seeing.

And I am going with the spherical chest joint. It makes it easier to joint to chest as well.

 

Aww, thank you ^_^.

This is kind of off topic.. but I created a simple algorithm to change the color of an image relative to its original color using HTML5. I also added a shadow mask. Now I can have a color picker to visualize my dolls for my future website! It is rough now, but I think with the right lighting for my render it could look really good.

Here is my test. Just mousedown over the colors to change it.
http://pulkidoll.com/colorize/

 

Knee almost done. Everything is taking me way too long because I keep getting horribly distracted. It is hard for me to focus on just one task for so long - I get bored. I desperately want to code my website but I know I need to finish her first. Almost done though. I am going to try to work pretty much nonstop for the next few days so I can print her on time for dollism. I have to finish by the end of the week!

Here is the knee. It bends to 150 degrees. Still needs some refining, I should be able to make everything a bit smother and the knee cap more knee like, but I should be able to finish by the end of the day. I tried to make it so the knee cap looks like it protrudes a bit around 20-30 degrees. I don't like the way the back looks, but I am not sure what I can do to improve that. And, that gap won't actually be there in the 120ish degree bend..

 

Almost done the hip! Then I am pretty much done.. Must finish by Monday!!

I added the rotation joint to the top of the thigh. I hate how much I had to narrow her leg to accommodate the joints.. but I think (hope..) it is worth it. The rotation joint also allows a bit more bend. The special part is that the part that holds the thigh when it is bent is a separate part that can rotate too (it only rotates and I am using bumps to lock it, so it shouldn't move unintentionally). This lets you change the angle of the extra thigh bend. Then the thigh itself can rotate around that.

Here is it bent in (all bends are 30 degrees - it locks at 20, 30 and 40 - the cut for 10 didn't fit):

Rotating both the holder and the thigh so the thigh is up a bit and in (hopefully she can sit up straight with her legs crossed):

The thigh rotated:


I am also debating adding a waist/hip joint, which would let her do this (excuse the laying down pose - it was easy to search for images in that pose to compare):


Is the lower waist joint worth it? It would be easy to make (and make things easier to mold), but I don't know if the cut line bothers people.. it would only go forwards/backwards and side to side. I'd probably just make it a shelf joint since I don't think it would be used as much and I don't want it to be too noticeable in the normal position. I can never make decisions!

 

Yay! Thank you Almost done.. just have to make some cuts for the elastic in the hip and knee, then go over everything and make sure I didn't forget anything.

I would make the bends in the lower waist work against the tension and lock in place like I did my first doll, so it wouldn't be floppy. It wouldn't move at all unless you pulled it out a bit. But I agree, I don't like the cut either. I don't know of many dolls with that extra joint, and the ones I do do it differently than I would.. hmm.. I think I will just not do it and then make that another option. I'll probably make all the rotation parts options too, since I don't like the cuts and I had to change the shape to accommodate them, especially for the thigh (it's so narrow now ). But the movement for the arms would suck without them.

I would be done by know but I keep getting distracted since I just figured out what WebGL is capable of, and and and I could totally make an awesome 3D doll creator in javascript :dead!! I can't stop researching and planning for it! I could make it pretty similar in complexity to The Sim's CAS (which is totally crazy.. javascript..). It is super exciting because it has been my long term goal since I started, and hasn't been very realistic until recently. I think I am going to make a custom face designer too once I get a 3D printer. I thought it would be super confusing to do, but after a bit of research I am pretty sure I could code up a simple version up in a couple of days. Annnnd you can even use a 2D canvas as a texture so I could easily do custom faceups for the custom faces and make it all beautiful!! Omg I'm so excited, I want to start coding it now, but I know I am getting way ahead of myself.

Oh god, I shouldn't have coffee (especially at 1am ).. I rarely have any caffeine...

Updating instead of making a new post:
In case anyone is curious, this is how I am making which I so elegantly call the "butt plate" work:

The colors show me all the different positions the plate will be in. I try to get them in as good a position as I can and hope that they get somewhere close to where I intend them in reality.
So, I basically want the plate to slide up as far as it can so it presses against the bottom of the butt. To do this I am using 3 magnets. One will be inside that sphere that looks like a lollipop. The other two will be on the ends of the track. The bottom one will repel it and the top will attract. I don't want too much force, just enough to make the plate move up as you move the leg up, but not enough that it causes the leg to move unintentionally. I played around with some magnets to try to get an idea of how far apart they should be, but I may have to experiment with distances and magnet sizes (or I could calculate it all.. but blaaahh). I worry about it being too strong at the ends and too weak in the middle. I really hope it works.... I do have a backup plan if it doesn't.. but it wouldn't be as nice.

 

DONE! I spent about 48 hours almost nonstop from Sunday to yesterday to finally finish this up. My elbow is bruised from being push against my armrest for so long :P. I will almost definitely need to reprint some things after I get to play around with it, but I at least should have a full doll to display by Dollism.

Here are all the exploded parts (the hand and feet aren't here since I was going to print them in a better material, but I decided to use this material for them anyway just to display, since the other material is very expensive and not as strong and I didn't want to risk it getting damaged).


And here is what I sent to the shapeways:

If any side is more that 200mm it takes longer to make, and it just fit. I did have another 30cm in one direction, but you also get a density discount at 10% or more volume to box size, and I was at 10.04%.. so if the box was any bigger I would have had to pay twice as much.

What I spent most of that 48 hours doing was hollowing the parts. It is such a pain but it reduced the total volume to about 1/3 of the original, saving me a lot of money.

(Warning - boring technical stuff) The reason it is such a pain is because my parts use a lot of booleans (union/subtraction/intersection of 2 parts). Booleans can get sort of messy, especially for complex parts, since it may look fine, but the geometry will actually be off (for example, having 2 vertices occupy the same space). Now to hollow the parts, I shell them inwards a set amount. It just takes each vertex and pushes it in along its normal (which, as the name suggests, should be perpendicular to its tangent, though it doesn't have to be). In dense areas or where it is already too thin, it get ugly and overlaps. So, I take the inside geometry, and cut out bad areas. But now, if the parts is being weird from previous booleans, it may not cut and I have to find the problem. I think I spent 2 hours just to figure out that the waist part had one wonky vertex! Ugg.

Anyways, now we wait! Any by wait I mean now I have a billion other things to get ready. But since I will have some time to kill while waiting for things to cure, I think I am going to start modeling a face to use with a custom face maker. Then I am going to start coding it! Wee I am so excited. I think people would love to be able to create their own face and get it made, but even if they don't, I think it would just be an awesome web tech demo!

 

Thank you so much ^_^. Though I won't truly know how well engineered she is until I can see if she works in reality *fingers crossed*. It is hard for me not to over-complicate things.

I wish you were going too ! I'd love to meet people who's work I am familiar with. Dollism is such a blessing for me. I knew I would never finish my doll without something to give me a hard deadline. I would have kept modifying her forever.

I was already planning on making a video. I hate hate hate videotaping myself (I had to do it for my ASL class - it took me hours since recording myself makes me nervous), but I really want to walk through all of the joints so I will force myself to get over it.

 

I am going to see how casting her myself goes. I actually enjoy making molds for the most part. I'd love to not have to deal with casting, but I am not sure who I'd trust. Some of my parts will be very annoying to mold and I'd be worried that most companies would want to modify it to make molding easier. Some inner mold parts have to be pretty close to perfect or it will lock up. I am actually thinking of 3D printing some molds for the inner mold parts so that I am sure everything fits together perfectly. I also made the stringing channels very narrow so that the elastic bends exactly at the pivot points. I had to string the arm by using some thin string first, then using that to pull the elastic through. I have a feeling most companies wouldn't like that.. I also want to let people order any color they want. But, if I find it is too much for me to handle I'll probably look at dollshe first.

 

Yes, she has 51 parts, total... Molding is going to be super fun!! If I fill my preorder I think I am going to buy an extra pressure pot or two.
Here are some full body renders. I am going to get renders of her posing next. The images are huge so I am linking to the full size ones.



I feel like I am hogging the forum.. I'm sorry.. I'm just going a tiny bit crazy!! I'll try to stop posting obsessively.

 

I love all of you! You guys are so awesome.

So this week is being a little crazy. Shapeways is delayed with my part and taking a really long time to respond to my emails. So, all day I have been freaking out since they said my stuff won't get here by Friday. So, I contacted a local company today and the owner responded very quickly and they can print it by Friday. It costs me as much to print it as I will be selling it for, so if I get just 1 or 2 orders out of dollism it will be worth it. Since I can't post on DoA until she is in resin and I haven't really been marketing myself, I think having it at dollism will help me a lot. I am a crazy ball of emotion right now though and making decisions is hard!!!

 

Thanks As soon as shapeways ships the last few parts I'll take pictures of her in all the poses I can.

There are a few small things I have to change, mainly internal things with the knee and the hip, so that it works a lot better. I've been working on my website all week so I haven't gotten a chance to do that yet, but I don't think that should take me long (hopefully I'll get most of that does this weekend). I don't have either butt plate yet so I still am not sure that that works, but I am optimistic. I also forgot to cut some material off of the hip cover so when it is in the main standing position it doesn't go up.. I think that is a super easy fix but if it isn't I'll just have to have it so that it is always in the torso a bit instead of being perfectly aligned when in the standing position.

I have a pretty doll designer up http://pulkidoll.com/ . I really hope this order period goes well so I can do more awesome things in the future. When I have more options/time I am going to be doing it in 3D.

 

It makes me really happy to know that people are having fun with the colors. I'm not too familiar with tumblr so I don't know how many reblogs are a lot.. but it's sort of blowing my mind right now.

I apparently really confused shapeways because they are giving up and shipping what they have, and told me to reorder the extra parts I need and they will refund me. I feel pretty guilty that my part has been such a pain for them.

 

I've been completely unproductive this weekend since I can't stop stalking the big tumblr post - I am really shocked it got so many reblogs (800 notes) and it is kind of freaking me out. I never got into tumblr so it is a bit overwhelming for me. I am super happy to know that so many people are interested in her - hopefully once I get some nice cast dolls I can prove myself to the community. I'm also super pissed because my blog is down and I can't figure out how to fix it. My hosting plan sucks right now, but if I just go to an unmanaged host it will be the same price for a vps with a good amount of ram/bandwidth/storage - I think I know linux well enough, and if I don't I know tons of people that I can go cry and force to help me . I had a big post and my blog starting acting up just as I hit publish. I wonder if it is a ram issue...

I saw one person on tumblr accuse me of recasting iplehouse and then just copying fairylands joints... and a couple people on here defended me so I just wanted to thank you. I was actually really scared when fairyland released their 65cm girl because when I first saw her I was shocked how closely the joints were to my ideas. I even bought her (and I almost never buy dolls because I have no money) because I liked her jointing so much, but now I worry that that was a bad idea because it could give people more fuel to accuse me with. But, I am super happy that I have some pictures of my really crappy sketch back from 2008 on flickr (https://flic.kr/p/5DNfsg) that shows the hip plate and knee design I had at the time, which, while rough, are very close to what I ended up doing (which I actually find fascinating, considering how many times I changed the knee - I ended up going back to my first design which is what first got me wanting to make a doll). My sketch is pretty bad.. but the body shape isn't too far off of what I have now, so I'm also hoping that gives me some credibility as far as style and design go and show that this doll is what I had in mind since 2008 (it just took me until now to get enough experience to do it). I think I made the head lock before the 65cm line was released as well, but I am not sure if their other dolls had their design first (I didn't know about fairyland before then) - mine is completely different but I could see how people could think it was similar. I don't know if I am being overly paranoid, but I really don't like people thinking I copied. My joint designs mean a lot to me and I've had so many of these ideas for so long. The body shape is pretty generic and idealized realistic, so of course it looks similar to other bodies that are going for that. I love highly stylized dolls, but I wanted to create something basic that functioned more as a blank canvas for people to customize.

Anyway, I have a few pictures, which I was trying to post to my blog.

The one hip plate is obviously missing, the shoulder is only half printed, you can't see it but the back of the left thigh is missing, no butt-plates, and the thing that holds the elbow is broken in the right arm (which is why it looks misaligned). So she is a mess right now, but hopefully I will get the rest of the parts soon. I am just glad the shipped me what they did have.


I love this leg pose! It was a pain right now because I didn't make the elastic space inside her thigh rotater joint large enough, so it wants to snap back went bent (I really should have known better by now, but I guess I underestimated the force and hoped the lock was enough). Though should be a super easy fix and the hole is covered so it won't affect the appearance.


Cross-legged (no feet yet )! The hip covers and butt plates should cover those gaps pretty nicely. This was also annoying to pose for now, but that is because it is missing the back of the sphere for the thigh, so I couldn't string it and it won't really stay in. The knees are also a pain right now, but that is just another elastic hole problem (again, underestimated the force vs locks). Easy enough fix.

I'm really optimistic that with the few small changes she will pose really easily and be very stable!

 

The chest in the pictures is Medium. I haven't printed the other two yet, I will with the next set.

Thank you guys . I'm kind of planning my whole life around this so I am terrified that something stupid like that will hold me back. I am just so happy that I have some old progress photos here and on flickr. My joints are my babies!!!

 

Thank you This forum is so awesome. I wish the all of the BJD community had half the kindness and maturity the people here have. There are so many great people in this community, but wow if there aren't some asshats.

Apparently people already are asking for recasts of my dolls, so that is something to look forward to. I almost want someone to recast my doll so I can stalk any US people who resells a recast, and go after them. I'd love to strike some fear in the recast community. I think I am actually going to trademark my name and the P logo that I am stamping into all my parts so that if anyone does copy it, it is a very clear case of counterfeiting which is a criminal offence. If I'm being realistic it would probably be hard for me to get the money to hire a lawyer.. but I think I'd still try anyway. Hopefully my doll will be too much of a pain in the ass to cast to make it worth if for the recasters, but that is probably wishful thinking.

 

sharnofshade - Thanks! I don't know much about the recast community (I find it weird that there is even a community passionate about recasts...). I did figure that my doll would never be worth it for a re-caster to mold - I'm sure they'd have to completely ruin all of the joints to be able to sell it for the prices recasts seem to sell for. I read a few too many of those pro-recast posts on tumblr once I saw they one talking about me, and it got me thinking a little irrationally. Thanks for bringing me back down to Earth!

sick - Thank you! I am going to. I am not sure if I am being completely naive and insane, but the flexibility and control I get from doing it myself is really important to me. I've always been pretty lucky with molding, though I admit this is way more of an undertaking than I have done before (since my attempts with my first doll I have done some other non-doll related things). I am going to try to 3D-print some molds for my inner molds and I think that will help speed things up since I won't have to build up as much clay. I like doing glove molds with hard shells so I am going to 3D print my shells too (and bulk it out with plaster) so everything is perfect. If I am unable to get it all right or even if it is just taking way too long I am prepared to give people full refunds and then figure something else out, but hopefully that won't happen. I am very determined to do the casting myself. I put off getting a job for this so I am doing this full time. I really hope to continue full time - I desperately want to be a legit company one day.

Edit: I think I'm cursed.. shapeways just changed their pricing which makes it cheaper for most models.. but will cost me twice as much.... which I don't really have the money for. I have a week to try to get all the new parts printed, and some of the parts I don't have to test with yet...

 

Sorry, to double post - venting here makes me feel better.

I am so stressed about shapeways price increase (I mean their price "decrease"). I totally understand why they are doing it, but I have been planning everything out based on their prices, because I had no reason to believe that the cost of 3D printing something would go up. Now I will probably be spending at least $400 more. I really wanted to print shells for my mold boxes so I could make sure the thickness of my molds are perfect (I like glove molds), so if I do that it will probably be another $400 I wasn't planning on spending. The kicker is I would have gotten my final parts rend to print before the price change if they didn't mess up my test order. Money is super tight right now, I pretty much just had enough to buy all my prints. I don't want to take and pre-order money until I have molds made and one doll cast, just so in case the absolute worse happens and I can't pull off molding, I won't be sitting on anyone's money. I am not planning on getting many orders for this run since I understand that most people aren't going to want to order until they see pictures of the doll in resin, and a lot of people would also want to wait to make sure I am legit and see that other people got their dolls and are happy with them. But now my boyfriend's car is stuck in reverse, and if it doesn't magically fix itself it is going to cost a ton to fix (we've been together for 7 years and share most expenses), so it is going to make living super tight. Bllaaaaahhhh, and I crazy for doing this and not taking a programming job?

 

I've been spending at least 12 hours a day doing this, so it would be hard. I have so much work to do and I really want to get casts to show as soon as possible. All of my old jobs have been through school - I was a tutor and then a TA for a bunch of classes - but I'm not in school anymore. I don't know how to work a normal job! I am so bad at maintaining a normal schedule. I so often get absorbed in what I am working on and then suddenly it is 5am. I only own a few dolls but I guess I could sell them if I need to. I'm hoping some other companies are cheaper (though I used shapeways because they were the cheapest I could find). I'm super pissed my two faces split while molding, because that is another $100 I need to spend. Ugg at this point I would have been better buying a printer! I worked hard to get a 3D printer from my school'd robotics club (so I could save a ton of money and use it ), and the other leaders of the club broke it before I could use it!

 

I could probably reduce the cost a bit, but not significantly. I was saving a ton with shapeways by hollowing everything and with their density discount, and non hollowing isn't nearly as useful and no more density discount. I was thinking about just printing the outer shell for everything, then printing a thin plastic mold for the inner silicone molds.. that would would better with their new pricing scheme and make molding much easier.. but that is risky because then I can't make sure all the pieces fit together perfectly. I'm sure I'll figure something out. I mean, none of this will matter when I am making millions selling dolls, right? Right??? RIGHT!?!?!? :dead

 

I did a quick test cast in Chloe's quick and crappy mold (the face was hollowed out, and the pressure pot caused the face to split and suck in the silicone). I'm using smooth-on's new uvo colors with the transparent amber resin and I really like it. I didn't bother pressure casting it since it was just a test, but I a junk cast with their normal white resin first, and I got a decent amount of bubbles with the colored one and none with just the white resin. But, it was super easy to mix the color to what I wanted, and it cured the same as how the color looked before mixing in Part A. I just threw colors together quickly into a tan color (I'll try to take pictures, but it is full of bubbles and a horrible gash on the side of the face from the split) . I dremeled and sanded it to test, and while in my bathroom (quick sanding over the sink) I was excited because I couldn't see a color difference at all. But, looking under natural light you can just tell where it was sanded, but it isn't that bad. The color seems to be the same, but the surface makes it looks different. I am going to try getting a better cast today (though it can't be perfect because of that split). If it is good enough I'll see if I still have any painting skills. I'm also going to reprint all the faces asap so I can cast some first and get some nicer pictures.

Edit: Actually, the more I look at it, it seems like the color difference is just because the face is a little shinier than I would have liked, and the shininess makes it look a tiny bit darker and richer. There is an area where the primer chipped off of the original model, and it is more matte, and the color difference looks the same as the sanded area. Sadly Imara's mold split even worse, so I am not even going to bother with casting into it, but I am going to test a really dark color it this mold too to see how well it does. I think I really like this resin/dye.

Oh, and my boyfriend's car did magically fix itself!! So WOOO, let hope it was a fluke!

 

Thank you both . I hate mysterious fixes too.. but it is better than no fixes.

From the couple tests I've done, the uvo colors and Smooth-Cast 326 are awesome to work with. It is pretty easy to control the color and the opacity. The final result doesn't really seem different than how it looks just when mixing into the Part B (though it is hard for me to tell right now in my poorly lit basement). Hopefully you can get them in the Netherlands soon. I take for granted just how easily available everything is here - I even used to live only an hour from smooth-on.

I have a couple pictures of Chloe.. I have no clue where my camera is so I had to use my iPad (I can't wait to get a new camera, I got mine in highschool!). I also could have sworn I had good black fabric for photos but I don't know where that is either. *Sigh* I was debating even posting these photos because they aren't pretty, but oh well. This was my super quick test mold that I was trying to do for dollism, so the edges kind of suck, especially around the eyes (though I tried to fix them up as much as I could).

The first is probably closest to the real color, though in real life she is a bit dark and just a tiny bit pinker:

I'm just going to link to my flicker instead of posting the rest:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/31346197@N03/sets/72157647965240899/

 

PRETTY COLORS!!!


The dent/gash in the side of the face is from the face spliting and the silicone sucking into it. The blue I added white to and is still a bit translucent (so I am still well within the amount of pigment I can use before it messes with the resin), which means I could make it even more blue if I wanted to. Next I am going to see how black I can get one. I know smoothon makes an actual black resin, but I wanna see just how dark I can go with this and the pigments.

Hopefully I'll get to test some faceups soon.. I think with a more realistic face like this, it is harder to picture blank. Especially in some of the front views, she looks pretty masculine, but I am hoping a good faceup will make her look like I intend her.

Also, does anyone know why I am getting really thin, white streaks in the casting? It looks like it is only happening on the outside of the face, so maybe something is going on with my mold. There are only a few little tiny streaks on each face and it is barely noticeable, but it is still annoying.