3d modeling [new doll projects]

I've been on and off working on trying to make a custom head in zbrush. 

I got it in my head that I wanted dolls for my FFXIV version of Aura, Aurelien, who is at this point pretty much his own character who just happens to have a very similar name to Auralion. I shipped him with Varis, so I wanted a Varis as well. 

As Garleans are just OUTRAGEOUSLY tall, I decided on a 75cm body for Varis. I've commissioned a custom head for Varis from an artist I found on Etsy. I gave her his in game model, some reference pics, and the measurements I needed. And she added details and made things appropriate for a bjd body. 

I'm pretty stoked about it! But it'll be a while before the body I've chosen is here, so this will be more of a long term project. 

I'm not sure why I didn't go the same route with Aure. I guess because I didn't have any solid references in 3d and I wasn't confident that I could really get across what I needed to just with my drawings. Most of the facial structure info on him is tucked away in my head. 

So I downloaded Zbrush Core Mini (their free, very limited version of Zbrush) and set to work. 

This was what I came up with in there. I couldn't do certain things like add some nice spheres to help me plot out the eye shape properly, so I decided to get a more proper version when possible. Sold some things and used the proceeds to get the full version of Zbrush Core. (Wasn't quite ready to shell out for full Zbrush just yet) 

So I spent more time on the head, added some proper eye spheres to work around, and this is roughly where I'm at now: 

I need to redo the ears, and I've been putting that off because it's proving to be rather challenging. I've figured out a reasonably good method in blender, but not in Zbrush. I also need to give him teeth so he can do the sexy rabbit dentures face. 

In order to get him the right height compared to Varis, he can probably be around 50cm at max. I've considered just saying 'screw it' and making him larger just to make my life easier in terms of finding a body and not having to worry about him looking wildly out of proportion with everyone else, but I don't know. It's a bit difficult since I don't have a body the right size to test him out on. And I'm not sure my 3d printer will do a good enough job of capturing the details I need. 

A small part of me is also contemplating attempting to sculpt a body for him as well, since finding something that works perfectly for him does not seem possible. I want something lean and very androgynous. A lot of 50cm bodies are either very masculine or very feminine from what I've seen. the body I'm most leaning toward, Dream Valley's 50cm body, is pretty good in that it's not overly masculine. It also appears to have a reasonably good butt (very important). I'm just not sure how the head would work with it proportionally without having it in hand.

I have a new plan for how I might want to fix up the head for printing though. I may see about acquiring a body before I spend too much time on that so I don't have to waste too many prints if I can avoid it. We shall see. 

I'm also planning to attempt to redo regular Auralion's face up today. I wiped it the other day and used windsor and newton brush cleaner for the first time. SO MUCH EASIER than alcohol and a magic eraser. 

I mocked up what I might want his face to look like so that I'll have a reference and I'm not just making things up as I go (which is what I normally do, with very mixed results). 

Here is kind of what I am thinking. But with more gradient on the upper lip so it doesn't look so solid. The mockup looks kind of dumb, but I tested putting on hair and I think it should look pretty okay? Hopefully. Can always try again if it does not.

Custom eyes + Vaith

 Finally got around to redoing Doppelganger's eyes for the 5th? 6th? time. I have no idea what happened this time, but somehow the glittery bits moved around when I went to UV cure the eyes and they ended up mostly covering the pupils... I left them to dry for TWO DAYS. 

Oh well. We're just gonna call it 'good enough' for now. The color is good. The size is good. Who needs pupils? 

In other news, after I think 4ish years, I finally got around to giving my Twigling Elbe head a face up. I'd always planned to make this head into Vaith. I'm not entirely sure if this plan is working yet.

I feel like the overall structure is very much like how I imagine his face looking, but I may have gone a bit too wacky experimental with the face up. I don't know. I have confused feelings about this. I attempted to color match to the body but my efforts were foiled by the excessive amount of stuff I did to the face. Luckily Vaith is fully clothed like a thousand percent of the time, so when I eventually make him an outfit, that won't be much of an issue. 

Aaaand I gave Ezsphrein new eyes. I had gotten him custom eyes before but then when I switched heaads they didn't fit right anymore, so I had him in eyes that fit but were completely wrong and then I completely forgot about it. 

So here he is in some new black sclera eyes I made. I could have taken this picture outdoors and gotten a maybe halfway decent shot, but if I go out the dogs will want to go out (as seen in the first picture of Doppelganger) and then herding them back indoors while holding dolls can be a bit of a pain. 

At some point I should consider getting him a higher quality wig. This one doesn't entirely fit his head. I got it in MSD size like ... years and years and years ago, for my Latidoll Chaim (who was at the time portraying Esphrein). And his head was a lot shorter, so it fit well. Now that he is portrayed by a Souldoll Chiron, it fits but not well. I kind of have to choose between having it reach the right length in the back or the front, so I usually opt for like a middle ground so his hairline recedes on both sides. The style also doesn't work as well this way, so ... at some point. I should really upgrade. A lot of my older wigs are really frizzy and no longer very smooth looking either. 

I should make a list of people who need new wigs so I can start looking into that before I find too many new dolls to acquire. 

New wigs needed: 

1. Orkas
2. Eskilys
3. Ezsphrein
4. Anna
5. Aura (all sizes)  

I think that's it. Should add to the projects page. 

Doppelganger

 I did a partial trade on DoA and ended up with most of the Ringdoll Pan fullset outfit. I thought it would be a good fit for Doppelganger and he hasn't changed clothes in probably 10 years. 

I decided on a whim to try to swap out his eyes because his huuuuuge irises seemed off to me suddenly. I've been experimenting with 3d printing eyes, so I thought I'd make him a new pair. 

The first pair (top) came out with very large pupils and the dome was too low. The second pair (middle) got messed up because I was too impatient. And the third pair (bottom) turned out reasonably okay. But I still probably will go back in and increase the dome height again. I've been scaling it up proportionally but I think I need to make it come to more of a point in the middle. 

But for now, I am too tired to do another pair. So here he is in his new outfit and new eyes. I need to make some sort of lower arm cuffs/warmers to complete the ensemble. That was the only part missing from the outfit (there is also a hat but I'm not sure he can pull it off). 

I still need to finish giving him his scar on his face. Maybe this weekend.

Muse mockup

 

Ignore the odd angle on the hair compared to the face. I just wanted to see if it could work. I do think that this might actually work better than the Saka head, because it will be larger and a bit more mature. I already have a modded Shinydoll Thaasa body I can steal for the head (if I get the head separately). 

I actually just went searching for height comparisons between Shinydoll and Zaoll, only to realize I have access to both in person and had actually answered a request for that comparison myself at one point. XD 

After seeing my own results, I do think ideally I would like the Zaoll body at some point. I'd need to mod it, but almost all of the bodies that all of my iterations of Aura use are modded girl bodies (he's much more soft and androgynous than most male bodies I can find are). 

--

Going to attempt to redo or modify mini Aura's faceup later. I'm a bit intimidated because I have not been having great luck with using the 70% alcohol for faceup wiping, and I cannot find 90% anywhere...

more clothing stuff and a possible new doll project

 I decided to try redoing the robes for mini Aura's outfit. The red felt too overpowering, so I decided I'd try it in white. I have a moderate to severe fascination with brocades, so it is not a solid white (like perhaps it should have been).

He is super not-photogenic right now. I'm hoping the wig and eyelashes help, but I may have to give the face up another go. The outfit is pretty much done though. Except now I'm debating if the collar/tabard needs to be another color to stand out more. Or maybe have a border color. 

I think I also need to stop attempting blonde eyebrows. They just don't photograph well, and poor Aura looks like a ghost. 

I'm really excited for him to get a proper wig, though. I think that will help a lot. 

In other news, I've decided I want dolls for Aurelien (my FFXIV version of Aura, who has developed into his own character) and Varis. In order to get the height difference correct, Varis probably needs to be like 75cm and Aure needs to be like 50cm. 

After searching for a couple days, I mocked up a potential faceup on Souldolls' Saka. 

I'm still debating on if he looks tooooo young. But I think it could work? The other strong contender was Zaoll Muse.

Here is an image of what I have drawn him looking like. ^  

Perhaps I'll test a mock faceup on Muse tomorrow to see if that looks closer. My last resort is making an attempt at modding/sculpting/3d modeling something that is closer to how he looks. That is the route I will likely go for Varis since I have not been able to find something that I feel works right for him.

an attempt at mini Aura's clothes

 I'm pretty bad at getting dolls, giving them a face up and getting them their proper hair and then letting them sit around in half-done clothes for all eternity. I have a few with proper outfits, but they're usually the ones where I was able to find something for sale that matched what I was going for. If I have to make something, there are about 1 of 3 ways it tends to go: 

1) I am too intimidated by the very idea to even get started. 

2) I make an attempt and end up hating it. 

3) I get a couple parts of the outfit done and run out of steam. 

Part of the problem is that I design things that are way beyond my skill level, so when I decided to make clothes for teen Aura, I set about designing something a little more simple. 

It's already a bit of a struggle to sew in 1/3 scale, but I figured it was worth a shot. I actually made patterns for once. I'm really bad about just eyeballing something and winging it with my sewing. 

Anyway, I wasn't careful enough to make muslin prototypes or anything, but I did try to be careful about my measurements and sew slowly. And it's not perfect, but here is what I have so far: 

 And here is a detail shot of the middle part: 

I'll probably redo the collar/tabard part because that part I did not measure and I ended up with some frayed edges because I didn't leave enough seam allowance. Other than that, it came out reasonably well, I think. There were a few parts I had to sew by hand, because they were just too small for me to feel confident doing them on the machine. 

I'm also considering doing the outer robe layer in another color, because I'm not sure about it. But we shall see. Thinking about maybe swapping to a white main robe and red accents. 

It is also a possibility that I'll be happier with this ensemble once he has proper hair. 

I still need to finish the edges on the red robe. I'm not sure if I want some trim on that or not, so I'm leaving it for now. It doesn't seem to be in any rush to fray, so that's good at least. 

Since I actually made a pattern for this, I'll likely do something similar in a different color scheme when I get a body for teen Cail.

Body Mods

It's been a very long time and I've started doing some stuff again. 

Can't recall if I mentioned this but I decided a long long time ago that MyDolling Heeah would be a great teen Aura but they didn't sell the heads separately. And then when they did their discontinuation sale they did sell them separately so I grabbed two so I could make Aura and Cail. 

 I got my skin tones confused and ordered them in a light tan instead of what I thought would be the more translucent resin, so I was a bit frustrated and put them in the head cabinet for years. 

 And then a couple weeks ago I threw one of the heads on my Dollzone Annie's body to test the fit and gave mini Aura a faceup. 

 

I went searching for a body I would like for him and ended up rather impulsively deciding that the Unoa Elder body was what I wanted. So I acquired an Unoa Elder Belia. It's been a long time since I've seen my Unoa Xyle's neck joint so I forgot that they had WACKY necks that don't work like normal bjd necks, so I was struggling for a few days with what to do. 

I wasn't sure I wanted to mod the neck because if this plan didn't work out I'd have messed up the body. And I also didn't want the Belia head to not be able to attach to anything. 

So I spent 3 days or so trying to mod the Heeah head to fit on the Unoa head back. And I FINALLY got the fit just right, only to discover I hadn't mixed my epoxy properly and it was all mushy and just oozed off. 

I wasn't enjoying the process anymore and didn't want to keep trying to make the head fit right when it clearly just did not want to cooperate, so I broke down and decided to do some neck mods after all. I decided to cut the neck off just below the weird flanged part at the top where the Belia head back fits and turn that into an adapter piece for the Belia head to fit on other bodies. And then I cut off the top half of the Dollzone neck to turn that into the new top of the Unoa body's neck. 

This is the Belia head and head back on the Dollzone body. If I decide she will stay on this body long term I will likely epoxy the neck piece in place. I'm still debating. It's an older body and not the most aesthetically appealing to me, but it poses well and is still quite functional. It will largely depend on how much clothing she ends up wearing, I suppose. 

And this is the upper part of the Unoa body with the Dollzone upper neck attached. The epoxy is still hardening, but afterward I will sand it smooth and blush it to match. It is just a little bit longer than I wanted it to be, so the Heeah head sits higher on it than is probably ideal. I'll test the fit with clothes before I do more mod work though, since Aura tends to wear high collars and it might end up being handy that his neck is overly long. 

It seems I never posted this but I started it last week.

Trying to sell things

I started a new job last August and ever since then I haven't had nearly as much time for doll stuff as before. So I'm trying to make myself sell a bunch of things. It's hard because I'm not sure how much is stuff I'm not using because I've been busy and adapting to a new routine and how much is stuff I just don't have any interest in anymore.

I did manage to list a few things for sale. Some of the things I did not manage to list that I think maybe I should were my Unoa Xyle and my Cerisedolls Lyse. I haven't really properly named either of them, given them any sort of story, or done much with them. Have made them clothes but that's about it.

Instead of taking sales pics I somehow just ended up taking silly pictures of Lyse and editing them. Fun times. Not super productive but oh well.

I should make myself choose one of them to keep and list the other (or list enough other comparable items).

New Wig for Aura (test)

I really liked Aura's old wig but unfortunately the colors were not accurate to my mental image of his character. And since I had some spare golden blonde colored yarn lying around from making a wig for Ezreal, I've been toying with the idea of making a new wig for Aura.

Yesterday I decided to go ahead and go for it.

The major downside of not being able to find the right color in the same brand I was using before is that this brand doesn't allow me to make my strands as long. It's an acceptable length but not quite as long as I really wanted. The other down side is that it's not as smooth. It has a little bit more of a frizzy appearance, which isn't bad. It's just not quite as silky smooth and shiny as the old wig was.

But the color is more accurate. And it was either this or start seriously considering making the mixed yellow-blonde and white his canon hair color. Which could have had interesting melodramatic backstory stuff to go along with it, but I just wasn't sure I wanted to go that route.

I had to use the cap from a spritzer bottle dealy and glue strands onto that in order to get Aura's hair even close to long enough in the back. I've considered having him cut his hair shorter in Legion but it's not set in stone yet and  I think I'd still prefer that doll Aura have his traditional hair even if I did go that route.

This is how he looks right now. I do really like the color. I'm still debating on things like the length and less shiny aspect. One thing I definitely do like better is that it looks more finished in the back. No one ever really saw the back of the other wig, but there was a large amount of wig cap showing as well as the seams on the bottom length of hair. That always bugged me and was a large part of my motivation to remake the wig, actually.

face up time continues

I finally gave my Steve/Vince hybridbomination a face up. Which is not all that stellar because my airbrush was being a dick and his head is so small compared to what I'm used to but hey. It's something.

I wanted to take pictures but then he was naked and I own nothing that would fit him so I was going to throw him in the Bane coat I made ages ago but it's for SD size people and it was huuuuuge on him. So I decided to just make a smaller one. Cuz that's the only possible solution right? The temp outfit you're going to use is too big. Don't grab a different one. MAKE a new temporary outfit. So I threw one together and made 900 mistakes along the way but it functions so yay. It's a bit baggy because I'm lazy and don't like actually measuring or making patterns or even rudimentary markings on fabric so I just cut haphazardly in shapes that look right and start sewing.

And here is the result!

As an added bonus, you can see my oh-so-beatiful work area! Hooray!

He needs smaller eyes but I didn't have any.