doll-resources

[doll-resources]

So You Wanna Make a 3D Printed Doll, BJD, or Action Figure Huh?

Everything you need, from start to finish, to make a 3D printed doll, figurine, BJD, action figure, etc. This list will be updated as needed:

3D Modeling Software Tools:

Clickwheel mouse! (IMPORTANT!)

Blender: Free, open source, and also free for commercial use. Sculpting mode is powerful, especially when used alongside the regular “Edit” mode. You can make a head, body, and joints on it.

Netfabb Basic: Free. Checks and auto-fixes errors, and answers the question of “but can I print this???”

Make Human: Good free and “free for commercial use” tool to make 3D printable bodies. You can toggle symmetry, age, gender, and add fat where you want it. Clean topology, so you can cut the body apart to add joints or change heads. Great base for Blender’s “Sculpt” mode. To avoid messing up your topology, import/export between Make Human and Blender as “.MHX”

Free 3D File Examples (Courtesy of various Blendswap artists):

These files to study and learn from, not to copy and steal!

Human Face #1

Human Face #2

Human Face #3

Human Face #4

Feminine Body #1 (Artistic Nudity NSFW)

Feminine Body #2 (Artistic Nudity NSFW)

Masculine Body #1 (Artistic Nudity NSFW)

Masculine Body #2 (Artistic Nudity NSFW)

Masculine Body #3 (Artistic Nudity NSFW)

Tutorials That You Can Directly Use (and that Aren’t Just Theory):

Good and Bad Facial Topology (i.e. How Not to Sculpt a Face)

3D Sculpt a Face From a Drawing

Note: If you don’t lay out the doll’s topology well, you will have trouble adding in joints. If your file is overloaded with too many squares/polygons or just has a bad topology, you can clean it up using a process called retopology.

How to Use 3D Printers Without Buying One:

Schools often stock 3D printers in a math-related, science-related, design-related, or engineering departments. These are usually free or cheap to use.

MakeXYZ (geographic directory of 3D printers. Quality/price varies and haggling is commonplace.)

Workshops or premium 3D printing services are currently the most expensive option. If you want a lab environment, consider a Hackerspace instead of a workshop franchise. And if you need premium printers, consider smaller local design studios— some even let you drop by to pick up prints. This is a great option for large multi-part volume orders.

Other Resources:

Free Blueprints for Single Jointed BJDs

10+ Different BJD Torso and Chest Designs

Hope this helps~!

[doll-resources]

My 2017 AND my original 2016 tutorials are now up on my website! 

http://www.syntheticephemera.com/tutorials.html

[doll-resources]

Let’s do a modern playline Barbie leg swap!

1.  Bought these two dolls from Goodwill this morning with the express intent of doing a leg swap.

2.  Removing the articulated legs is surprisingly easy—rotate them up to this angle, then start pulling the leg away from the body.  It doesn’t take a lot of pressure to pop each leg off of the peg, but, be careful, because the pegs are on short pins that can break.  (When I figure out how to fix those broken pins, I’ll let you know…)

3.  The legs, removed, and the pegs they fit on, exposed.

4. Rotate up and remove the clicky legs the same way.

5. As you can see, both leg styles are attached the same way, so it’s now a matter of putting them back on their new bodies.

6. I definitely don’t have enough strength in my hands to get the legs back on, so I use a hammer to compensate.

7. And I use a folded wash cloth to protect the hard plastic legs from direct hammer blows.  Fit the legs as much in place as possible.

8. Next, roll the doll onto its side, keeping the legs in place, and start hammering the hip through the cloth.  Start easy, increasing the force of the hammer marginally until one of the legs moves into place onto its peg.  Unwrap it to rejoice in being halfway finished, then roll it back onto its side and hammer some more.  You can hammer either side—the force is all distributed the same way.

9. Do the same for the other body (protective washcloth optional for the soft vinyl.)  I’ll either give the un-articulated body to a kid I know, or re-donate it back to Goodwill, because it’s a perfectly usable body…for somebody else *grin*

[doll-resources]

this blog is for collecting useful information about dolls and also pictures of hybrid dolls!!  all sorts of dolls will have information here with an attempt at a good tagging system. you can at least expect information on articulated plastic dolls like obitsu-like dolls (especially ob11 nendoroid hybrids!), cotton dolls/”idol” plush dolls, and ball jointed dolls as those are my current main focuses!! i’ll probably also include other things that can be related like DIY stuff that could be applied to doll DIYs even if thats not the original reason for a post?? i obviously won’t know about every kind of doll out there so there’s only so far that my sights will go when it comes to providing information but i’ll do my best! im mostly making this blog for myself to store resources with an easy tagging system but if anyone else also finds this blog useful than that’d be great

blog set up/theme/tag page is a WIP so please excuse the mess!

blog admin is an adult + uses they/them! 

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A post shared by Doll-making inspiration (@parabox_japan)

Helpful comparison from Parabox

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I made her a dress to roll up and down the driveway with. XD

Littlest Petshop head on Obitsu11 body. Clothes Azone, skates from BlackPink figure blind box.

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A groupshot of my Azone hybrids!

(A Licca head on Pure Neemo body, Nendoroid head on Picco D body, Assault Lily head rebodied onto a larger bust Picco body, and Figma heads on Picco Neemo bodies, and the far left hybrid also has Figma feet for extra articulation!)

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Two accomplishment today! First, it only took like 13 years, but I finally assembled one of the Volks Customize Figure kits. Hybrid with a nendoroid head. Do I like it? Do I hate it? Am I probably keeping it regardless because these are the pieces I have? Probably!

And only 4 months later, and I finally managed to finish rerooting this stupid FR head. 💗 Poor Yukawa can finally get painted!