bjdbaby? Probably not legit, but asking just in case...

[DollyKim]

Sculpting a doll can take months. It's one of those things I feel you can only say so much about until you've tried it. Once you get the looks right it needs to be engineered correctly. You make prototypes, you have to make molds, you cast, you make a first doll and test it to see if it will hold up to a stress test. Any part fails you might have to completely start over.

Once you have a library of molds for bodies you know will work then churning out heads can become easier, especially if you work from pre made head bases and just need to subtly change expressions to make a "new" doll.

[iron_dog]

I'm a huge fan of Angel Toast and she has sculpted a few heads. Doing the first took her quite a bit of time because she needed to be happy with the work and bring out what was in her head. That's often not an easy path. Artists are by nature perfectionists (regardless of medium) and getting the end product to be "correct" according to whatever the vision is can be a long process. There is a lot of tweaking/adjusting that goes on that the end user/purchaser never has any clue about.

With regards to larger companies like Soom and their "churning out" dolls, it is highly likely that they have their artists working months ahead of when something is scheduled for release. True enough, they have the base bodies, but even so, for some of the monthly dolls, those bodies are modified to have fantasy parts or the fantasy parts are sculpted completely from scratch (i.e. clawed feet, wings, etc). They may have a doll scheduled internally for release in say... June but have the sculptor start working on the head/body parts in say March to get the sculpting done on time and work out any engineering bugs in the body/parts.

Moulds are not forever items either. They are only good for a certain number of casts before they start to lose definition/detail and need to be junked and a new mould made. Typically that's not a problem, but accidents happen and the original mould may have been damaged/lost. Re-creating/fixing takes time and effort.

I'm not putting sculptors on a pedestal, but I realize how much time and effort (and sometimes frustration) can go into sculpting something. I have sculpted heads/busts for my own satisfaction (and not doll related things) and while I was very pleased with the end result, it took me quite a bit of time to get everything exactly right. Until you've done it, you don't realize how hard it is to make a face symmetrical and how being just the slightest bit off in one area will really stand out.

[Wardah]

I'm a huge fan of Angel Toast and she has sculpted a few heads. Doing the first took her quite a bit of time because she needed to be happy with the work and bring out what was in her head. That's often not an easy path. Artists are by nature perfectionists (regardless of medium) and getting the end product to be "correct" according to whatever the vision is can be a long process. There is a lot of tweaking/adjusting that goes on that the end user/purchaser never has any clue about.

With regards to larger companies like Soom and their "churning out" dolls, it is highly likely that they have their artists working months ahead of when something is scheduled for release. True enough, they have the base bodies, but even so, for some of the monthly dolls, those bodies are modified to have fantasy parts or the fantasy parts are sculpted completely from scratch (i.e. clawed feet, wings, etc). They may have a doll scheduled internally for release in say... June but have the sculptor start working on the head/body parts in say March to get the sculpting done on time and work out any engineering bugs in the body/parts.

Creating for your own pleasure and creating for a job are two different things. Artists may be perfectionists but when there is a deadline it has to be met even if it isn't 100% what we envisioned. That is something I learned fast when I started studying Graphic Design last year.

What about digital sculpting? There have been rumors that Soom was using it and I see that as a viable method.

OT but is there any reason behind your user name?

[OkamiKodomo]

There are several companies that use digital sculpting as a medium, such as Iplehouse, and Angelsdoll, but there is no less skill and time put into these things than there is hand-sculpting. Just ask Kiki-chan; she does 3d modeling, as does Dirili. I tried it once, but I couldn't figure out the program, and gave up. I may someday go back to it, but I don't see it happening any time soon. And even once you have a viable base in 3d, that model must be printed, refined, sanded, etc, molded, cast, and tested. I think it's actually harder to make dolls via digital sculpting because you can't see and/or feel how a piece will function until after the first casting. When you handle a medium long enough, you become intuitive about how it will hold up. Like with acrylic paint: after a while, you learn how thick it can go on, because it becomes shiny. Angelsdoll for instance, had a huge problem last summer with the resin in the ears and around the socket joints of the knees being too thin, and breaking easily. They have/had to re-engineer their entire massive doll bodies.

[iron_dog]

You can still get damn close to what you want/need with a deadline. Experience lets you judge timelines and you adjust your work schedule accordingly. For example, I know I can do the design drawings and details for a simple floating garage slab in about 1.5 hours. So if I have my boss ask me when I'll be done, I can give him a good approximation.

My user name is what I am in a sense. I was born in the year of the Dog in a metal year in a metal month. I have a lot of metal influences and that is either called being a double metal dog or an iron dog. I'm Iron Dog pretty much everywhere and I actually have RL friends call me that or ID for short.

[Dirili]

There are several companies that use digital sculpting as a medium, such as Iplehouse, and Angelsdoll, but there is no less skill and time put into these things than there is hand-sculpting. Just ask Kiki-chan; she does 3d modeling, as does Dirili. I tried it once, but I couldn't figure out the program, and gave up. I may someday go back to it, but I don't see it happening any time soon. And even once you have a viable base in 3d, that model must be printed, refined, sanded, etc, molded, cast, and tested. I think it's actually harder to make dolls via digital sculpting because you can't see and/or feel how a piece will function until after the first casting. When you handle a medium long enough, you become intuitive about how it will hold up. Like with acrylic paint: after a while, you learn how thick it can go on, because it becomes shiny. Angelsdoll for instance, had a huge problem last summer with the resin in the ears and around the socket joints of the knees being too thin, and breaking easily. They have/had to re-engineer their entire massive doll bodies.

Indeed! Digital sculpting is VERY difficult. The one big benefit being that you can sculpt just the left half or the right half and mirror it for a perfectly symmetrical piece.

But Digital modeling software is not user friendly at all and even though texture mapping and animating are the hardest parts of digital art which aren't needed for just printing, the sculpting itself is nothing to sneeze at. The controls are pretty difficult to get a handle on and many of the tools and effects run on complex mathematic equations which you get to attempt to figure out to achieve the effect that you want.

Personally I find it faaaar easier and faster to sculpt clay by hand. Probably takes me about 3 times longer to create a 3D mesh than it does to sculpt a form by hand.

[DollyKim]

All the work I put in to Garak and Sid looking right and neither of them could be sold in this state. They wouldn't stand, there's gaps here and there, parts that are too long or awkward. All I can do now is try again with a new design for elbows and knees and that's just simple two piece ones. If i was to change scale there would be even more work that would need to be done.

Then there's the casting process its self. I have yet to cast anything that remotely works, I've tried heads, so making anything beyond that requires someone more experienced. I can't even get a wax version of anything to make sure there's no snags to mess up any silicone or resin casting.

I've already dealt with someone hot linking pictures of my Phantom of the Paradise just to say they had one, and exacting picture switching revenge.

[Yanagi-sen]

I've watched Kiki-chan struggle and fuss and print and reprint and REPRINT, then sand for hours and hours and hours, then mold joints... then learn to make molds to get masters to make the real molds from. Yeah, she started 3D, it's still taken over 2 years to get Allison to production. She's started a progress thread over on JS for the Alice so we can all watch her be born. Will it go easier this time? Maybe. But then it wasn't just slapping on long ears that makes the Elf Allison different from the Human Allison.

I think maybe the hard thing about 3D, is that you don't REALLY know what it looks like until you print it. Then if something's wrong, back to the program, print again. It adds up fast even for small things.

[Wardah]

Okay maybe sculpting a doll does take a crapton of time (perhaps this is why some Monster High dolls have dates as early as 2008 on the back of their head) but I still don't see it adding that much to the price. Even if the whole price of a Monster High doll was to pay for the sculpting that is still only $20-$25 a doll. I still don't like the idea of offering recasts that are exactly like dolls currently on the market but I don't see it as bad when it is a discontinued sculpt since if the company really wanted more revenue from the sculpt they shouldn't have stopped making it. I also don't see it as bad when someone offers casts in colors the original wasn't made in because again, if the company really wanted the money they should have offered it in other colors.

[OkamiKodomo]

First: MH are mass produced in multiple factories with hundreds of workers and even more automated processes, such as machines filling the molds with plastic. Not nearly as much of their profits goes to pay for production costs. MH dolls are "mass produced" and Mattel has a budget specifically for marketing.

Second: With the exception of Volks, and maybe one or two others that own other lines and products to draw in revenue, MOST BJD makers are small teams, or even single individuals, and every single piece of every single doll is made with hand-mixed and hand-poured resin. Even one air bubble on the surface of a part will mean that part will have to be recast. BJD makers don't have marketing budgets or teams; their only REAL way to gain a following is word of mouth.

Now, I've already stated where I stand on recasts, so I won't repeat myself, but I will add that it is really unfair of anyone to make claims that designing a doll really adds so much to the cost.