My Sculpting Journey

Many years ago, I made an old sculpting thread following the progress of my anime boy, Spica. I wanted to add an anime boy head option, since even resin heads, there aren't too many options. I even went as far as to hold a preorder, but the results weren't that great.😅 But after sulking for a while, I didn't want to give up doll making entirely. I also wanted to create a new post mainly to bring a newer method of how I make dolls as well as the fact I ended up with Astrea Doll as my "company" name, lol versus the concept I made when I was 18. 

Here's the original post: 

And here's the guy all finished, but sadly he wasn't compatible at all with vinyl bodies easily. I did want to expand my group of sculpts however and try my hand at making more anime heads, especially heads compatible with DD and SmD bodies, with what's available with the current bodies. 

Polaris herself was sort of a random urge of sculpting since I still had my old test mold of Spica and I wanted to try my hand at hand sculpting her, so here are some progress photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/natsukiphoto/

While refining my sculpt Polaris, I thought how nice would it be have her in vinyl. But knowing the approximate cost, and being unsure if I would be able to sell any, I had to give up. It was until I remembered that Volks used to make their DDII bust out of resin. For a while I thought it was Volk's special formula as I could really only pull up rigid type of resins...until I was browsing the Smooth-On website and found semi-rigid resins. I also was getting quite envious of digital sculptors lol and wanted to try my hand at it. After some searching I found an online based program called SculptGL (same family as Nomad sculpt, but more like the first sculpting program by Stephane Ginier.)

So while toying around with the software I finally complete Polaris with the features I wanted her to have since I wasn't satisfied with my hand sculpting and with every refinement I made, there was always something else after a while I would notice that looked uneven to me. I then used Zbrush at my school to lower her resolution to make her more ideal for printing an am currently cutting the head open in a CAD software to finish her inner construction. 

 

But I'm having a bit of a dilemma, knowing how simple anime doll sculpts can be, does Polaris resemble any dolls on the market? Her sketches were just drawings to play with some faceup ideas, but I would like to personally avoid looking like other dolls on the market and avoid a lawsuit and then have to live in a box lmao. I'm also open to any criticism and feedback, I'm happy to hear anyone's thoughts really since I want to improve as an artist. I'm also going to document my experience with semi rigid resin to help other makers who want to create custom parts and heads for their own businesses, or customizations. 

Well, I think her ears are certainly different.  At least from the ones my 60cm Obitsu has.

I've seen your heads on insta before!! They are beautiful and it's a damn shame they didn't sell better. I hope your new sculpting journey is very successful! I don't know anything about 3d sculpting or printing, but I'm really excited to see how it goes for you. I'm curious what semi-rigid resin is like.

3 hours ago, Tam_I_am said:

Well, I think her ears are certainly different.  At least from the ones my 60cm Obitsu has.

Thanks for your feedback! Once I print her I need to refine the ears, since I wasn't able to get them quite right in the software 😅

1 hour ago, bananaaether said:

I've seen your heads on insta before!! They are beautiful and it's a damn shame they didn't sell better. I hope your new sculpting journey is very successful! I don't know anything about 3d sculpting or printing, but I'm really excited to see how it goes for you. I'm curious what semi-rigid resin is like.

Thank you so much! It was a shame, but I don't feel too bad about it anymore, since if I keep sharing and making, I think the results can change. From the example videos I watched, it behaves similar to rubber and vinyl, like its flexible, which makes it ideal for prop making and cosplay items. 

Polaris is so beautiful! You did an amazing job on her sculpt.

Imo it looks unique while having the feeling of a DD! I’d love to see a hybrid doll with her!

14 hours ago, chantelle said:

Polaris is so beautiful! You did an amazing job on her sculpt.

Imo it looks unique while having the feeling of a DD! I’d love to see a hybrid doll with her!

Thank you so much! I’m really surprised of how far my sculpting skills have come when I look at her clay counter part. I currently have a dds body, and can take a photo once I can get her printed. 

5 hours ago, NatsukiP said:

Thank you so much! I’m really surprised of how far my sculpting skills have come when I look at her clay counter part. I currently have a dds body, and can take a photo once I can get her printed. 

So exciting! I can’t wait to see 😄 

On 3/18/2023 at 11:42 PM, chantelle said:

So exciting! I can’t wait to see 😄 

Me too, if my lab mate is able to, we can print her tomorrow. 
 

Also small update, here’s the head all cut up for printing via a CAD program:

 

The cuts are a bit weird since I wanted to make it easier for the 3d printers and also because the areas I tied cutting weren’t coming out with the correct geometry.