The Doll Forum

Looks great there. I finished 1 1/6 and 2 1/3 scaled dolls. Airbrushed these ladies and put some cloths on them. They looks really good. The hard part was getting a good mesh from daz3d that could be printed right. I imported into Max which I'm an expert btw, been using it since max3, and solidified and sliced her into the stl file into prusa3d or the CR10 printer (I have 2). The finishing was done with clay dissolved in ethyl acetate after sanding then primed and air brushed painted with a semi clear on top. They look absolutely cool, and I'm designing the next one. Also, I got into making shoes for the smaller dolls and even making my own RD2 eyes with cabachon lenses. It's a fun hobby, and just need time to make more things..

Mishka

Hey Mishka thanks.

Sounds like you're doing some cool stuff.
I've never used Daz mainly because of the license restriction for 3d printing, but if you can get a quad mesh you should be able to apply a subdivision modifier to smooth it out for printing. I use Blender for this and it works great with the Makehuman and Manuel Bastioni Lab meshes.

MannequinFan wrote:Hey Mishka thanks.

Sounds like you're doing some cool stuff.
I've never used Daz mainly because of the license restriction for 3d printing, but if you can get a quad mesh you should be able to apply a subdivision modifier to smooth it out for printing. I use Blender for this and it works great with the Makehuman and Manuel Bastioni Lab meshes.

Hi and yes, these are not for sale however, just for my displaying. Anyway, after I put it through zbrush, the topology is very different and I'm quite good at zbrush anyway. One challenge is getting the cuts or slices to be correct for the larger dolls and then adding tongue and groove pieces so I can glue parts together.

For the shoes, I am using PLA and that seems to work. I would like to make some cool pumps for my 140cm sized dolls at some point, but those may never support her weight and would be for show.

btw I enjoy your posts and your knowledge is awesome!

Mishka

Thanks Mishka!

BTW, just saw that the Manuel Bastioni Lab is moving right along - getting close to coming out with V1.6.
The IK and muscle system features are pretty cool for posing. Just wish they would devote a little more effort on making the female body a little more "feminine".
The backsides are particularly disappointing, but maybe they will get better eventually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zupmxmAR2Sg

I have used daz studio for some time and often thought it would be cool to be able to print off a small character and do some stop animation but don't know where to start with the mesh or if it's a waste of time trying?

Anton wrote:I have used daz studio for some time and often thought it would be cool to be able to print off a small character and do some stop animation but don't know where to start with the mesh or if it's a waste of time trying?

For 3d printing I highly recommend taking a look at the Manuel Bastioni Lab.
The meshes are all watertight and ready for printing, and the subdivision modifier is already applied for getting a denser mesh for smooth prints.

Here's another little leg/hip joint study for Abby 2 I did today using the newest version 1.6 of MBL.
The MBL model has nice knee details and muscle definition. The butt dimples (dimples of Venus) are even nicely done.

I agree on the body design. Nice butt and lower back definition. Same w/ stomach muscles and belly button valley.

The muscle definition and body details are getting so good now I may consider getting a printer VS doing the hand sculpting over a mannequin for a doll model. I realize there will still be final smoothing and fine details that will need added in.
I just watched a vid on the MBL 1.6 and it looks like the hand and feet details have been improved too.

Do they give you just one base male & female face to work from?

RK I think having a 3d printer would almost be a requirement these days for any doll shop.
I think it would be a worthwhile investment.
Some of these printers are getting pretty cheap now like the CR-10 which I think you can get for less than $500 now.
You'll need to have some skills with 3d modeling though if you want to prepare the parts for printing yourself.

MBL is a plug-in that works in Blender, so you'll need to download and install Blender first.
https://www.blender.org/

As far as faces, you would start by initiating a model with either the caucasian, asian or african female base model. Then there are different phenotypes for each base, and then with all the morph sliders the variations would be almost endless. There is also a random generator which is kind of fun to play with.

Thanks
I'll study into it over the winter on them cold days.

I think the Blender > 3D printing would allow design of the doll model + sectioning out for printing.
I should also be able to properly design molds for internal foam fill pieces as well as design the skeleton.
I assume I would be able to calculate the actual size of the skeleton pieces?
I don't plan to 3D print a skeleton, but will make it out of steel tubing and machined joints, unless I just buy the joints. It would be nice to see a 3D model w/ skeleton visually articulate to check everything. Otherwise I would just have to use the old tape measure and eyeball method to build the skeleton based of the doll model and mold.

RK, let me know if you need any assistance, I'm pretty good with Blender and Autocad...

Thanks SF

I'll be able to play w/ Blender and BML 1.6 over the winter and see what I can do w/ it.
Most likely it will serve me well and I'll go ahead and pick up a printer sometime.
Finding space is the bigger issue. I know they are not big, but I don't have a bare table anywhere that's not covered in tools or projects already. I generally have to work outside!
I will be doing doll mfg'r on a commercial basis so buying a 3D printer will be a write off.

I do also plan to divulge 95% of my doll development and production to TDF members to help answer that "How do I make a sex doll" question. Everything I know has been found on TDF or watching Brick in the Yard & Smooth-on vids so I owe it back. There's just no start to finish tutorial in one place.
Of course to build a top shelf silicone doll will require a lot of tools and tech that may put some prospective makers off. But not everyone has to build a doll to my specs. They can just borrow anything they want.

OK, I installed blender and have been watching some tutorials on it.
If I also add the BML program, will most of the tool bars and systems stay the same?
That is, I don't want to spend a month learning Blender then have everything change when I use BML in Blender. Will I just be using the BML's body imaging program, but doing all the work in Blender format or will there be a BML specific format that I need to learn?

I'm only interested in doing 3D body imaging and designing internal structures inside the body render such as foam cores and skeleton. I don't plan to do any study on making GIFs or movie animations.

Thanks

rubherkitty wrote: If I also add the BML program, will most of the tool bars and systems stay the same?
That is, I don't want to spend a month learning Blender then have everything change when I use BML in Blender. Will I just be using the BML's body imaging program, but doing all the work in Blender format or will there be a BML specific format that I need to learn?

When you install MBL it just comes in as a tab on the left side below all the other tabs.
Just click on the tab and all the tools will show up. It doesn't affect any other tool bars in Blender.
There are sliders in the MBL tab for changing the look of just about every body part.
I do most of my design work in Rhino so I usually just export from Blender as .obj after I get the model looking the way I want.

The first thing you need to do in MBL is initialize the model with one of the basic types, then you'll be able to see all the tools for morphing the figure.
You can take a look at the MBL user guide here: http://www.manuelbastioni.com/guide_manuellab_index.php

Thanks
Think I'll add MBL before I spend too much time in Blender solo.
If I design a body that I want to make a model of via 3D printing, do I chop it up and add pegs in Rhino? and, why use Rhino/what feature does Rhino have that you can not do in Blender/ MBL?

rubherkitty wrote:Thanks
Think I'll add MBL before I spend too much time in Blender solo.
If I design a body that I want to make a model of via 3D printing, do I chop it up and add pegs in Rhino? and, why use Rhino/what feature does Rhino have that you can not do in Blender/ MBL?

I'm sure there are ways to do that in Blender, but I am more proficient with using Rhino.
The interface in Rhino is much more intuitive and geared more toward product design so things are a bit easier. SF may be able to help more than I can with Blender.