Sunday, May 14 2023
The development of the pear-shaped Smart Doll body has been a collaborative effort with the Smart Doll community. While criticism such as "that looks nothing like a plus-shaped body" didn’t provide much guidance, some folks who cared about the product development offered more actionable feedback, such as providing reference images and even doing sketches for us.
The cocoa body seen in the photos is of the current Smart Doll body for comparison.
This is still in the early stages and needs quite a bit of 3D modeling, printing, and vinyl cast testing before it’s ready for prime time. What you are seeing now is a rough 3D filament print, so a lot of detail such as the folds around the sides of the waist and belly button are lost. For the final master, we will print in 8K resin to maintain the detail, finish the surface with 500 grit, and then proceed to electroplate to make the molds. Molds are then sand-blasted on the inside to maintain a matte finish for the vinyl casts.
Design challenges are working with the physical restrictions of the Evolve frame and the limitations of vinyl slush casting. Collision is something that is inevitable with a product of this size, so we plan to make the body out of the squishier vinyl - the same softness as the bust and hands. This will give the limbs a greater range of motion.
The frame does not fit too well at the moment, so we need to scale down by a couple of % while keeping the same proportions. This will enable the current heads to be compatible. We do plan to make a hilda-pinup-girl-esque new head sculpt, but for now, we plan to keep the same hands and feet - although this may change when the body vinyl parts are ready.
The apparel team already are creating patterns for the default sports bra and will work on staple apparel items such as jeans, tees, sweaters, and cardigans that we will release with the body. These patterns will also be distributed for free so that you can make and sell your own apparel for the pear body too. Our shoes are already spacious, so they should fit even if we end up making larger feet.
#tokyo #smartdoll #anime #manga #3dprinting #japan