ATStudio Dolls

It’s the sales info for his new 70cm doll at Beijing doll expo. The sale has been closed.

ATstudio is currently experiencing an crisis now...

 

Is everything alright with them?

 

My Chinese isn't great, so take this with a grain of salt, but I think they were accused of copying Soom's Pharaoh with their old Baker(?) head.

 

There are a lot comparisons of various heads, they do look very much alike. For those who are not familiar with Soom (me for one), chance of mistaking that as Soom are very high. Personally I don't find this acceptable. It's heard that some went asking Soom. The discussions/debates are very heated in East Asia. Many distaste such approach, which personally I understand.
It is found that the "maker" personally sold a lot of Soom heads in secondhand market, and has disconnected the selling account from his weibo. Many see this as a very suspicious act, owned Soom and produces very Soom-alike heads.

 

Eh!? At best Narmer and Baker have similar noses.

I don't feel having a similar style is the same thing as copying. There's only so many ways you can sculpt a stylistically attractive beefy adult male face. As long as the head is not a direct or modified recast artist should be allowed to pursue the styles or stylizations that they like.

 

There are some comparison photos going around showing how similar the heads are, but I don't think they're fair because the heads aren't placed at the same distance from the camera. Hook posted their own comparison photo where the heads look more different, and the Baker head is a lot smaller than the Soom Pharaoh head.

I personally don't know what to believe

 

He may use zbrush to modifiy original head from SOOM. For example, I use zbrush to do a original model from SOOM, next I modify a little bit at nose, chin, the measurement of the head => Got a new head with the same style. I don't know it could be plagiarism or not at BJD artist's world.
When I followed the drama on Weibo, many people pointed out that he did the same way in the past, but when he released oversea, he became famous by oversea support.
I am waiting an announcement from SOOM to decide my support.
P/s: not only head, but also 74 body of ATstudio was reported that they copied from LLT ballerino body a month ago.

 

Let’s put it this way, his creations are practically all accused of plagiarism now.

I don’t know what to believe.

 

I was very confused when I saw Baker of ATstudio beside a doll of Soom. They looked so similar.... I thought that both of them from Soom until I saw the tag....

 

@Constance @tiyama Thank you for the explanation! I had seen a couple of posts on Instagram that made me wonder. If it’s okay, I can link to some of them here.

An IG photo comparing Baker and Narmer. /Edit: Here’s the full thread from a Korean Twitter user.
• A comparison of ATStudio’s Tengo and Hyperon, (old?) Baker vs Amor, and another head with Albin. Superposition from the same Twitter user.

Hook/ATStudio’s IG defense photos, also posted on Weibo and Twitter. There’s a lot of discussion in the Weibo comments, plus some owner comparison photos.
/Edit: Another post from Hook’s Weibo, showing the physical handmade sculpt.

I don’t know if Soom has yet released an official statement.

Keeping an eye out for additional posts on Weibo. I used 哈克自制 (Hook handmade) to search for more of the sculptor Hook’s/ATStudio’s works. I hope the matter can be resolved amicably. ;-;

 

Accusation on copying llt ballerino body is a bit far fetched for me tho. I own both body, and as can be seen from the photo below, atstudio body just doesnt look like a copy of the ballerino body. Timeless body looks more close to llt ballerino than atstudio body if you ask me.



Also, to those that have seen the accusation picts, dont you think it’s poorly done? Idk, it seems like they just compared digital picts of the sculpts, even to the extent of resizing the images to fit the id (idealian) head sculpt sizes, which is just super misleading. They did not even put measurements or scales to say that the heads are not the same size. Now, looking at the headsculpts, they do give off the same vibes. I think this is the case since atstudio artists have done a lot of soom idealian head faceups in the past. I would get if they wer inspired by those headsculpts. None of those heads look exactly alike though.
For the body. They were comparing literally contour lines, which is really problematic. Dont all realistic sculpts have the same general body lines and stuff? I dont have any soom bodies, but i see them a lot online. I really dont think atstudio body is similar to them, aside from the fact that both ought to be realistic bodies.

One more thing that bothers me about this issue is that, why is it just surfacing now where in fact, atstudio artist have done so many releases and even attended conventions in the past. They even openly faceups idealian heads in their ig account. I doubt soom is not yet aware of this artist. So why hasnt soom done anything about this in the past? Unless soom does a thorough inspection of this issue, ill stand by atstudio.

Also, when two sculpts look alike, let us not be hasty into saying that one is a copy of the other (holds true for a lot of companies and artist dolls, not just in this case). A lot of head sculpts literally look alike. It is just in this case where the overall vibe of atstudio headsculpts matches with that of soom idealian. Though it would be too much to say that they are literal copies. Atstudio artist posted progress of their handsculpting of old baker headsculpt. So i think the similarities are more of being influenced by soom idealian, rather than modifying or copying the same sculpt.

Hello. Can you direct me to sites or posts regarding the selling of second hand soom heads by atstudio artist? Or might u just elaborate this. What was the issue here tho.? Did the artist scam someone with those sales? Please do enlighten me. Thank you

I think the oldbaker head is handsculpted as what ive seem from the progress pictures posted by the artist on their insta and fb acc. So I dont think atstudio artist modified the original narmer sculpt.

 

Yicen, yicen061 in instagram, an artist and sculptor is also being accused of plagiarizing from soom. They openly expressed their dismay about this, and have clarified the issue, as well as posted evidences that they have not copied anything from soom. I kinda pity them since they are small time artists and these mere speculations could literally drag their career down.

 

I am saddened to see this controversy happening to a lot of artists nowadays. I can't side with anyone without truly knowing what actually happened, but I feel like having similar size measurements and build (slim or muscular) do not provide enough evidence to claim that an artist has copied another's work. After all, doll bodies take after human bodies and artists are likely to sculpt things that they personally consider as beautiful. I think artists are just following wide-spread beauty ideals in the society rather than producing copies of someone else's work.

Also, I just got a reply from Moonlight BJD House saying they currently can't get their hands on ATStudio's Cetus because of this said controversy, so they are also on the look out to see how this issue gets resolved.

 

This is a fair comparison of the heads: 微博

 

There were ideas on Weibo that those pictures couldn't show that they don't copy. Some people said that although ATstudio copy or borrow excessively, it is unqualify for an artist. They don't want to support more.
About the body of ATStudio, there are more evidence but I can't translate enough clearly.
I am still waiting more information. This guy are still upload on Weibo and Instagram Login • Instagram

 

Looking at these pictures, which are very fair comparisons, the similarities are there. Of course, they're not the same, but seeing that the artist got many accusations with a lot of his sculpts, it is hard to ignore the claims as just baseless hate. I'm going to withhold my judgement until Soom releases their official statement.

 

F

For now, it seems that waiting for soom’s statement is the best way to put all arguments to rest

 

Indeed, this comparison is a lot better than just simply superimposing their pictures. Now that this was given, I dont really see any similarities at all apart from both having the same monolid eyes characteristic of east asians. At first i thought the nose looked the same, but judging from the side profiles of each, there's nothing similar at all. I think its easy to just say that two sculpts look alike based on the final product. Cause whatif both are aiming for that east asian look. And at this point its safe to say that atstudio would indeed be inspired by soom works since they do a lot of faceups on soom idealian heads. Though Im sure if you put another same scale east asian looking sculpt beside them, it would also have that same overall east asian vibe or feel. I think what should matter more is the process that goes into creating that particular headsculpt, because thats what would really determine if atstudio really copied from soom. And as ive seen from atstudios insta, they sculpt their works by hand (at least those sculpts that are in question), sot hat would eliminate the speculations on modification and tweaking the narmer head digitally.

The best way to look at this issue is to question the process, not the final product. And as im seeing all these progress pictures provided by atstudio artist, they literally would not spend a year or two just copying someone elses work by hand. Im quick to defend atstudio cause apart from the fact that i have one of their lovely dolls, if this issue is proven otherwise, we would not be able to erase this slander just like that. This might as well affect their sales and the release of their works in the future too. So let us not be quick on labelling them as copies. Waiting for sooms response would indeed put an end to this, but with all those proofs coming from atstudio, im already seeing how this would end

 

Oh man.. hope all of these issues doesnt lead to soom having a monopoly on large asian looking dolls...

 

Don’t know if these newer comparison posts were shared:

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Also heard through the grape vine that ATstudio artist regularly sells Soom dolls on China’s 2nd hand market app called 闲鱼