How Did Your Doll Get its Personality?

Pretty much looking the sculpt and brainstorming from there together with concepts I like and imagining characters interactions.

For example one of the new dolls is Carter-1. I wanted someone to finish the polyamory relationship with Hana and Dante and I really wanted a wendigo character. When I saw Carter-1 was like it clicked in place, he was perfect for it. Looking his sculp I started to imagine what hair and face-up he would have and why, him interacting with the others and bam! His personality started to be made.

The same way when I saw Aiden 5 I knew he was perfect to be Carter-1 son lol something I had not planned at all but was perfect! Different from his father Aiden is an imp and very sweet. And with this I had another aspect of Carter personality and backstory.

 

I bought a MiroDoll Mika in dark chocolate resin. I had in mind that I would dress her in colorful tropical Caribbean island costumes and she would be an exotic free-spirit. I bought fabrics and accessories for her to make her outfits, but I wasn't happy with anything I tried to make.

I really thought the problem was that I wasn't falling in love with her as I thought I should be. So I was considering selling her. In preparation for taking pics for the Marketplace, I started playing with her and trying on different wigs and clothes, which were not meant for her. Suddenly something clicked and she took on a different life. I realized I was trying to force a personality on her, and she was trying to tell me who she was.

Now I realize she is a modern American woman. She has a flair for fashion, she likes the color coral (her blouse is a coral and beige stripe and she looks great in it) and nice jewelry (she's wearing a necklace custom made for her). She is sophisticated but down-to-earth, friendly, outgoing and has a good sense of humor.
I'm so glad I discovered her personality, because now I'm definitely keeping her.

Edited to add: I was also having a hard time finding a name for her, but when I discovered her personality and stopped trying to force her to be something she isn't. I realized I like the name she came with. It sounds playful and modern and fun.

 

oops duplicate post

 

Mostly it came from the characters merging with doll sculpts. They seem to have a better idea than I do in terms of who they are as a doll.

I bought a young doll who has a strong resemblance to a fave game character (older than doll).
Somewhere along the way of character-doll synchronization. Doll was determined that she's the character at a younger age and there was no arguing with her.

I have characters who would try to steal sculpts during development stage. One runnerup character stole a sculpt while I was wig testing (no eyes) and refuses to leave. Till now the actual character has some trouble stepping out of the stubborn one's shadow to development a more distinctive personality mainly because they are almost similar. However that character get to boss the stubborn one around to keep her in line XD

 

Although my doll isn't here yet I decided on her personality thanks to the movie Pulp Fiction. I became addicted to the movie for about a month watching it every time it came on. Samuel Jackson's character kept saying be cool like Fonzie. It's my favorite part in the movie so my doll will have a cool, chill type attitude. Her name will also be Fonzie. It may seem weird but I like the idea.

 

I don't think any of my dolls actually have a "complete" personality yet and I'm not sure if they'll ever have one.
The bits of personality they have at the moment are based on their appearances. I guess you could say that I go about forming a personality through the visual route, I give them their faceups and try to gather some clothes that I think would suit them, give them a color scheme and a style. I take pictures and have them interacting with their environment. Eventually I've started to notice that the dolls I've spent the most time on have formed some kind of vague preferences, dislikes or reactions. So for me the process is very slow.

 

It depends! Sometimes I have a character concept beforehand, but I try to keep it fairly loose because I can never really tell what a doll's true personality will be until I have them in person. It starts with facial expression, and is highly dependent on whatever eyes and wig I settle on.

With a couple of my dolls, I had no character ideas before I bought them (impulse purchase much?). It took me much longer to find their looks and personalities and to develop their back stories. When I first got my minifee Chloe I tried really hard to make her a lolita girl with long tousled hair, but it was a disaster. I was like OMG I hate this doll! And then one night I popped a short wig on her, switched her eyes, and dressed her up like a circus performer and went Oh, there you are!

 

This is so interesting for me because I'm a relative newcomer to this hobby, and my 3 dolls have so far just sort of sat there. I change their clothes, wigs, poses etc., but (unusually for me) they don't even have names yet. I can see from this that just waiting to see if anything comes to me might not work, so I'm going to take the initiative now and see if I can FIND OUT who they are and what they want from me!

And since I've been a member here (not long but I'm loving it) I have received a little legacy and decided to spend it on dolls - but this time I'm not just going to fall in love with a sculpt and order it, I've got some characters growing in my mind, and I'm going to look for dolls to fit them. You want to know who? OK then, one will be Elizabeth Bennett and the other Galadriel from LOTR. I'm planning to make their clothes myself as far as possible.

So thanks for this thread, its been a real eye opener for me!

 

As soon as I saw her pictures on the site I immediately had to make an OC for her. Then had to make OC's for the rest of the dolls on my wishlist. lel, I just love for them to have personality's when I get them as it's like I already know them .

 

My dolls get their characters over time, after a while, they just start to grow they're own personalities and characteristics. Like My one doll, Kaia at first I wanted her to be sweet and innocent, but now shes more saucy and shes a little bit wild, she grew into a model character and loves the camera, she poses super well with lots of things. I just let them grow into they're characters whatever that may be.

 

I usually see a doll I like, then write a story around them. I don't know where the story comes from, but it usually flows very naturally for me. I'll stop what I'm doing and realize that I've written like 5 pages about the character's back story. I also like to make lists of their "favourites", so like favourite foods/colours/bands/artists/books/etc. I find that helps me figure them out too. I'll also go into specs like their weight, height, hair and eye colour, race and ethnicity, amount of piercings and tattoos they have, and this is all before I even buy the doll! I find that doing this helps me bond with my dolls a lot better, where as the dolls that I don't have stories for are almost impossible for me to bond with and thus I end up usually not liking them and listing them for sale or smt.

 

Yes... definitely they tell you, no matter what preconceived ideas you have about what you want, or what you think from pictures, the actual doll, when you are in its presence, will tell you....not straight away... it takes time.... be patient.. .it'll come .

 

Whenever i go into buying another doll , I always look for one which is more likely to fit into the character I have in mind . When the doll itself comes in - well , it may vary from here , bc looking at the promos and holding an actual doll in " blood and flesh " differs . Sometimes they match perfectly , sometimes I have to change something , so the doll would fit better in it .

 

With my doll, I think it's a gradual thing. I've always been one for creating stories and characters, but my doll isn't really giving out any signs yet. I like to think and spend time planning his personality, but sometimes after changing his clothes or sitting him in a certain way I have a spark of an idea and it goes from there.

 

All my dolls have gotten their personality because they were all either RP characters of mine or characters in my writing. I've just gotten a few dolls in the past that I still have that I just liked the sculpt of, but never really knew what to do with. I'm in the process of revamping them now and developing their characters, so I'm kinda excited to see what's going to shape their personality haha

 

I usually have a sort of character in mind when I order a doll. But sometime the doll itself completely change my plans! I'm thinking of the Harlan from l'Armoire de Dandan I ordered last month. I though it might be a nice ghost-like character, but even before I got her, it "decided" it would be a strong woman warrior (in a cyberpunk world). That's not really the same thing, isn't it? XD

 

Some of my dolls have never had personalities, which lead to them being sold. Nothing I did could get their personality to come out! Then there's some that have personality from the second I see them! Some dolls just suddenly tell you who they are, it seems! I can't bond if I don't get their personality in the first few days though!

 

My Mirwen decided on her own personality. She came to me blank and I did her faceup. I had pictures of cute Mirwens as reference but she turned out looking a little sinister and creepy, and I put a long, dark-haired wig on her which to me, reminded me of The Ring. Now she's my sinister little girl who thinks of evil plots and world domination...

 

It depends on the doll.
For example my first doll, Kerli, got her character from a girl in a short novel I was writing. She experienced a couple of changes because the character in the novel wasn't entirely defined, but she is mostly like she was in the novel.
My second doll, Edgar, was created to follow her in that story, I had a hard time creating him and his personality because with the first face up and wig he seemed so serious... he spent almost a year being not the guy he is now and I almost sold him. But suddenly things turned right, he got a new wig and a new face up and he told me the kind of guy he wanted to be, extremely funny and charming.
My third and last doll, my little Nelliel, grew to be Edgar's little sister. So I thought about how a little girl with such a big brother could be and when the doll came home she did the rest.

I couldn't have bonded with any of my dolls without their personalities, for me they are a big part of this hobby.
But I have learn that you cannot force a personality into a doll. I think the doll will eventually tell you who he/she is, if you give it time and love.

 

Umm idk if my dolls have personalities per se but when rina came home i thought i wanted her to be a certain way but when she came home she was a little bit different than what i had in mind