How do you create/come up with your doll characters?

I just lay out a base depending on the name I want or the base of the doll and then as I roleplay them and draw them and so on, they're character just falls into place and evolves and take shape.
I never really intend on basing my characters on real people, but sometimes they become eerily similar... c:

 

What I've been able to enjoy most of this hobby is developing the character behind my doll. Originally I had a personality and a background all set in line for his arrival but over the years both has changed into what I believe suits him much more. He has a story with a background that suits his personality. So this brings me to ask...
How in depth is your doll's character/background story?
Do they even have a story?
If your other dolls are involved, to what extent and how many?
Of course these are just basic questions to get the conversation going but more so I'd like to hear about the stories behind your doll(s).
(Sorry if this kind of topic has already been made btw)

 

Most of mine are based on a set of OCs I developed many, many years ago. As I've found sculpts that look like them, I've slowly built up the cast from their story, and have a decent number of them together so far. One is based on an existing character, and since he's a custom sculpt actually done from that one, and will ultimately be modded to match that character, I regard him as similar to the OCs--a doll stepping into the role of a character that's already there.

I also have three that I just got because I liked them, one of whom fell out of the box with so much sass and attitude that she's been writing her own character, and the other two I'm still slowly feeling out. I sort of think of all of them as fairies/fey, though, since none are actually human dolls; Akane definitely wants to be a fairy spirit, and the other two are fitting more and more into a similar role, too.

One of the more interesting things I've found, though, with these guys is how much personality an individual doll itself can have, and how some of them have fit so well with their own characters; one of my OCs (who I have in both adult and child form) is fairly frail and sickly--his adult version is the worst stander I have in my collection, and his child counterpart, from a company known for their posing, isn't as good at standing as the other of the same model. Most of the others are pretty good standers (one is a rock), but that particular one is an accomplishment every time I get him on his feet, much like the character he was bought for.

 

My characters are not based off of real people. None of my dolls are, and neither are any of my written characters. Part of the reason why I create is to escape from my own reality.(actually, that's probably the main reason.)

When the challenge of creating a character for a doll was first posed to me, I was a little stumped. I didn't really know where to start. I usually draw my characters, so this was new for me. I couldn't imagine making one of my book characters into a doll. It just seemed.... strange. So, what I did was stole characters from my favorite author, Georgette Heyer, and made her characters into dolls.

It's sort of gotten a little out of control, because now I have 7 dolls, 5 of them Georgette Heyer characters, and I've sort of spun my weird little fanfiction universe of hers. I'm SURE she would be rolling in her grave over this. LOL.

 

There's no one set way that I come up with mine. Sometimes they crawl out of the wood work and sometimes they don't,either way it's usually when I'm either-
a)Trying to think of something else
b)Am bored and my mind wanders
c)Staring off blankly into space for no aparent reason
d)Trying to think of one,but those usually end up way different then I imagine them
or e) That time late at night when I'm either trying to go to sleep or when I'm still awake but stuck in limbo between awake and asleep. That's when all the crazy good stuff pops by to party. Lol xD

As for passing them off real people-
To my knowledge I've never actively done it on purpose but some small attributes from said person may at times slip in amongst the character's,otherwise I generally don't do it.

 

There is two process :

I already have the personnality in mind, so I look for a mold that would totally fit what I have in mind.

Or

I would look at a mold and tell me "this make up make me think of a bad boy, but his eye color are very sweet, so he could be some kind of a rude boy who doesn't know how to show feelings because something bad happen to him... However, his name is *fill the blank* because it means *fill the blank* in this language..."

So it really depends on my state of mind when I'm looking for a BJD

 

To me it's pretty easy to create characters, partially because I've been writting stories since a very young age as well as an extensive "career" of fourteen years in roleplaying.

The key is to treat the character as a separate entity that's completely separated from you (general you) so that favoritism and pity don't kick into play when you have to determine both what/who they are as well as what will happen to them. After the character's general "image" has been projected to fit where you want them to in the set storyline you may begin to state questions pertaining to the obvious and not so obvious aspects of what makes them what they are. They usually take flight on their own without much effort (although there are always cases of more 'clamped up' characters that will require a lot more thinking until they can come through like the rest.

The easiest way to do this is pick their "current point in time" and work backwards from it. Who are they being the first step and how did they come to be that way being all the rest.

 

I'm, like many others, a writer so my characters are all but one from my story. Some of them are 4-5 years old, while others have just been created. I'm not sure I'm anywhere near done planning my story, though I've been writing on it for 5 years.
But the inspiration for the actual characters come from all kinds of different things. Music, anime, TV shows, books, and sometimes real people.
It's a totally coincidence, but two of my character, where only one of them is home, reminds me a lot of two of my friends. I didn't intend for it to happen, it just ended up like this.
My friends are completely aware of it, and thinks it okay.

 

Most of mine fit into the story that I'm making. Most of them. Then again, the story is based off of a tabletop RPG I used to play/still love. My boys are all from that. The girl arriving eventually will be too.

 

The dolls I'm planning to get are based off of my characters from the high-fantasy LARP group I'm in. Since finding medieval clothing for BJDs is super hard, an idea popped into my head, and I started writing an AU of the LARP universe set in the modern-day version of the fictional kingdom, where the doll characters are the reincarnations of my LARP characters.

I'm an actor as well, so creating characters comes quite naturally. I just think of stories and scenarios in my head and bam! dialogue and inspiration happens.

 

Ok, I'm kinda weird here but my dolls tell me who they are. I'll get in a doll & look at it & pretty soon an idea comes into my head about the doll's character. Most of my dolls are fantasy creatures, human looking but things like fairies, Immortals, Warrior Sorcerers. time travelers, creatures such as that. Their characters really began with an idea I had about The Lodge, a place out of time & space that could travel through the dimensions & was a place of peace & light for all who needed it.

Even after all these years, I'm still learning new things about my characters as they "tell" me more about themselves.

 

I come up with my characters by inspiration of real life. For example, I had a nice day on stable, then I came home and looked again on mold that I like... Ta-da! Idea of that doll being horse lover appears in my mind. Then it develops, becomes more fantastic ('cause I love fantasy). The world around story appears and develops too. If that day the weather is fine, world can became happy and sunny, if it's raining, I can come up with something like dark fantasy or whatever. I don't think of it for purpose. It just appears in my head like someone just told me about it.
The only thing I think through by myself is personality. I'd never come up with character with whom I would not like communicate in real life

 

I research until I have found a sculpt and body that I like, start looking at clothes and wigs and things like that for them.
I create the character from there, I also like to go on dress up sites to get more ideas they're very helpful!

 

I'm really big into mythology and history, so I tend to create my OC's depending on whatever trend I've been reading about that grips me. For example, lately I've been really fascinated with the theme of viragos, temptresses, and infamous women such as Delilah, Bathsheba, Lilith, Circe, Medea, and so on. I'll take one of these women and create my own little in-story around them, like, maybe they were misunderstood and there's more to the story that we know. Also, the historical and mythological references give me great inspiration on creating costumes and accessories for them. It can get really elaborate!

Hope that's helpful.

 

When I'm coming up with a doll character I look through my sketch books to see which character I want my BJD to model after.

 

I have started sketching out characters and looking at different bodies and faceups. I think that writing stories may help, too.

 

I haven't based any of my characters on real people. I have two different 'storylines', with different character-creation methods for each.

My SuperGems (SDs) and TeenieGems (tinies) all belong to the same story. The first doll I got, Soom Cuprit, had her character formed just by looking at her features and thinking about what sort of person she looked like. To me, Cuprit looks uncertain, reticent, withdrawn and passive. I pictured her character as being one that wants to go with the flow and not make waves (due to being passive and peaceful), but who constantly finds herself in the middle of trouble and being disliked by people (hence her uncertainty and concerned expression). From this base, I started planning the fictional world my characters lives in. As I developed the world more, I developed Cuprit's character further. I also thought up new characters.

As I bought more dolls, sometimes they would fit a character I'd already fully designed (for example, I bought Chrom to portray a character I developed as part of Cuprit's story), and sometimes they fill a slot of a half-thought-out character (like my Heliot and Alex, who became Chrom's followers. I knew he had followers, but didn't flesh them out fully until I bought dolls for them), and sometimes I buy a doll with no character in mind and eventually create a character that fits them (like my Amber, who had no character for years until I bought my Ai twins, and decided all three dolls are automatons, with the Ai twins being prototypes of Amber).

My Rosettes (MSDs) have a completely different story. As soon as I saw the Rosette dolls Soom sells, I knew I had to own some of them (preferably one of each sculpt). And when Soom held their Free Choice Event and offered the Rosette girls in tan, I jumped in and bought two. I knew from the start that I was planning on keeping the boarding school setting that Soom created for Rosette dolls, although I'll be adapting it a bit. That meant I knew I wanted at least two dolls, since one schoolgirl alone would be very hard to write stories for. So I picked my two favourite sculpts (Marguerite and Delilah), and started planning characters for them. I did the same thing as for Cuprit, looking at each dolls features and thinking about what sort of character they looked like. To me, Delilah seems more shy and innocent, while Marguerite seems more mature and outgoing, so I based their characters around those attributes. As I thought more about how characters like that would react to being sent to boarding school, and how they'd interact with each other, I developed their individual characters more.

Sorry for writing so many words Creating and developing characters is my favourite aspect of this hobby, so I tend to put a lot of thought into it!

 

I look for dolls that I can base off of RP characters. With that I usually already have a character in mind for them. If I looked for another way, it would probably be the same way I make my story characters. Add a little of you, a little of someone you somewhat know(not necessarily personally), take one trait you can think up for them based off of their looks, mix it all together, and try to make it into a coherent personality and back story. Sometime just imagining them as the star of their own story and letting it go from there can lead to some good ideas.