How do you like your torso joints?

I prefer a joint at the lower rib level as it seems to be the most natural place for a doll to bend and twist. Most hip joints I have seen do not provide much movement, and the bust joint just seems horribly awkward to me as twisting there makes it look like the ribs have been broken.

 

I infinitely prefer chest joints over hip joints. My first doll had a three-piece torso, and I very quickly came to hate the hip joint. It was incredibly annoying having the hips pop out of position all the time. Chest slouching capabilities beat side-to-side hip movement for me anyways.

 

I actually have the spiritdoll body with two joint, and my experience with it is so-so; I wanted it for posability, but because of the single joints in the arms and legs, I ended up not posing it very much anyway T^T in addition (I'm not sure if it's just strung too loosely) I find that the joint sometimes slouches and locks into place just from me moving the body around, so it's somewhat inconvenient. However, I love the sculpt so much that I can put up with the finicky joints haha

 

I have dolls with all kinds of torsos. Some have the two joints, at the ribs and at the hip. Some have a single joint at the ribs. Some have a single joint at the hip. One of my girls has no joint at all.

I prefer a single joint along the rib cage in boys, and under the bust in girls (or slightly slower, depending on bust size--if her breasts are too big to allow slouching, this joint is pointless). It's most aesthetically pleasing to me, easy to hide with clothing and offers plenty of flexibility for the types of poses I need. I really really despise hip joints. Underwear and low pants get stuck in the joint, it breaks up beautiful hip bones with an unsightly line, and it's usually just not necessary to me. I'd almost rather have a body with no joints than one at the hip!

Speaking of SpiritDoll Elegance, I have the two joint one. As always, I hate the hip joint. >.> But otherwise, I'm very happy with the posing of the body. He slouches all the time, but it's perfect for my teen boy. The chest bones, collar bones and hands are so pretty, I'll deal with the dreaded hip joint!

 

It's definitely possible, but if you want it to look unmodded, it'll take a lot more work than just gluing it together.

Still, I think the Elegance body is pretty awesome. His chest is double jointed, as are his arms and legs. I can usually get Kier to do whatever I want him to do:

 

Ooo I've wondered if I'm doing it wrong? I can't pose mine at all like that can you show me closer pics of the joints? I'm pretty sure mine is single jointed but since we have the same body perhaps I chose an option for single joints? I'm so confused lol... still consider myself a noob ;w;

Edit: okay now I feel dumb ToT im cringing really hard at myself, didn't understand how these joints worked

 

No problem! Every doll body poses differently, the trick is figuring out how the joints work, and finding the center of balance so they don't fall over. Sometimes, the joints are hard to move and you have to pull the small piece out and adjust it before it works right. With my boy, his elbows tend to want to lock, and behave like a single jointed doll, so it's easy for me to see how you might mistake him for one. I have to pull his arm out so I can see the string, then bend the arm like I want and let it rest in that position, if that makes sense. Just bending his hand towards his shoulder doesn't work and his arm will snap back. My boy is strung a bit loosely and I think that helps with his slouchy, lazy posture and posing. A tiny bit of low temp hot glue spread thinly in his joints can add friction as well, if he's too kicky or doesn't want to stay in the poses you put him in.

My boy is definitely double jointed in elbows and knees, and I got this body directly from Spiritdoll in late 2013. You can see his elbow range HERE and knee both straight and bent HERE. Please excuse the poor lighting, as it's midnight here, and also the lint/discoloration...his jeans do that and I didn't bother to clean him up for pix. XD

If you have more questions or want additional advice, please feel free to send me a message so I don't take this thread too far off topic. I don't mind helping at all!

 

I really prefer bodies with chest and hip joint. Though I do not like all hip joints. It really depends how well they are constructed. And sueding definitely helps. If there are no locks, a hip joint just pops out all the time, and you get a surprise bow. My very first body, a first generation Granado, had no hip lock at all, and he bowed all the time. Super annoying, really.

 

I like the aesthetic look of how a joint in the bust and hip looks like. Although my doll only has a hip joint it is kind of annoying when I try to pose her as the hip tends to pop out of place. Hot glue seducing her definitely helped in pose ability though.

 

I prefer just one torso joint under the ribcage, or no torso joint at all. I have a few dolls with the torso and hip joint, and generally the hip joint doesn't add to the posability. It might make the torso tilt forward or back, which isn't very useful, IMO. Also, a doll with no torso joint can esthetically be very pretty.

I don't like the look of a torso joint directly under the bust, especially on female dolls.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

I actually prefer a hip/waist joint (I think it's actually the waist we're talking about, isn't it?), but all my dolls are boys and that matters because of the difference in pelvic shape between (most) men and women.

The idea of bending from below the ribs is okay for standing poses, but for sitting or bending right over it doesn't help. When you slouch a little in a chair, say, you're bending from the base of your back a little, with the pelvis tilted. This is only possible if there's a joint there. The hip and chest joints together give a bigger range of movement, as human spines are bendy all the way down. We don't have a joint, but since BJDs have to, I prefer two to one. As for the bust thing, I don't know because I don't have any girls, but certainly on my boys, they look fine with the chest joints there and it's actually more discreet than it would be if it was further down. In my case that's not so important anyway since they all have vests and shirts on!

Anyhow, I suppose it's a matter of choice but I go for maximum posability every time. I've not had any problems at all with the waist joint.

 

For a really heavy doll like my Nezu, single jointed torso is the best since it’s easy to pick her up!

 

I prefer three part torsos, with a joint at the end of the pectorals for males, and bust-line for females. The second joint at the mid-torso ending around the area where the hips begin, and the third being the whole hip area. Some companies kind of ruin he hip sculpt when they do a hip joint, but I don't mind it too much if the rest of the sculpting is nice. I am someone who goes for (what I find) aesthetically pleasing all the time, rather than posing abilities, but I like three piece torsos a lot more than single jointed or no jointed-torsos. I'm also not a fan of torsos that are single jointed, and the joint is at the (end) of the rib cage. I know it is the most naturally looking, if we compare to where humans naturally bend/hunch, but I don't find it appealing as a joint separation on a doll (I take a lot of nudes, so I am a bit picky about joint placing on bodies overall, but mostly torsos). I find a joint at the bust-line to be more visually appealing, so I prefer that than the rib cage one -- which was pretty popular in the old days of BJD, a lot of my old-school BJD have two part torsos with joints at the rib-cage and it bothers me now more than ever before. (:

 

Dolls pose most naturally with a joint at the waist or under the ribs. I understand some people dont like to see joints there, but my dolls wear clothes and im more concerned with sitting, slouching, lounging, naturally. I feel like underbust joints are made to arch their backs sexily, and tend to look awkward when you try to make the sit straight let alone slouch.

 

Mobility tends to win out over aesthetics with me because I am not the sort that typically has my dolls sitting around with a lot of skin showing. That being said, I don't like the look of a lot of waist joints in different sculpts. Many look like the doll is wearing bulky, unflattering resin underwear. If I'm going to sacrifice aesthetics, the functionality of the joints better be worth it. It is one of the reasons I settled on Loongsoul for my first doll. I think they did a good job of making their three piece torsos still look aesthetically pleasing while having great functionality. You can get extreme poses with them while at the same time if you aren't using the joints you won't even notice they are there because everything locks firmly into place.

 

I know this thread was necro'd from 2+ years ago, but thank you. I was wanting to ask this myself to get an idea of what people like. I'm wanting to try my hand at making dolls.
Personally, I value poseability above everything else.

 

Ordinarily, I absolutely love 3 part torsos, and joints under the bust/pecs, just for how discrete they manage to be. The one time I can’t deal with that placement at all is when I’m doing MtF mods, and breasts tend to extend lower than pecs, but I now have to try not to compromise posing too much in sculpting that, or sculpt the breasts too high, or I have to give in and figure out a way to get back some of that poseability. None of it works as well as that mid-torso joint. i didn’t realize this till I did my first mod (with a mid torso/rib cage joint) and then went looking for another body for my next. I like the aesthetic of chest joints, but they make mods a lot harder!