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How important is resin matching, really?

Aug 16, 2010

    1. I am new to the hobby, and DOA has always been my main source for information. In the same sense, it has also become my main source for opinions.

      I own a Leekeworld Edgar on a female Customhouse body and bought them both off the marketplace sort of because I just really wanted a doll. I am however, in love with her, and don't mind at all that her resin doesn't quite match and that her head is a bit big on her body. In fact, I like that her head is larger!

      I just purchased my second head, a Migidoll Jina, and am looking for a body for her head. I got so frustrated and discouraged reading all of the resin matching threads about Migidoll and how this body's size "absolutely won't work" or how this resin is miles off. I was getting very stressed about finding a body that would work when I realized, I sort of don't care! I realized that my fears were impressing other people. I'd feel uncomfortable showing up at a meet up or introducing my new doll to the board if her resin didn't match because I felt like other doll owners would think I was inadequate, dumb, or not serious about the craft.

      How important is resin matching to you, personally? How do you feel when you see someone else's doll on a body that doesn't match by size or resin? Does it put you off or do you not notice/care at all?



       
    2. Personally it wouldn't bother me at all.
      I like being able to customize my dolls.
      Go for it!
       
    3. Resin match is a personal choice, like so much else in this hobby. For me, personally, I don't need EXACT matches, but something close enough that I can blush the parts to match. For me it's important because for my older characters I like to do nude photography, and the resin not matching well in the photos annoys me. I don't need my resin to match to please anyone else, just me.

      That said, I've seen other people's dolls, where head and body were from different companies, and the resin didn't match, but as a whole I still thought the doll was cute. Not one I'd own, but still pretty in its own right.

      So far as 'bad' face-up, wig, outfit, what have you, I may think to myself that the doll or owner needs some help, but never that it's a waste. Not of a doll, or money. Nor do I feel the owner doesn't deserve their doll. What matters most is that the own loves and enjoys their doll. If they enjoyed giving the doll a face-up that's not professional, or making a dress out of a sock, or a wig out of yarn, even if it doesn't look good to me, that's what matters, that the enjoyed doing it, and are enjoying their doll. Heck, I do my own face-ups. They're decent, but not the stunningly gorgeous works I could get if I hired someone else to do them for me. I've made dresses and sweaters out of socks, and love them. I've also enjoyed doing more complex outfits with fabric that isn't a pair of socks. ^-~ I've enjoyed making my own wigs (which my dolls do NOT use as I don't like how they turned out, I need to re-do parts of them, especially at the top) and intend to make more. I know there are people who look at my home-made face-ups, and clothes, and think it's a waste, because it's not as professional as it could be, but I don't care, because I know I love my dolls, and I wouldn't love this hobby nearly as much if I just hired my projects out to other people, and bought everything.
       
    4. How important is resin matching to you, personally? How do you feel when you see someone else's doll on a body that doesn't match by size or resin? Does it put you off or do you not notice/care at all?
      Actually I have a WS doll on a LAVENDER body! As much as it does bother me, I did get it for cheap, and I have very skintight clothing on him to hide it XD. I'd rather have a head on a body for a decent price. A lot of my hybrids NS skin tones don't quite match, but it's really not that much of an issue to me.

      Branching off, if you see a doll with a "bad" (in your opinion) face up, wig, outfit, etc. do you feel like it was a waste of a doll or the owner doesn't deserve to have it?
      Nah, its all relative. I don't have to look at it if I dont like xD. I'm sure some people dont like mine!
       
    5. How important is resin matching to you, personally? How do you feel when you see someone else's doll on a body that doesn't match by size or resin? Does it put you off or do you not notice/care at all?

      I don't particularly care about resin matching in other people's dolls. It's none of my business whether their Sculpt A from Company X matches their body from Company Y or not because it's not my doll. I usually don't even really notice that kind of thing. Now, if a doll had, say a WS head and a NS body, I might pay slightly more attention because that's a really, really obvious difference, but I still wouldn't care.

      My own I'm a little more interested in. Personally, I like my guys to at least be close in tone, though I will admit that I have one guy whose head doesn't match his body at all. HIs head is yellow normal and his body is pink normal, but I don't care, because it isn't that obvious. I find that most people don't actually pay attention to things like that and are more focussed on the doll overall. For me, proportion is just as important if not more important than resin match, and whether or not I like the body I'm putting a head on is the most important factor of all.
       
    6. The importance of resin match depends very much on the individual (and even on the individual dolls!)

      I know that I'm not that picky. Yes, I do my research, and try to find something close in skincolor, but I don't need an exact match, and I don't feel the need to blush them to each other. For me the look, size, and most importantly posing takes precedence over color-matching.

      But I have a friend who I know would scream if she had to live with some of the resin matches I still find acceptable. She really wants a perfect match, and actually we have an equally hard time finding the perfect bodies for our heads - her because she wants a better resin match, me because I have very specific ideas about joints and height :sweat

      When I see a hybrid with mismatched colors, it doesn't exactly bother me...I notice it of course if the difference is very extreme, but if the picture itself is good enough than it doesn't really bother me. And someone would have to do some pretty extreme things to their dolls for me to think they didn't deserve it...(like...intentionally smashing the doll to the concrete in a fit of anger, or something like that). Everybody started their faceups somewhere, and the first tries are rarely beautiful...the same with clothing and wigs. Actually I admire even sock-dresses because I even managed to screw up those...:sweat
       
    7. How important is resin matching to you, personally? How do you feel when you see someone else's doll on a body that doesn't match by size or resin? Does it put you off or do you not notice/care at all?

      Proportion matters more to me than color, but even with proportion there is some wiggle room -- think slightly larger head 'cute' look, and smaller head more 'realistic' look. Both can look great. It's when you start hitting extremes that it can become jarring. Color doesn't bother me much, to be honest. That's partly because it's not an issue with my own dolls. With my dolls, if it bothers me enough, I can blush the head to match. However, getting a body type that's right for the character is the most important as you can't change that as easily as color. Quite frankly, I don't care if people think my hybrids' colors don't match well enough. The only opinion that matters is my own.

      Then there's Cait -- her body was pinker than her head, but after two years the body has now yellowed so they match perfectly! :lol:

      Branching off, if you see a doll with a "bad" (in your opinion) face up, wig, outfit, etc. do you feel like it was a waste of a doll or the owner doesn't deserve to have it?

      Of course not! No one deserves a doll any more or less than anyone else. The important thing is that the owner is happy with their doll and having fun in the hobby. Besides, people have to start somewhere when it comes to faceups and sewing. If I see something not to my taste, I just go on my way and don't worry about it further.
       
    8. Resin matching doesn't have to be perfect to me, just in a similar tone. Even then though I have a head and body that only match in particular lights - the rest of the time the difference is quite noticeable - but the body shape is more important to me to bring out the doll's character, so I'm happy to live with it. I own quite a number of hybrids, and one thing people forget sometimes when searching for the "perfect match" is that each resin ages differently. I have dolls which looked close to perfect when I got them, but the head has yellowed much faster and to a very different shade to how the body has yellowed, so now the head has been blushed to match. They're things you need to take into consideration when making a hybrid, and if things not matching perfectly bothers you then you probably should just avoid hybrids.

      As for other people's dolls, the only time I notice a difference in resin is when it's a huge difference - like a WS head on an almost NS body. It doesn't really bother me though, it's not my doll.
       
    9. If you care that much about what strangers think of your doll, then by all means take the extra steps to ensure a flawless resin/size match, & ensure it according to everybody else's tastes. But I personally think that would be an exercise in futility, because no two viewers will have the same exact ideas about what constitutes a perfect match in resin/size. I would rather spend my energy creating a doll that suited my own tastes.

      I think a "close enough" resin color/size match is fine, really. If the difference doesn't leap out and poke me in the eye, then it's a success. I've got several friends with some fab hybrids that I can & can't spot across a room-- it's the experimentation process that really interests me, like seeing what body this-or-that head is wearing this week, and whether or not it works better than his last attempt at a body.

      I'm not even going to dignify "who does/doesn't deserve to own a doll" with an answer.
       
    10. enginesoftime ~ I clicked into your thread because it is an issue I do have some personal opinions and thoughts on and I was looking forward to reading other members' responses - unfortunately, you tacked on a really unnecessary, trivial and potentially "bad" extra question there on the end. Not sure why you felt a need to divert your own discussion that way. Please pm me if you would like to edit the thread or begin again. Thanks for understanding.
       
    11. Everyone has a different taste, and a different tolerance of color differences in resin matching. I have sometimes been brought up short when I realized that someone whose opinion I cared about had a sharper filter on about a doll than I do - but ultimately I have to decide for myself what I can live with. There are so many factors that go into finding a good body, not just color match. I would personally give a few clicks off a perfect match if the proportions were spectacular, or the set of the shoulders was everything I dreamed of, for example.
       
    12. Hey, that's what blushing is for, isn't it?
       
    13. How important is resin matching to you, personally? How do you feel when you see someone else's doll on a body that doesn't match by size or resin? Does it put you off or do you not notice/care at all?

      Resin matching isn't horribly important to me. I don't personally mess with hybrids for myself, and other peoples can be as mismatched as their comfortable with. Especially if it means someone with less money gets to enjoy the hobby. I don't tend to notice it in photos, or even in real life unless the match if off severely (bad eyes ftw).
       
    14. I hate it if there is a color difference in my doll parts, but I will blush them to match. I wouldn't own an unblushed doll with a bad resin match though. Honestly if a doll has a bad resin match, bad faceup, bad clothes, or is photographed poorly I wont look at it unless it belongs to someone I know. Even so, if you want to have an unmatched doll and are fine with it then who cares what other people think? I'm not going to want to stare at pictures of your doll for hours but I'm not going to think poorly of you either.
       
    15. Knowing me, it'd tick me off if the resin didn't match almost perfectly. I understand if some companies have other colors aside from the standard - white, normal, tan - colors (such as purple). I really don't understand why these companies abide by one shade for their standard colors. I don't think it would detract from sales - in fact, it might increase them since no one has to worry if the resin will match; if you want a Volks body for your Elfdoll head? You can, and without freaking out!
       
    16. Personally for me, I think it is pretty important. But if it's just a tiny bit of color difference I can accept it.

      As for size....proportion to me is also important. if I see someone put a say MSD head on a SD body, it is pretty ridiculous and does put me off. I've done it once. I put a School C on SD17 body and it looked pretty crazy. It also put many people off @.@.

      If I see someone put a small head on a body that has a giraffe neck....I would think to myself: the proportion looks pretty bad. But that's their doll they can do what they want. I will not like it though. XD
       
    17. I have had pretty good luck in making hybrids and finding resin matches that are if not perfect are at least what I call 8 or 9 out of 10 match. I don't like my dolls to have body blushing so I will hold onto a head and wait a really long time until I can find something close enough or give up and sell it.

      I have two Volks dolls, both have FCS white heads on ltd. white bodies and that hasn't bothered me but I'm otherwise so deeply happy with them that it doesn't stand out to me (<--see my avatar for one of them). Recently I sold a hybrid doll I really wanted to like more but her resin mismatch was bothering me. I guess if a small thing like being a few shades off can get under my skin that much then perhaps the doll's concept needs rethinking, so I sold her and I'm back to square one with trying to find her a new shell. So it can differ from doll to doll.

      edit: Agreeing with Izam about proportion. I'm very particular with my own dolls being just so with scale in their own proportions and compared to the rest of the group. It has some flex and range but it can't go outside my set limits. A lot of dolls don't get purchased due to proportion issues rather than slight mismatches in hybrid resin color. If proportions are off and color? I can't do it.
       
    18. Dear god I am really particular about resin matching. It would bother me to no end for my own dolls. I simply feel that [and this is, IMHO] resin matching to be at least in the close ballpark of hues is a matter of respect for the doll. I would never intentionally mismatch the resin on my dolls and could not stand it for long if I did. I would only create a hybrid for the priority of proportion, which is also very important to me. If a proportionally perfect [again, imho] hybrid was possible with a close enough resin match, then I would blush it until it looked flawless.

      That being said, I can't apply my own standards to other peoples' dolls, verbally or in any other physical manifestation. I would in all likelihood, personally, be put off by the doll, but I'm well aware of differences between people and respect other owners and their dolls as well. It's not something that warrants any sort of pointing out or anything. Not a big thing in the scheme of life.
       
    19. Size matching matters more than color matching to me. I have a resin Volks head on a DD vinyl body and the color match is far from perfect, but in person it doesn't bother me. In the right lighting, it can even photograph well. If her head hole didn't match up with her neck however, I'd probably be bothered severely.
       
    20. Honestly, I used to care a lot about resin matching. Now, it's less about the matching and more about proportion. Bad proportion really frustrates me...and getting my dolls to look they "should" height, weight and size wise as well.

      What really got me over the resin matching thing was learning to do my own faceups. I've forced a match between several heads and bodies so that IRL it's almost impossible to tell. Photoshop can also go a long way towards fixing photos at least XD