Inspiration for a Character?

I kind of had in mind what his character would be before he arrived, and now that I have my story round it's getting more and more the way I want it to be ^^;; Also, RP-ing helps a lot (and is just random fun xD) As for my want-to-have/future dolls, I kind of have them in the storyline, and RP with them already (teeleelee I'm ebil ) so their characters are more clear then Mitsu's was. But everything can change once I have them in resin forms, really ^^;;

 

Some dolls will tell you who they are, others make you wait. The more you handle/interact with them may help you see who they are. There is no trick or guaranteed way to finding them.
My first, Derry, was just pure love at first sight. I got him in January and am now just seeing who he is – a time lord. I had tried to find him a lady but none suited him. He seemed aloof, like he had no major attachments to anyone or anything, highly intelligent, and ageless.
My dear Caitlyn I still need to pin down; I’ve had her since mid-April. No matter what I put on her she can carry it off. I’ve gone from Victorian frills to 80s punk and she looks good. Maybe an actress? She's not talking, just like Mona Lisa.
My little Banji pair told me they were fairies and gave me their names, Windshadow and Starbreeze.
My latest acquisition is the only one talking to me LOUD & CLEAR. I’ve purchased a white Wing from a fellow DOA member. He’s let me know that he is a snow elf and his name is Birch; he's chosen his eyes, wig, and a beautiful array of weapons. He’s reminded me of where I stored the material for his main outfit, which trim he wants, and exactly how he wants it styled. He's detailed most of his wardrobe already, from headpieces to boots. He is so clear in my mind it is scary! And he isn’t here yet!

 

Hm, tough one. XD I write a lot, and I have a LOT of characters (mostly aliens of one shape or another), but I don't think I'd want to live with any of the little buggers because morst of them are somewhat antagonistic, so I really wouldn't want them in resin form. XD

As a result, I didn't even think about Scara's character until he arrived.. in fact, even once he came here, it never crossed my mind. But like with a new friend, as we spent time together, i learnt what he was like - the things he was interested in, places he likes etc. Turns out he's a little sun-seeker ><; I hate going out in the sun, but I spent the whole summer outside with him. XD

I had no idea for Fandango either, but I drew some eyebrows on him for a laugh, and when one of my friends came over from America, we joked about him being the "Dark Lord"; and it kinda stuck. XD His first faceup was a complete mess, but it helped to show me what he was like; and recently I re-did it. With his best friend now coming home, it seemed like a good time t oget him a body, and since he's been here, both his and Scaramouche's personalities have started to shine and gleam next to each other. XD

Xiez'wan is sultry, childish and aggressive - I'm still learning about her. Figaro seems to be a bit of yin to Xiez's Yang; she's quite calm and collected, but she knows what she wants, and she'll get it by being grown up and mature about it.

They're nothing special, just ordinary people, but that's kinda what I like about them. n_n ... Although, when I look at Fandango, all I can see is Fandango, if that makes sense, whereas Scara is a lot more versatile. Scara seems timeless in that I could dress him in any fashion and he'd find a place in that world. Dacchan, however, seems firmly stuck in the 20th Century, or possibly even the future. Likewise, Xiez is pretty versatile too.

Now their "world" is starting to take shape, with the XioniQ team coming home to their owners, I've decided I might like to write a story about them, but it will be intentionally quite ridiculous. XD

My only worry is that one day, I'll wake up and Scara will say to me "Look... I've been too afraid to tell you this for quite some time now. Please don't be shocked, but I'm actually an alien."; which would absolutely KILL me. xD I don't want to live with aliens T_T! XD

 

Well, when I first started thinking about getting a BJD (before I was entirely serious) I was just thinking of getting one to be a physical model of one of the characters I had already had in my head. And, while I still want a doll for Sebastian and Colin and Kino, when I decided on getting a MNF Chiwoo, none of them fit his face at all. Despite not even having him yet, he's developing a character entirely all his own in my mind.

What I do often, though, is something I do with all my characters that helps me to get their stories and personalities straight:

I mentally sit down with them, and just...talk. Often. It may seem silly -even kinda crazy- and a waste of time (because when I'm doing this it looks like I'm just sitting there and staring off into space) but I find that it really helps. Sometimes I interview the, like asking questions like "how old are you?", "what time of year would you like to be born?", "whats your favorite thing to do?", ect. And sometimes I just talk to them about whatever (Me: "I had a crappy day. Jr. College sucks." Adrian: "So what? Just get through it. At least your not stuck here all day *pouts*").

Adrian is proving himself to be more and more like a brat-boy who doesn't like to admit that he's actually a sweetie, and that's entirely diffrent than anything I had planned for him. He also insists that his eyes a a very specific color of green, which is also not anything I had in mind. ^_^; Of course, when he gets here, it could be entirely diffrent: that's just the way it goes. I guess you could call it Roleplaying, but...not really.

((Heh ^_^; Yeah, I do realize how mental I sound. I DO have a life and friends and other things I think about -like we all do-, it's just that I find myself doing this out of habit when I'm bored -which is often- and I think my characters are more developed for it.))

That said, sometimes it just takes time. Like a shy person or new friend, you might not really know who your doll is for a while. When I was first developing Colin (not a doll, a webcomic character) for a very long time he was just this mild mannered, shy, nice kind of guy who just happened to love/be loved by Sebastian.

It took me almost three months to even understand WHY and see that benethe his shy exterior, he was a hellcat with an attitude and a heart of (grudingly) gold. While Sebastian was much quicker in presenting himself and seemed the extream one, he turned out to be the REAL mild one compared to Colin, and it just took a bit to see that. Hopefully your new boy will start showing through in your mind soon as you discover his character more and more.

 

My Tony and Na-Nu-Ri were existing characters before I had them, so for now I'll just talk about my Wi.

He's still taking a while to come to me, funny enough. He started out sarcastic and playful but it slowly came into sweet and mischievous! Golly. Like real people, I don't think I'll get to know him completely, and he's always changing anyway. All it takes is talking and bonding. : )

 

EVERY MOLD I LIKE HAS TO TALK TO ME. IF IT DOESN'T TALK TO ME I DON'T LIKE IT. LIKE JEWLRY AND SHOES. :p BUT I CAN LOOK AT A MOLD AND SAY HE'S POUTY. HE'S SPOILED. HE'S CRANKY, HE'S A PRANKSTER. MY MEGI IS KINIVING, ADN EVIL. HE ALWAYS LOOKS LIKE HE'S PLOTTING SOMETHING.

 

I have some that are characters from a story that I had been working on before I got into bjds. For them, it was a matter of finding the right face sculpt, wigs, eyes, getting their faceups right--and it's amazing how little things make a *huge* difference. For instance, Lorry has an old hand-me-down coat he always wears, and when my roommate made him the coat last week and put it on, he was so much more himself (if that makes any sense at all).

I also have a couple of dolls who are not based on characters, and it was a matter of getting to know them and their personalities. For them, just spending time with them helped, and I went through the picking eyes and wigs thing. My roommate and I have a box of eyes and so I tried a bunch of different ones in my two girls until I found what felt right for them.

 

I always pick a personality before I get a doll but "making" the doll I guess comes from all different places.
Part of one of my characters is me, part is ripped of from a character from a show. So with the two combined parts she is her own person.
The second is kinda like the perfect daughter, polite, loving and affectionate.
I guess it depends on the things you like and who you'd like to be surrounded by. I think it also helps if you concider how your doll would feel about you.

 

Lets see...Mike and King have existed for 20 years...way before I think even Volks made the first BJD we know today! So they picked the doll. With Kalan and Kyo for example, they were blank. But when Kyo got here, I just instantly thought "Japanese Rocker" and went with that flow. Kalan took longer. He was human, a smirky teenager. But as I played with him, changed eyes and such, I discovered he was really a dragon in disguise.

 

Riku was easy! I just had to put more depth into Kingdom Hearts' Riku and then he sort of took his own spin as well.

Dee had a base personality from her previous owner, but she fell into a character quickly once I finished her faceup. She doesn't particularly have a back story... but she has character to her.

Tally was an impulse buy, but she is getting personality. I don't know if I will ever make her a back story, although I have had ideas to weave her into Killia's back story.

Killia... Killia is a character I keep having dreams about. I am writing his story and every night his story becomes more. So for him, dreams create him. As soon as I saw the snarky little fox eyed brat Dollzone Mo, I knew Killia was ready to be born. His bodyless spirit is already tormenting Riku as well Killia would. XD

Boy do I have photostories planned for those two... BWAHAHAHA!

 

I never know who they are until they arrive and I open the box. ^_^

Lol, some of them come out of the box talking, as it were. They tell me right away what their name is, and all about themselves.

Others are shy, or more secretive. They have to get comfortable, and know that they are safe, before they start to share.

It all depends on the doll.

They're just like human folk really.

Once they realize how much you love them, and they know they can trust you, then they will open up. ^_^

 

I used tarot cards to help me figure out who Alexis is. I shuffled my cards and spread them out face down on the coffee table. I held Alexis in one hand, and raised one of her arms straight up. Then I moved her slowly over the cards until her arm fell and landed on one. I did this three times, then I interpreted the three cards as aspects of her character. It was really a lot of fun. My roommate, (comicbookartistboi) has used this same method for his "family" as well. The randomness of the card drawing seems to keep things very interesting.

 

I actually saw El and kind of put together this idea of what I wanted my first doll to be... and then named him... and then came up with a story. For Hayden, anyway. He kind of developed this sarcastic, snarky nature as I did more photostories with him.
Eiji was my first ever role playing character, and he's definately my favourite by far. He's appeared in every game I've ever played in, whether it be because I'm playing him or because my friends love to just random shove him somewhere. His personality came from... thin air. I really like the idea of someone who starts with nothing and ends up with everything... by doing nothing. That's Eiji.
I think Eiji already has an established character, a doll created for the personality, whereas Hayden was created for the doll. Whether that makes sense...

 

Pagandollfie, that's a really cool idea.

 

Ooh tarot! I know a lot of people who do that for characters, settings, and plot twists :3 I've never done it, but I've done something simular with playing cards when I was really stuck for ideas.

 

I didn't think too much of Chyou's (my camine) personality or backstory at all until he arrived (Ie: he was not an already existing character). I knew he'd most likely be a shy little thing but I knew with a change of wig and eyes he could be completely different so I tried not to think about it too much. x3

I tried picking out a name for him, it was supposed to be Chai but a few days before he was home I changed it to Chyou. :3 When he got home (after a long two months TwT) I wasn't sure if the name was perfect, I thought it was too girly, but I just kept calling him it since I had no other alternative and when I got him into some better clothes I knew it was the right name for him. For me, his personality really starting coming through once he found himself a crush through the Perfect Match here. XD

He's still definitely changing, becoming not quite so shy and naive, still slightly reserved but he's been much more outgoing (more so than I ever expected or anticipated him to be!)

My second boy (a hound) is a character that stemmed off of Chyou's backstory. I never thought to make a doll of him, but I knew I wanted a hound and that doll is perfect for Hakura. Hakura has a preplanned name and an outline of a personality, but I'm sure once he gets home he'll change just as Chyou has. ^^

 

It's sort-of a six of one, half-a-dozen of another situation over here at Turtle House... Some of these guys were picked specifically to be resin avatars for particular gaming or fiction characters that I already knew well, and wanted to have in a more physical form. Others were developed whole-cloth after I had the doll in my possession...

Those "after-the-fact" characters tend to come from the over all impressions that I get looking at the doll and interacting with it. Its features. The attitude of its face-up. The way it poses. The sorts of wigs or eyes or costumes that suit it best... I tinker with all of my dolls constantly, especially when I'm trying to puzzle out who they are where they'll fit into things (Or even *if* they'll fit into things, as the case may be.), so it's partly a physical process as well as a mental one.

I take a million pictures. I keep them over here with me while I'm working or web browsing. I do little thought experiments and brain-storming excersices, just like I would do with a new RPG or fiction character... and eventually they get a name and a role and a history pieced together, and settle into their place in the household.

Some of them remain basically static after they're established... Seimei, for instance, hasn't changed a bit from the individual he was when I was originally pondering Harumatsu's sensei... Others can change very radically as other personalities are added to the cast, or as complexities are introduced in the form of social interactions if you're into that sort of thing, and the character you end up with bears little or no resembance to the one you started with. The Tien Jen that's a part of my current cast isn't the least bit like the Tien Jen I had a year ago, character-wise. They're not the same "person".

I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing from a character ownership point of view... but it is definitely an interesting thing...

 

Well for me it started out on paper.

I had done some minor character designs for a game i'm going to be working on.
I wanted to have a physical outlet with which to work from and get a feel for the characters personalities and such, so I started earning and saving for the dolls I felt looked like my characters.

the dolls I have chosen(8 in total) are my final desisions sculptwise and since I will not be buying anymore afterwards they will remain as my permanent collection!

now, when i return from my trip, I will start working on the actual character renders/animation for the game. I will post my character designs sometime in the future...or perhaps screens of my renders...whichever comes first.

^_^

 

While I have many characters, I fell in love with the Breakaway mold with no character in mind and started developing a character based on the sculpt instead. I did it in two basic ways which I use to develope other characteres as well.

Firstly was the writing of a basic biodata. Name, age, hobbies, likes, dislikes, location, personality, etc based on how I feel I wanted him to be and how it would fit the sculpt. That was the skeleton of the character. Then I started bouncing ideas of my friend. The funnest way is always to create situations and deciding how he would react in such situations. What would he do if someone hit on him? What would he do if he was forced into a dress? From random to important situations.

I did all these before he arrived. ^_^; Naturally, once he did arrive, there was tweaking of his personality. Little things were changed or added on. His history was expanded. His character was delved into greater detail. All this was done mostly through photostories, photos and even some of those little memes you find floating around LJs and such. That's how I worked on Ciaran's character anyway. Hope it helps some. ^__^