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Uncanny Valley / Assymetrical Sculpts

May 12, 2021

    1. I was wondering to myself why I don't seem to be interested in a lot of the more popular face sculpts, even when I find those features attractive in real life. It came to me after seeing someone I thought was handsome with a nose I see all the time on BJD faces, but those noses I never seem to find appealing when on a bjd. I began wondering if it had to do with the uncanny valley effect - perhaps dolls look too perfect and so, to my eye, they become unappealing in some way.

      It made me wonder if there are sculpts out there with more realistic assymetry? Sound off if you know of any so I can test my hypothesis :thumbup

      NB. I think I'm trying to distinguish this against my seeming appeal for feature shapes that don't seem to be as common - am I interested in those sculpts BECAUSE they aren't common / dont fit into Eurocentric standards of beauty, or some other reason? Is it because I have this idea of what I'm looking for and nothing seems to quite fit? Or something else?

      I recently saw someone's doll and I was all, "oh I actually like that!" but then seeing the sculpt itself I changed my mind and realized "oh I like the faceup and posing in this particular photo". :XD: Maybe its just a challenge with only seeing things in photos and not really seeing them in person.
       
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    2. You really can ADD that asymmetry with faceups in general, if necessary. But I've noticed most sculpts seem to have asymmetrical eye shapes anyway. Like, the actual doll, not the product photo.
       
    3. If the doll is sculpted you can see all sorts of it evident. Painting tends to hide these things as we attempt to fool the eye. Try looking for blank pictures of them. It let's you see what there is to work with without the face up. That's what I like to see as I look at sculpts.
       
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    4. My favorite company, Bluefairy, has a lot of sculpts with one eye opening a bit larger than the other.

      It seems that hands-on sculpting produces more natural asymmetries. It may be that the meshes, the digital forms digital sculpting uses start off completely symmetrical.
       
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    5. Hmm well there are a few artists that sell heads of famous celebrities and the like or otherwise heads that are super realistic
      The other thing that comes to mind is something like meeksdoll that is very unconventional
      There’s also bonelace who is opening a pre-order soon for a female orc doll that has a very unconventional body type (and I personally love).
      With dolls that get away from Eurocentric ideas of beauty, I adore Impldoll Candice

      Edit: I didn’t realize that this was under discussion whoops. I’m going to leave my suggestions up because they’re all dolls who I think deserve more attention

      I do agree that I love dolls with interesting faces, part of the reason I spend so much time in this hobby is that I love finding the weird and uncommon, often there’s kinda a bland sameness to a lot of dolls, so it’s fun getting out there and finding something different. I also love modding for that reason as well. Like I have one character whose defining trait is his snake like smile and I know I’m either going to find dolls that match that one single trait or dolls that actually look like him. So modding is the way to go!
       
      #5 kiraabsol, May 12, 2021
      Last edited: May 12, 2021
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    6. Hmm... So I definitely think about this myself (although I'm not as much interested in overly realistic sculpts anymore). I don't think for me it's the uncanny Valley though perhaps, but I strongly dislike doll faces that feel too "perfect" or "sterile" and this can have to do with symmetry as well as just the proportion of different features together and perceived "imperfections" as well as type of expression. So maybe we have similar taste, maybe not, but some of the artists/ companies that tend to make more realistic faces that I like more for various reasons are: Amadiz Studio, Dragon Shell Doll, Rainman, Dollmore, Dollshe, Iplehouse (sometimes), Dollklans, Pasha Pasha, and probably more but I'm not thinking of them.

      I definitely find that dolls made with 3D sculpting tools can fall into an indesireable "boring/ overly perfect/ expressionless" place for me but I do think that a lot of artists counteract this effect even with extremely symmetrical sculpts by simply choosing to exaggerate and pronounce certain features in a way that I think gives the face more personality. Anyway, even if you don't like any of my suggestions I understand completely where you're coming from and I hope you have success finding some of the types of faces you're looking for!
       
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    7. Any hand sculpted BJD will be asymmetric, it's the nature of the artform. I've never owned a hand sculpted doll that was perfectly symmetric and in a few cases some sculpts I've had were so asymmetric that it was also a problem. I'm thinking of one where one eye was whoa, so much higher than the other.

      But I prefer hand sculpted dolls for exactly this reason, the little imperfections make the doll's appearance more natural, more human. I don't have artistic problems with 3D rendered sculpts as an artform, but the perfectly symmetrical faces leave me cold. It feels more akin to a mass produced doll because you can't see the hand of the artist in the physical work. I've only ever liked symmetric sculpts when they've been painted to have human quirk (a smirk, eyebrow expression, etc). And I think they are very nicely suited to be non-human characters (like they're supposed to be androids or gods or something).

      Now, we do paint and photograph our dolls to look as best they can, so asymmetry may disappear in photos. A person's dominant eye will also fill in the opposite side of our vision making things seem more symmetrical than they are. I think with dolls, seeing the sculpt in person is what really informs you of it's true look as you can turn it in all directions in various lighting.
       
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    8. If you're looking for unintentional asymmetry, Migidoll Ryu is the one that comes to mind as the most asymmetrical. Flip him upside-down if you want to see what I mean. Right-side up, it's not as easy to see, upside-down is a whole new story. Supposedly Miho has two different sized eyes, but I've had one nearly the whole time I've been in this hobby and never noticed.

      Ringdoll K has two different sized eyes, something I did not notice until I was modding one of mine, and could not get the eyes symmetrical...because they didn't start off that way. Mine wears an eyepatch (I prefer my dolls asymmetrical too, but I just do it myself with faceups)

      If you want asymmetry on purpose, Granado Hansel is your man.
       
    9. Thanks for all the responses! It seems like assymetry is achieved, mostly as we notice it, from a slightly different shaped eye. I think I have to agree then that it must be other aspects of the face being in too perfect a proportion of each other (cheeks, jaws, forehead, nose) that throws me off.

      I think I will try looking at pictures of dolls upside down to see if that changes my perception of them. XD
       
    10. I don't look for asymmetry, per se, but I know what you're talking about - those delicately perfect features that are hyper realistic, but at the same time, defy reality. For me, I tend to gravitate toward sculpts that have "flaws" - especially big noses (for guys, anyway). Iplehouse's Leonard, for example, is one of my favorites when he's painted well, with unusual catlike eyes and a very big nose that has a tall, wide bridge. It's definitely a big honker. Yeah, if he were a real guy he could probably get a job modeling on the front cover of GQ, but at the same time, there's not much about him that is standard, conventional beauty. I had mine painted with a scar on one eyebrow and a couple of small moles on his face - and maybe it was those additions that made him asymmetrical, but he may have been the most eye catching doll I've ever owned.
       
    11. I totally agree with this, especially the idea that it has more to with features than symmetry. Two of my favorite artists (you've listed many other of my faves right above lol and this applies to them too), Rugged Realism and Natalia Loseva, are digital sculptors who make pretty much perfectly symmetrical sculpts only. However, they choose very varied features for their dolls, resulting in undeniably beautiful faces that still manage to miss out on the uncanny valley effect. I really do think it's a clever technique of combining the right features and proportions to make a balanced, realistic face that is pretty but not unnaturally so.
       
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    12. As others have said, hand sculpted dolls are more likely to be naturally asymmetrical. For example, if you look at Maskcatdoll blank face sculpt, the eyes, nose, and sometimes the jaw are a bit uneven. It doesn't detract from their beauty though IMO, they are my favorites (I will soon own 3, haha) and do look fairly natural.

      I've never seen a "perfectly symetrical" human, so it makes sense that dolls aren't (unless they are robots, in this case, it's justified). It would creep me out. XD I think that if I see something too symetrical, I lose interest pretty quickly.
       
      #12 lyaam12, Aug 17, 2021
      Last edited: Aug 18, 2021
    13. Souldoll Hye was a popular sculpt and one of my first. I only noticed her asymmetrical eyes in my own photographs. I don't mind it but I do have to be careful with my lighting or it looks too extreme.
       
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    14. I've found that a lot of Doll Leaves' dolls are pretty asymmetrical, often to the point that it's immediately noticeable on the blank dolls. Faceups do wonders to conceal it, though. I personally prefer symmetrical faces with somewhat-asymmetrical faceups. Though I do get what you're saying about them being "too perfect." To me, symmetrical faces with symmetrical faceups feel less humanlike, and while they're nice to look at in pictures, they feel more fake than dolls with minor imperfections.
       
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