Kyoya Ootori- SmDB custom

I need to talk to people about this project before I cause myself more unnecessary stress. Trying to do a custom of a character I've loved the most for years before even discovering DD, it's not an understatement to say that it is the hardest custom I've ever done. And I feel like I'm mentally just about to loose it. My OCD is having a complete field day pointing out every minute detail that is flawed beyond recognition to the point I've cried over this project more than once. Some times I feel like I can't even look at him subjectively anymore.

 

This project has dragged on closer to a year now because it took me months to be able to see the Kyoya hidden under Eiji. Sometimes I was completely confidant that it would work, a few times I was so sure that it wouldn't that I contemplated tossing his head out (in reality I have another character who could have used it.) I'm a person who doesn't feel things in small degrees, and this project has thoroughly reminded me of that.

 

 

Here's what he looked like back in January with the default Eiji faceup and I believe Momo's default eyes turned upside down. I did that because it's the closest I had to a dark brown close to what Kyoya needed. These are only temporary.

 

These pictures were taken a few of hours ago:

 

 

 

 

 

His eyes and nose have had the most modding, but I changed his top lip some as well. Part of me wishes that his nose could be longer but I modded it the way I needed to so it would look like it does in most of the drawings and animations. Eiji's original nose almost couldn't have been more wrong. I love this last pic the most because somehow it looks the most like Kyoya to me. After all these months it feels like it's the 'first' time I'm seeing him. Some spark of hope in the middle of my dominating self-doubt.

 

 

Here is a pic after I modded the right eye but not the left (I think there were some more slight changes after this pic.) I really dislike modding eyes because if you simply cut the shape out, you are left with a sharp edge that looks far from natural. I had to use sand paper and metal beading files on his head more than an exacto knife.

 

Today has had it's share of completely serene times counterbalanced with me being unsure if anything I've even done is right. I really don't like drama in my life so times with such extremes like this are especially hard. The self-doubt is brutal. I've been worried enough about my faceup skills even being remotely good enough to even attempt him. So I was working on making his eyes into vectors so I could test out custom resin eyes for him as well as a few other DD that need them. Here's what I ended up with:

 

 

At least with the picture I'm pretty proud of it even if all I did was trace it from a screenshot of the anime. It's been one of the reference pics I've been looking at as I work on Kyoya. Here are the others:

 

 

 

The grand upset today was triggered by the realization that the eye shape that the SmDB head has right now doesn't match what's in the vector. I really hate doing eye mods because it can easily ruin a head. I tried resizing the graphic over the pic of the blank head in Illustrator and the shape would have to be ruined to get it to fit on the head. By ruined I mean it would loose the 'width' and make the eye look almost more round. On thing about Kyoya (and Mori's) eyes is the fact that they are much wider than they are tall. I fear if I attempt to mod his eyes further to try to reach a (possibly impossible) 'perfect' eye shape that I'd in reality be destroying the usable mod I have now.

 

What I really need to hear is if the current mods without further alteration workable for Kyoya? I know that raising the inside upper corner would make him look less grouchy, but I'm really not sure it's an improvement. I already have 4 more DD boys that need the SmDB body so there exists the option for me to do more mods later until he's perfect or just to give him a wider range of expressions. What I'd be happy with right now is just a pretty darn close first try. Have I even achieved that yet?

 

His wig I'll have to figure out later because Eiji's just isn't right. It needs to be black and a slight variation to the cut so his head doesn't look like a tennis ball. I've contemplated doing it with black yarn but I'm more than marginally terrified that it might stain his face. Same is true for a fur wig, plus I don't think that would look as good and could just look entirely cheap, in a very un-Kyoya way. If anyone possibility has links to Kyoya style hair in black, feel free to pass them my way.

 

One thing I don't have to worry about is the body sculpt. It's perfect. There isn't a thing about it that I'd change in the sculpt.

 

I'm trying so hard to get past this part of the process, it's dragged on long enough and I just want to move onto his clothes. At least that part I have confidence in. Well, the pants pattern still need some work but it's mostly there. I really struggle with wanting to do his Ouran outfit first or one of his casual outfits, usually something sleeveless. There are so many outfits in Ouran, including Kyoya wearing 3(!!) different dresses. It's going to be hard to choose.

 

~Sister Kyoya

I think he looks really good! Maybe it'd help you if you could photoshop a face-up on him or something? I know that'd be complicated to get right, but I think having eyebrows and some more definition around his eyes and mouth would really help make a difference. I find it a lot easier to "see" the character in the picture with one eye modded, and I think it's partially that the blankness of the unpainted face is a little distracting.

 

As far as the eyes go... I kind of agree with you that it's not a perfect match for the vector, but it looks like you'd have to make them shorter in order to get it right, and that'd probably be difficult to make look good. I think his eyes look like they're at more of an angle than Eiji's were, so it's hard to fix that. They look very close, though!

 

All I can say on the wig is that I kind of doubt a fur one would work that well. I have one on one of my boys, and while it's great if you want that spiky anime look, it doesn't really have the neat, smooth look that Kyoya has.

 

I really hope my post is helpful to you. I can relate a lot to wanting to get a a character looking exactly right, and I understand about the self-doubt, too. Kyoya looks really good, and I'm super impressed with your modification skills.

Actually I think the shape you've modded right now looks really good, and wouldn't alter it to be taller/rounder by any means since that would be further from Kyoya's look than as is, surely?

 

I think a great deal of making him look friendlier/less like he just woke up can be accomplished via the face-up - as opposed to cutting up on the inner corners - so this looks great as a base for Kyoya, definitely~ Great job by the way!

The eye shape looks great! I do think you'll probably want to mod/bevel the INSIDE of the eye socket, where the eyes actually sit inside the head--otherwise you may get some funky eye gapping. (That reminds me, when I redo Miku's faceup later in the year, I want to do that to her--now that Cauldy pointed out how badly eyes gap on her, I can't un-see it.)

Sorry for taking so long to reply, I've gotten really scatterbrained again recently and trying to work on too many projects at once. After I made this post I left him sitting next to my desk just to get a good look at him for a while. I hadn't actually put him on the SmDB since I had done the last batch of modding, and truthfully it made a big difference. I also discovered that Eiji's wig makes him look totally stupid, despite the fact that Kiyoteru's big 07 head stretched it out... It's so big it kept sliding around. So I still need to search for his hair, but other than that and things seem to be going well. The biggest thing that surprised me is after the above pics I slowly found myself being able to call him Kyoya. Before he was almost just 'weird Eiji' in my head or 'not Kyoya' but so far he's right enough that it feels strange if I don't call him Kyoya so that's deffinately a very good sign. Being able to talk about him in the post really helps me get my thoughts sorted out by forcing them out of my head so I appreciate you guys listening to my usual ranting/rambling.

 

I keep getting annoyed at myself that his faceup isn't done, then I have to turn around and remind myself that it's a good thing. Why? Because I'm waiting for the set of photos I finally had printed off for various sets of eyes I need to make, his included. Last night I ordered the remaining things I know I need to make custom resin eyes. I'm excited but a tad nervous, but I'm glad that I'll have his proper eyes in his head before his faceup so it can be as right as I can make it.

 

Thak you so much for the encouagement. I saw a quote yesterday that said "Performers are the most insecure people in the world. Why do you think they do what they do?" and I can totally understand it. Even my family is used to seeing my 'brilliant' projects and are just blown away and yet they never understand why I panic, fret, and obsess over what I do almost as if they think I have some magic ability or something. Most of the projects I do I don't even know if they will work once I'm done with it. I hate the fact that no matter how well I do in my own eyes I still frequently feel like a failure. I don't get it. It doesn't make any sense. So it really feels good and makes me truely happy hearing such kind words that my mind can't tell me were all just made up in my head to give me a false sense of self importance. (Yeah, my self esteem really does suck.)

 

Tira- I was going to do an Illustrator draft of his faceup because without it my stress and panic just go through the roof, as I discovered with Bea. Waiting until he has some actual eyes in his head would make the margin of error a lot less, but even so I'm still trying to get used to he differences between a flat coputer image and a 3D head and actual paint brushes. Part of my mind is mildly amused over the fact that Kyoya is actually a very relaxing character to me, so it was a bit more of a shock to realize how much stress this project has given me.

 

Lightly- Thank you! One of the things that can be hard to tell is how I was fighting with the sculpt to get Kyoya to look right. I really, really, really wanted to make Kyoya's eyes *perfect* but they just do not fit with the dimentions of this sculpt. If I would have gone coser to to the side or to the bridge of his nose, he would have started to look like an oversized eye freak/alien and would have ruined the head sculpt. As much as it annoys my OCD, projects like this that are dependant on premade parts and shapes are always an interpretive endevor, so it really helps a lot to hear that I'm doing things right. Another reason why I didn't want to mod the eyes more is because I've been trying to take in to account how much of the shape will be 'removed' by the faceup.

 

I really love Kyoya's grumpy looks, but the fact of the matter is he also still needs to fit in with my other DD and have more than one expression. Having the slightly more 'neutral Kyoya' helps with that too.

 

Poofie- The problem with his eye I don't think is the vinyl thickness, because I have trimmed that down at least some. It has to do with how far over to the side his eye is now compared to the size that was intended for the sculpt. The round eyeball just doesn't fit it properly. I've been struggling to think of a way to take a mold of the inside of the eye to get a better idea what kind of oval shape it would fit to fill in the hole properly. Any ideas? I guess this is one reason why it's good that I'm making my own molds because there is another head that's having this problem, but worse. I keep hoping that having a properly fitting eye will fix it, othewise I may have ruined Sheryl's head...

 

~Sister Kyoya

He looks pretty good SK. I agree with Tira, it looks pretty close and I don't really have any suggestion other than epoxy putty to help change the shape a bit. Not sure if that would be something you can use. As for the mold would super sculpy work or any sort of clay? My husband often uses that to get a mold of certain gunpla parts he wants to create a resin copy? of. As for wigs have you looked at Iplehouse or Crobidoll? Not sure what size wig SmDB uses.

 

There's this wig in IH that comes in black but you would have to cut it to fit the style of Kyoya

 

http://iplehouse.com/home/shop/item.php?it_id=1320363094&nhn1=en

 

And this one from Crobidoll:

http://crobidolls.com/shop/step1.php?number=3533&b_code=B20080525084138&c_code=C20080525084214

 

This one too but not sure it comes in black...

http://crobidolls.com/shop/step1.php?number=3334&b_code=B20080525084138&c_code=C20080525084214

 

This one comes in light black:

http://crobidolls.com/shop/step1.php?number=1557&b_code=B20080525084138&c_code=C20080525084214

 

and this one:

http://crobidolls.com/shop/step1.php?number=1162&b_code=B20080525084138&c_code=C20080525084214

 

Like I said, I am not sure if these can be used. It know how hard you have worked on Kyoya and how stressful it has been. *HUGS*. You've been doing a lovely job with him and I'm sure we all look forward to seeing him in his full Kyoya-esque glory.

Thanks for the hair suggestions KN! The last two really look like what I wanted but I'll have to look at them more indepth later.

 

 

Here's an uber crappy tablet pic of Kyoya with his proper eyes. Can't see the detail and it's just the paper for now but he's looking more like himself. I'll try to get a better pic within a few days. He does still look odd without the faceup.

 

Personally I really have avoided adding epoxy putty to head mods because #1 I've never found a good tutorial on how to do that with DD that wasn't someone just saying "use it and just paint the head!" I can't imagine that would go well and #2 I don't know how anyone would be able to get it to match if it was a part that wasn't supposed to be painted or hidden somehow without looking like something was wrong. If you have to paint the whole head, the pait iself removes the translucency that the vinyl has. If I could mimic this, and color matching, flawlwssly I'd be sculpting my own heads from scratch. But so far no luck.

 

~Sister Kyoya

Hmmm... I have a head that I've used milliputty on and I have some acrylic that is as close to the head color as I can get. If I have time tonight I'll try it and see how it works and let you know. I'd airbrush it but our 'dirty craft' room isn't even done yet. Its supposed to be where Hubby is supposed to do his airbrushing and I can put in my dremel and stuff but its been just a storage room forever. Not even insulated and all that. Sigh. Someday when the children are grown or one of these days when I get sick and tired of waiting. Lol.

I tried it but the color doesn't match and I haven't had a chance to mix a color that works. Hopefully I can do this later when the kiddo's are asleep. I'm waiting for the paint to dry to see if it would match better when the paint is dry.

 

~Sister Kyoya

His look is really coming together! The right eyes make a huge difference.

Cant wait to see him with a faceup, the eyes look great!