Baroque Protagonist

I had originally wanted to make a doll using the MDD body inspired by Baroque but no particular character (mostly, I drew inspiration from the Horned Girl and the Collector in the drafts). I thought it sounded too hard to make it creepy cute at my skill level so I decided to scrap the projected entirely. Or so I thought.

 

After some discussion, a couple of bad runs, some Takarazuka musicals, and seeing everyone else's ambitions and dedication here, I got an idea that won't go away. Well, okay, everyone else's dedication gave me more resolve in wanting to make a Baroque doll, but Takarazuka kind of solidified the idea for me.

 

So, I'm going to try to make the Protagonist (obviously). I'm going to go a bit slower with it than with my other projects, since it's someone else's character. I want to do him justice.

 

For the record: http://www.atlus.com/baroque/ps2/chara/chara2/chara01.htm

 

That is the Protagonist as he appears in the PS2/Wii version. He's a bit more detailed here than in the Saturn/PSX version (which is odd, considering his more anime-like appearance here), and I can't really speak for Baroque FPS.

 

I'm debating between heads and skin tones at the moment. Any suggestions? 06 and 03 are my favorites (especially 03), but they might not work so well.

It would be nice to see him put together. As for heads, have you tried looking at some of the SQ Lab Ones? They have some that could pass for male DD heads.

Oh nice! It's always neat to see people make DD-style boys. Are you going to make him an Obitsu hybrid? (If so, 55cm or the new 65cm body?)

 

I second the recommendation to take a look at SQ Labs. They've got some relatively mature head sculpts that would work great for a bishi guy. (Alternately, you could wait for the new 07 head to be released.)

I looked around SQ Lab and got a little overwhelmed. Misty caught my attention, and I examined the unpainted version pretty closely. Silvia has a better lip sculpt for him, though. I think I'll wait until 07 is available. The lips are perfect, even if she is smiling.

 

-head slap- A hybrid sounds easier than the approach I was going to take. I was originally going to just use the DD body with the small bust and a little sanding, but I think I'll use the 55cm Obitsu body because he's shorter than a lot of the other men he encounters (not by too much in the case of Advanced Angel, but it's noticeable when standing next to the Baroque Monger or Coffin Man). Plus, the encounters with the Phantom suggests that they're in their teens.

 

Thanks for your help, Katnaper and Poofiemus!

Alright, cool! Actually, while it's hard to tell at this point, it is possible that the smile on the 07 may be carried by the faceup rather than the sculpt. Volks does that once in a while, like on Nanoha, the prepainted 06, and Mari.

 

Ooh, could you please let me know how the Obitsu 55cm body is? While I'm not quite in a position to get another doll, one of my potential ideas for the next does involve that body, so I'm really curious how it works (Especially the elbows. A few photos I've seen suggest that it has some kind of "secret joint" like the DDII, but haven't seen enough to confirm it.)

Alright, cool! Actually, while it's hard to tell at this point, it is possible that the smile on the 07 may be carried by the faceup rather than the sculpt. Volks does that once in a while, like on Nanoha, the prepainted 06, and Mari.

 

Ooh, could you please let me know how the Obitsu 55cm body is? While I'm not quite in a position to get another doll, one of my potential ideas for the next does involve that body, so I'm really curious how it works (Especially the elbows. A few photos I've seen suggest that it has some kind of "secret joint" like the DDII, but haven't seen enough to confirm it.)

 

My Yuuto is a 55cm Obitsu and he does have that secret joint that allows him to move his hands closer to his face. You just have to pull a little and you'll hear a small click. They hold their poses great. Sometimes I find Yuuto to be a bit stiff, guess that's why he poses so well. There's a tutorial somewhere on how to put a DD head on an obitsu body but never had a chance to try it. I'm going to be waiting on the 65 cm I think. I'll try to take pics but it might take a while since work this week.

Yay! Katnaper to the rescue! I had been kind of curious about it myself.

 

I think I'm going to wait and get the body as a late birthday gift to myself in early October. So, it's going to be a little bit before I actually start. I mean, if I can find measurements, I can start on the shirt pieces. . . and figure out how/if I should add closures to them.

Katnaper: "Enabling powers, ACTIVATE!"

 

Yeah, it'll be quite a while before I can seriously consider my 55cm boy project too, especially if my employer decides not to keep me after my internship ends. So El, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on your project, so I can vicariously enjoy it!

Yay! Katnaper to the rescue! I had been kind of curious about it myself.

 

Katnaper: "Enabling powers, ACTIVATE!"

 

Muahahaha! Two more recruits to the dark side .... LOL. I'll post some more pics of Yuu and his 'posing' abilities, especially that 'secret joint' of his. Might help give a better idea of what he's like. I'm still waiting on the 65cm obitsu male so I can start making the equivalent of male DDs. Lets face it, my resin boys are cute but a full on Vinyl boy would be awesomer (?).

 

@Poofiemus - Your character won't be one of them Heterodynes will it?

 

@eldritchhumanoid - Can't wait to see your new guy. Are you planning to purchase him from Parabox or Junkyspot? If only their heads weren't such a pain to remove, I could take Mari or Saber's and hybridize it on to Yuu's body just so I could see how the head looks. I do know Saber is going to make an awesome bishonen.

@Poofiemus - Your character won't be one of them Heterodynes will it?

 

Nope. While I do like the idea of a Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, I still haven't found a head that really says "Gil" to me, nor do I have a good sense of how I'd model one for 3D printing. (Besides, if I ever do figure that out, he'd be going on the 65cm rather than the 55.)

 

I will say that the boy I'm mentally closer to making is also from an American IP, but not GG. He'd go on the 55cm body due to being depicted as fairly short in his source material, and because he's implied to be younger than Agatha and Nanoha. Still, I gotta make the plushy version of his best friend before I can really launch into making him anway--I've had the fabric for like, a year. Needs to just get done! XD

@Poofiemus - Your character won't be one of them Heterodynes will it?

 

Nope. While I do like the idea of a Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, I still haven't found a head that really says "Gil" to me, nor do I have a good sense of how I'd model one for 3D printing. (Besides, if I ever do figure that out, he'd be going on the 65cm rather than the 55.)

 

Gil... would be... AWESOME! I would love to see that. Especially with Agatha.

Sorry for not saying something before even though you mentioned about this in the other thread, I just hardly come to this subforum.

 

So, I'm going to try to make the Protagonist (obviously). I'm going to go a bit slower with it than with my other projects, since it's someone else's character. I want to do him justice.

 

For the record: http://www.atlus.com/baroque/ps2/chara/chara2/chara01.htm

 

That is the Protagonist as he appears in the PS2/Wii version. He's a bit more detailed here than in the Saturn/PSX version (which is odd, considering his more anime-like appearance here), and I can't really speak for Baroque FPS.

 

I'm debating between heads and skin tones at the moment. Any suggestions? 06 and 03 are my favorites (especially 03), but they might not work so well.

 

I looked at the pic and yelled in my head, "That looks just like Tamayuki (if he had blue hair)!"

 

I was originally going to just use the DD body with the small bust and a little sanding...

 

This is exactly what Tamayuki is, and he's an 03 head. One thing I really love about the 03 head is that it can be a lot more expressive than it seems at first. If you want your character to look sad a lot, it isn't hard to do, but it can also look like they are concentrating. It just depends on how you chose to interpret the picture or pose. (Sorry for the bad lighting, it was before I realized I wasn't paying attention to my light source.)

 

 

And then here he's looking a lot happier, but also I see him with his eyebrows raised in a happy/curious expression like his faceup is now. I love his surfer pose.

 

 

But then you can still get the cute/adorable look too.

 

 

And his whole collection on my Flickr page if you want more pics to look at for the sculpt. If you need more sad looking shots I can do those, I normally try to take happy Tama-chan pictures so the ironing one is the only sad one I have. When I first got the 03 head everyone said how sad he looked making me want to really show that he isn't.

 

As for skin color, Normal Skin definitely, otherwise he would look like a vampire.

 

 

Look at Tamayuki's hand in front of Naiomi. Even though the pic is a tiny bit washed out, it is still accurate to show the difference between Naiomi's white skin and Tamayuki & Rainie's normal skin.

 

~Sister Kyoya

To Poofiemus: Gil would be awesome to see! However I'm quite curious what you're planning for now. I guess I'll have to wait and see. I hope you have steady employment in the future (I hate the feeling of not knowing).

 

To Katnaper: I think I'm going to order from Junky Spot because I'm a bit impatient and anxious to start working on his clothes.

 

I also agree about Saber making an awesome bishounen.

 

To Sister Kyoya: D'aw! I keep getting side tracked by Tamayuki's sheer adorableness! He's so cute (I ended up looking over your Flickr page a lot).

 

I had been considering the 03 head. It's my favorite, and I really like the shape of the eyes (matches up with both most of the art and the in-game renders). I'm leaning towards waiting on the 07 sculpt because in the in-game renders, the Protagonist has broad lips (to help make his entire face more expressive, since he literally doesn't have a voice until the end of the game). But in the more anime-styled art (like what's used on the official website and the PS2/Wii intro), his lips are rather thin and small. (Differences between the renders and the art have made this an interesting and slightly frustrating project to plan).

 

Anyway, thanks for sharing pictures of the 03 head from different angles. Tamayuki seems like a cheerful little guy.

 

Sorry if my post is a bit ramble-y. I'm getting ready for work, so I'm not as focused as I'd like to be.

Dunno if this helps but here's what a DD head on an Obitsu 55cm looks like:

 

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=4250

That was pretty interesting! While Lily seems a bit too feminine to really pull it off to my eyes, I think it's mostly the faceup; the scale of the head looks pretty good.

 

Also, just for reference, Volks Normal = Obitsu White. Basically, Volks' skintones run pale while Obitsu makes theirs darker.

 

Haha, I'm having such an evil mastermind moment over your guys' reactions to my vague hints. XD Though thinking about it, the boy I want to make probably would get along pretty well with Gil. (Aarg!)

That was actually very helpful. I have a good idea of the scale, now.

 

I'm positive I'm going to go with a normal skin head. I beat the PS2 version yesterday, so I got to see Advanced/Arch Angel's in-game render (got one of the bad endings, for the record). In the in-game model, he's really pale (at first I thought it was just an optical illusion because of the transparency of the hologram character model, since his sprite isn't pale in that scene in the original, but the hologram sprite is pale). Advanced/Arch Angel's cut scene character model has his skin almost the same color as his coat. So, when you compare the rendered version of Advanced Angel to the rendered version of the Protagonist, the normal skin is perfect for the doll version!

 

(The original version is more stylized realism than anime style, so I'm trying not to look to the old character designs to settle things like that).

 

So, I'm going to to get the Obitsu 55cm body with a normal skin head. I'm debating between eyes (I Type in dark blue from Volks or Midnight Blue from Safrin Doll), and I have no clue for the wig, but I'm on the right track at least, right?

Maybe this for a wig

 

http://www.crobidolls.com/shop/step1.php?number=1582 or this:

http://www.crobidolls.com/shop/step1.php?number=1035 maybe styled or something. Its actually the wig my Saber Surfer due wore.

Maybe this for a wig

 

http://www.crobidolls.com/shop/step1.php?number=1582 or this:

http://www.crobidolls.com/shop/step1.php?number=1035 maybe styled or something. Its actually the wig my Saber Surfer due wore.

 

Both of those wigs are cool! Saber made that second one look awesome! I'd been thinking about both of these for the past couple of days (like trying to figure out how to get the right shade of blue from a grey base and without knowing the fibers and reading up on how to care for a fur wig). What is shipping like from this store?

They ship fairly quickly. I got my order in less than a week. Shipping for my items was rather pricey though. But I did order quite a few items.

So, after beating the game for the first time, I got a little curious what ending the manga chose to follow (funny enough, the manga is kanji illiterate friendly, unlike the game). Well, I could only find volume two of the manga, and well. . . He's so freaking adorable in the manga! Now, I'm not sure which design I should shoot for.

 

His appearance in the manga is similar to his appearance in the original game (only more anime-styled). Here's a picture with the Leather coat, fake wings (don't know which they correspond to), and the Angelic Rifle:

 

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee414/tieflingshaman/protagonistmangachapter.jpg

 

It might lend itself better to the DD aesthetic, and I wouldn't have to fight with the "render vs. art" issue. But the remake design is just as interesting (though much more complicated on that scale). Here's another picture from the remake:

 

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee414/tieflingshaman/baroque11.jpg

 

The parts that scare me about the remake design are all of the straps and the braces, but the black pants scare me about the other two designs. >.< Any suggestions?

Hm. Looks like those brace things on his legs are more repetitive than elaborate. If you could find some kind of thin plastic piping big enough to go around his legs, I think it'd mostly be a matter of sawing it down into smaller, shorter tubes, and connecting them with another piece of sheet plastic. There are also thermoplastic things you can work at home like Wonderflex, though that'd be more expensive. The straps also don't look too bad necessarily; not only are they simple enough leather wouldn't be too vicious, they're vague enough they could also be represented by a wide black elastic if you wanted them to be.

 

If you're up for making pants yourself, though, there's no reason you couldn't have black pants lined in something pale if you'd rather go the less complicated route.