Hepl!

[Katarin Andolini]

Ok, so watching Leopa make all these gorgeous dolls and then seeing some new bases to play with sort of drew me back in. I'm still mad at my monitor but I figure I'll take my chances and angst later.

Anyway, made a new Katarin doll (haven't really tried doing my toon aside from those dollmakers), but can't find a nice way to do her epic. So I appeal to you doll gurus for help. ">

Here she is so ya get a general idea:



The fabulous base is from Pixel Punks. If you guys have any suggestions/touch ups on the doll itself, would love them too. I'm a novice at shading and drawing and dimensions and stuff and staring at the tiny pixels for too long makes my eyes crossed. (and I still HATE doing feet!)

/puppydogeyes

Gotta say, these new bases ROCK to play around with, though.

~Kat

edit: smoothed out a couple kinks

[Lillishiana]

Wow kat thats GREAT! I took a look at the site and i must say i'm lost.. entirely to lazy with my dolls anymore! But yours is fantastic! /cheer

[Ackkk]

Kat,
YOU ROCK! lol i can't do dolls but darnit, YOU JUST ROCK! Good to see you back around again!!
/hug

Azil

[Leopa Panthera]

WOW. Good job, Katarin. I don't know what you're using as a "model" for your armor, but you're doing a pretty damn good job with the shading and detail. Entirely out of my league.

What advice are you looking for? I assume your doll is still a work in progress, right?

Raene's made a new forum for "dollz" at Norrath's Studio so I encourage you to post your dollz there as well. The board has a lot of potential if we're able to talk among other EQ dollz makers! ">

pub16.ezboard.com/fnorrathsstudiofrm8

[Katarin Andolini]

Thanks for the kind words guys! "> aye, the doll is still a work in progress. Currently stuck on how to fit the epic in. When I have put epics in before, I have generally stole them from eq screenies, but this one is being a pain in the butt (and making it look in tune with my doll is tough too...excuse the pun). I noticed a bunch of Leo's diva dolls had handdrawn weapons and props and such and was just wondering if you guys had any advice in that direction. ">

As for the shading...more or less cheated here and there. I just applied color to the naked doll to achieve the wonderful shading for the top half of her armor. (I think they did a really nice job making this base.)

Now, for the legs, I didn't want to just shade over the rest of the skin, 'cause that would just create a catsuit look, and I wanted to capture some of the armor that Kat is currently wearing. Handdrawing them seemed a little out of my ability range... Then I remembered a tutorial at veriria's on how she draws clothing from pictures. So I took the pic that I had of Kat (it's actually in the poll forum right now, in the best looking epic poll) and started drawing over her legs and shading as best I could according to the screenshot. Took a long time to get a feel for it, and to adjust the leg positioning a bit, but don't feel toooo bad about how it turned out for the first time.

Itching to figure it out for a sig pic now before I lose interest, lol. grrr!

~Kat

[Leopa Panthera]

That's exactly how I have been doing my dolls lately, Kat. When I made a Pedi doll, Puyo told me that it needed to look more like plate armor so I decided she was right and fiddled around:





Other times I have shrunk armor enough to place over the body and just created an outline of it. It's a very time-consuming process and you feel like you're not doing it right, blah blah blah, but you do get somewhere. Hang in there!

As for weapons, I can't make 'em. I look on the internet for props I can steal or I shrink down the weapon and sorta "touch" 'em up so they don't look too photorealistic.

Puyo's weapon I stole from her screenshot and I painted in some white on the blade to make it look more natural.



A good place for weapons is the "Warrior Princess Drag 'n' Drop" site.

Keep up the good work! Remember it's all a work in progress -- be inspired by others, not intimidated! ">

[Robaz]

Bah,... that outfit is entirely innapropriate... why she should be ashamed of herself. I have an extra robe she can have.

/em covers his eyes.
/em peeks through his fingers.
/klunk
/em passes out.

Robaz
Vazaelle

[Katarin Andolini]

Hey now, Robaz, really I spend most of my time in game nekkid, you know!

Was just striving for a eensy bit more dignity here.

~Kat

[Leopa Panthera]

How is your doll coming along, Kat? Whiz checked out your link and saw a base he wanted for his gnome and asked me to make it for him. That was a huge pain in the ass, thank you. Anyways, not posting his doll or anything since it's not "done" in the sense it still needs a weapon and a background and it's really his to display, not mine. But I had wanted to say that your level of detail on your doll inspired me to pay close attention to his robe and draw in stuff I normally would have overlooked to save time.

[Katarin Andolini]

Been slacking, spent last night watching movies and such ( America's Sweethearts is such a baaaad movie; John Cusack, how could you?). Need to finish it this weekend before I leave. ">

Can't WAIT to see Whiz's!

~Kat