thesis 2025
character design
illustration
about me
my thesis
first semester senior year, i started by planning out a website to host the designs, an animation, pictures of the dolls, and deep explanations of the characters and their personalities’. i quickly came to the realization that all that was absolutely not happening.
i took a step back to decide what i really wanted to do. i started with a pitch deck that would satisfy my itch to explain to people who my (gorgeous) girls are, and further my character exploration.
once i was pleased with my sheets and deck, i got to work on 3d designing and printing my dolls. to be honest, i wasted a lot of time doing the pitch deck (guilty) and found myself in a time crunch and couldn’t spare a lot of mistakes. Kaede’s body design is entirely made by AnimalDolls on Cults3D which i paid for & asked for permission from the artist before use. this allowed me to understand my school’s 3d printing process, and eventually my own printer. Juno’s body design is sculpted by myself, the hands and feet belong to AnimalDolls, as well. 3d sculpting is a learning HUGE curve that i unfortunately did not consider well...... like at all.
juno & kaede are ball-jointed dolls, so they are able to pose by being pulled *extremely* tightly with elastic that hooks onto their feet, wrists, and secured inside their head. their scalps are removeable and magnetic to switch out their eyes and tighten the elastic (if needed)
their entire bodies are spray painted, and their faces are hand-painted paired with pastel blush :-) i did some of Kaede’s face-up with makeup of my own.
their eyes are 3d printed white little cups that i painted inside, then filled with resin to be circular and look like real eyes!! probably one of my favorite parts of the doll next to doing the face-ups. their strip lashes are also my own that are now permanently glued to their heads. putting them together kinda felt like that scene in Toy Story.
their wigs are bought secondhand off a store on Mercari called “animestuffstore.” so kind & they ship super fast. hallelujah.
after super-gluing fabric together so they weren’t nakey, Juno & Kaede are all finished :D i love them like they’re my kids.
if i learned anything from this experience, it would be that i need to take my time, trust myself, and not procrastinate!!! i’m lucky that they turned out great. this could have gone so sideways.
i’m looking forward to making a sculpt for Kaede in the future and reprinting them both completely!