How could I get into creating bjds?

Before you do this, it's important to stop and consider the type of consumer you will be pandering to.

The vast majority of BJD hobbyists are petty entitled assholes at best, and cheapass thieves at worst.

If you make something the hobby doesn't immediately shit all over and then disregard, they will expect you to bend over backwards to cater specifically to them. Be prepared for an outrageous amount of customer service footwork. Constant hand-holding throughout the entire ordering process, as they expect constant updates, even if if it's only been 4 hours and they've commissioned a custom sculpture where the wait is 6 months. Or after the order has shipped to them, and you've given them the tracking number. I have had several clients email me, asking me to copy/paste the USPS tracking history for their parcel, just to make sure, tee-hee!

It's absolute hell. Unbearable, miserable hell. And it will break you like it broke me.

But if you really fucking want to do it, you can.

Just start sculpting first in the medium of your choice, then figure out the jointing. It's standard to sculpt something that isn't a hot mess first, then cut in the joints. If you're 3D printing and don't feel up to rendering joints, make the torso hollow, hack up your master, drill out the limbs, add in joints with epoxy.

When it's presentable, you can either try to cast it yourself, which is too much tl;dr for me to ever want to get in to, or use a casting service in Asia like Haru or Weiju toys. Be expected to pay roughly 5 grand for them to cast a full SD doll for you in a set of 10.

If you price it at 800 a doll, is the potential 3k "profit" off the casts really worth several months of tedious labor, shipping back and forth overseas out of your own pocket, and dealing with extremely needy customers on a 24/7 "a reply within 5 minutes or they open a PP claim" basis?

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OP, it's not as nightmarish as you may get the impression from that anon who replied. There are a handful of very good BJD artists who do their work in 3D sculpting programs and then do produce wonderful physical versions of it, the ones who come to mind are Batchix and SiO2. The latter is a Chinese company and you can check out both their dolls and the prototype 3d models, the former is a Western artist you can probably easily chat with on instagram @batchix or tumblr @batchixdolls who is rather nice and would be happy to give you tips. Similar Western creators who might be willing to answer questions about this are Armeleia and Buffdolls (probably google will bring up their tumblr and instagram), though they don't produce full dolls, just parts. They have all been at their crafts for a decade or more and are well-respected and successful.

The pitfall of many creators, especially who work in 3D and try to create a physical doll from it, is inflexibility. Be open to feedback. Also, you can try posting over at the BJD general >>6465276, as you can see from the person who asked for crit yesterday and got quite a lot of detailed feedback, we're not assholes if you genuinely are receptive to feedback.

>>6474874
......Kayke, is that you? Kind of sounds like it. (Kayke was artist who created pic related, sent out non functional versions of it to people who preordered, and was mad when /bjd/ disapproved of her work and business ethic.) Your problem was that you accept money for prototype-quality flawed work, went immediately to the selling sculpt stage without a couple years (at least!) of learning and practice, and take feedback very poorly.

>>6474874
Oh, no, I don't have any intention of receiving commissions, I just want to make them for myself (and maybe sell pre-made stuff, but I'm not sure). Thank you for the info, I'll keep it in mind, especially if I do decide to sell.

>>6474919
>"it's standard to sculpt something that isn't a hot mess first"
>somehow presumes kayke

>>6474919
Nayrt, also not Kayke but they're pretty must spot on. The BJD hobby is pretty crazy. I'm selling a good size doll for a decent price, just 10. I've sold 3 over 1 month and had over 20 people ask when my next preorder is because 'then I'll have money' and at least 10 ask for a layaway without being able to put money down, and unable to fulfill payments within 6 months. Personally, I hate doing casting. I am working with a caster. It's almost $100 just to get this shit to China, and taking the caster with the most reasonable prices, I still have a way to go before I break even on production costs. That doesn't include material cost or time/labor

>>6474919
And it's nice to see different perspectives here. I'm good at taking criticism, so I'll be fine. Thank you for the references and I'll do my research to see what I can do.

>>6474936
...and now consider that recasters think you are rolling in dough as a doll artist.

>>6474936
You have my deepest empathy and sympathy, and my heart aches for you. I hope you fair better than me, and somehow it gets better. It didn't after 5 years for me, so I liquidated everything and just cut my losses. It was a big, big loss but I am much happier now.

>>6474919
>OP, it's not as nightmarish as you may get the impression from that anon who replied.
Spoken like someone who's never actually dealt with anyone in the BJD hobby as a dealer or producer.

>>6474942
Trust me, I have.
>>6474929
You can make a OOAK doll, which is nice, except it's not going to be as strong as resin, so you string it together and it cracks apart in places. Even just having my proto strung for promo pics was horrifying and I broke a lot of things. If you decide to cast it yourself, you're working with a highly toxic material. And you really need a pressure pot or it will look like shit. And it's learning an entirely new skill set. Some people are great at it but I personally hate it. I hate everything about it. I don't know anything about porcelain doll making. That of course requires a different set of materials and equipment. If you want to make a run, usually between 10-30 dolls, it's very expensive. There are 3-5 people familiar with working BJDs who will cast. You can shop around but they all have their pros/cons depending.
Then after that you have to figure out what to do with the other casts so you sell them? Then what about materials, COAs, marketing, advertising, payment processing. Now you're looking at taxable income, incorporating into an LLC, mailing lists and websites.
It's a slippery slope

>>6474947
There is a high possibility that I will sell what I'm purchasing and get out. If I can profit some and GTFO that sounds best to me. I started because I love dolls, love sculpting, and wanted to have my dolls cast into something *real* more than I wanted that sick dosh. Everything else is just financing the costs. I probably won't do more.... Unless by chance I can clearance the extra crap and get sucked into another doll. I'm really emotionally attached to my prototype, it's like having a 'grail' BJD but you're actually the only one who can make it real if that makes sense?

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>>6474821
Somehow missed this thread.

Anon, do you collect BJDs? Are you actually in some way "in" the hobby or are you just admiring from afar/think it would be cool to make your own BJDs?
From your post it sounds like you got no clue at all (no idea about the tools/how expensive it would be etc.).

To be honest, unless you own a BJD and got to know the community don't even bother. Somehow lots of people have a very romantic idea of making their own doll and maybe even selling it, but like any other craft it is paved with many, many, many shit tries. If you never hold a BJD in hands before your idea of one will probably be pretty off too.
It is a lot of hard work to learn how to properly sculpt, and even 3D comes with its own issues, and produce one "company quality" BJD. Especially true if you want to do everything from sculpting to casting.
Not to mention the costs, time etc., and if you actually plan to sell your creations don't expect to make mad bank.

Buyers have very high expectations, and unless you have THE aesthetic the hobby was looking for or somehow manage to find that perfect hole made for you, don't expect people to lose their shit for your stuff.

If you still want to try it, start small.
Try making a head first and go through all the steps (i.e. end up with a properly resin casted head). Most people are already burned out enough from that.