BJD Eyes – the difference

Changing BJD eyes is not as easy as you might think.

Purple acrylic vs. green double dome Soom silicone eyes

As you may know, most ball-jointed dolls come with removable eyes which you can position using putty*.  This is a nice feature for when you want to change the color or position of the eyes, but getting the two sides to match up is the really challenging part.  But let’s start from the beginning.  How do you know what kind of eyes to buy?  This is a debated topic which comes down to personal choice, but there are significant differences to be aware of.
*the putty I used came with my doll, and was very sticky and messy and I had to use dish soap to wash it off.

Eye Composition – What should I get?

Not only is there the color choice for eyes, but there’s also the *make*.  This makes a BIG difference in appearance.  For one, there is the material used– glass and urethane eyes are known for being the highest quality which best refract light for depth and brightness.  But with their material, they are also the most expensive.  Ethereal Angels, otherwise known as Gumdrops or Eye candy, are one of the most well-known brands for their amazing urethane eyes.  Keep in mind that as of October 2009, they are not taking orders and are only selling out of a narrow stock so chances are slim that you’ll be able to buy exactly what you want right now.  See ordering/availability  details on their post.

Next up are silicone eyes, made of a softer material that won’t scratch as easily, and Soom has a huge selection of these.  This is currently what I have in my dolls.

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And lastly, I’d rank acrylic eyes quality-wise.  They  can have some pretty  awesome-looking designs on the internet, but in real life they tend to be dark unless a flash is used or there is bright lighting around.  Souldoll and Safrin doll sell a giant variety of these.  They are also cheaper.

For more information on eye materials, check out this DoA thread. =)

What size?

Here’s a helpful thread on Den of Angels that has some size comparisons for choosing the right eye size to match your doll’s personality.  generally, smaller eyes (to a limit) like 14mm for an SD look the most realistic, and the bigger irises make them look more anime-like.

SD-sized doll comparison: I know the color makes a difference.

16 mm Soom

14 mm Souldoll

Double dome or single dome?

Who even knew there was such a thing?  Well, double-dome eyes catch light beautifully, reflecting a ring of light into the iris that makes them extra pretty in photography.  However, the extra dome shape can be an issue.  It sets the pupil farther back into the head, so at some angles it looks strange:

Additionally, it doesn’t fit well into half-closed eyes.  I’ve tried to make it work, but here you can’t see his pupils very well.

You can plainly see the lighting difference between single and double-dome in the picture I posted at the top of this post.  You can also see the really big difference in how powerful the color is on acrylic vs. silicone eyes; unless you are going for a dark iris or always have bright lighting, I would recommend going to a lighter hue of your color choice to brighten the eyes even more.  My vernejet’s eyes have always been so dark with their original purple.  I loved the hue and would have chose it myself, but it’s rarely noticeable IRL.  Although… with her new Soom pastel rainbow which I personally picked, it’s a little too light.

Placing the eyes

This is what I had the *most trouble* with. Since the most important feature of the face is the eyes, they have to be positioned perfectly or else they will look like their eyes are going in two different directions. =(

To position them, taking the head off the body first helps, if this is easily doable.  Then you remove the eye and the existing putty carefully–for me, this took some nail digging and poking the eye back through the front (use a soft poker to not scratch the lens).  Then, roll up the putty and stick it firmly on the back of the new eye.  Eluneth has suggested that looking in a mirror to do this helps!  And make sure to be careful not to get putty between the front of the eye and the eye socket– if this happens, clean it out first then put the eye in.
putty in the socket is bad

Position. You can see below that I thought Senna’s eyes were okay after 5 trials of take-out-and-redo. But only after you photograph them from near, far, and from each side will you notice that one eye isn’t right.  Trust me, when you’re staring at it for 15 minutes it’s so hard to tell the difference.

Looks okay – but really, not okay.  Angle makes a difference ^

Here, the eyes are too high so it looks like she’s glaring at you.. oh Senna…

And finally, after two hours I think I got the new eyes right…

It looks better from afar.  I couldn’t change the angle of the eye as much as just pupil position.

For Rye, when you look closely I’m convinced that the pupil on the right side is bigger than his other one. But, you can barely see his pupils anyway with these eyes…  even if I used double dome in half-closed eyes I think it looks okay. ^___^

Thanks for reading!

More pics: my BJD photosteam is up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/axoloti/

EDIT:

I’ve changed Senna’s and Rye’s eyes so they are now a bit to the side

Thank you for reading! please leave a comment if you found this was helpful or not helpful and if you have any other advice I can add to the post. ♥