Videodildonics

Video's Models, Casts, and Other Projects

[videodildonics]

Thank you so much for all you have done for the community. I might not be able to speak for everyone, but I know everyone else should be grateful for all of the time and effort you've put into the craft. Have a happy and safe retirement!

Thank you very much! I really appreciate the sentiment. I hope all goes well for you all as well :)

Accidentally posted this blank, woops.

[videodildonics]

Retiring

I’m sure this comes as no surprise, due to my recent inactivity, but I’ve decided to officially retire from the toy scene. There are a few reasons I’ve decided to do this, but it is a decision that took a lot of time to think out. Under the read more, I’ll detail a bit more, however, the long and short of it is that I no longer wish to pursue a career in toy making.

When I first got into designing toys, it was just a hobby for me. I enjoyed doing it, and it helped me practice a new craft. I had fun learning new techniques and refining my skill. The community was welcoming and kind. It felt like something productive and good I could do in my life, and it could benefit others as much as finding toys had benefited me.

Over the years, it began becoming something I’d pour more and more time into. It became to the point I’d work on a project until my neck and wrist hurt. I’d wear a brace on my wrist to keep it from hurting and work longer. It was never asked of me to do this, of course, but it was something I could not help myself from doing. I felt, “What’s wrong with giving a project your all?”. As the pain became more frequent, I became more aware of the consequences this could have. Over time, I realized that this kind of physical toll was not something I was willing to pay.

The next big factor is the community. What started out looking very friendly and welcoming is actually sometimes a very negative community. There’s a lot of internal politics and drama and it’s easy for people to get dragged into it. There’s a subsection of people who are (seemingly) convinced I plan everything I do around spite and with evil intents (this is of course not true, I would never spend so much time thinking of petty things like that). I know what I do with my time, and what I think about. People are going to assume as they like of me regardless of what I say, but I felt it was worth addressing. Meanwhile, I’ve heard of other people being fearful of being constantly watched, villainized, or even borderline stalked by people in the community. This type of behavior is not something I want in my life. I don’t want to participate in any community that makes people afraid to even be in it. People close to me even advised me to drop my plans due to seeing how certain people behaved. There are some people I have met that are wonderful and kind, and there are others I have met that are malicious and deceptive. This is true of any community, but I ultimately felt it was something I should distance myself from.

So after years of watching drama play out and of watching good things turn bad, I ended up disconnecting from the community. It was hard to get passionate about projects I worked on. I wanted to improve my work, but it became harder to devote myself to it. After time, my work stopped being enjoyable at all. All the joy in the activity was sucked out and it was really sad to have something I enjoy ruined like that. I was happy to see things come to life, of course, but it stopped being truly fun to work on.

In essence, as I got further away from things surrounding my work, I found happiness elsewhere. I got more time to do other things and I found I was happier and healthier. I’ve seen this take a toll on other people I’ve known as well. The trend seems to be: the further they get away from the stressing factor, the better things seem to be.

I will always be appreciative of the time I spent in the community with some of the good, honest people in it. There are some fantastic people out there both pursuing their dreams of toy creation and others who are enjoying the wonderful things created. I wish the best of luck to fledgling toy makers and consumers who are just discovering the joys of sex toys.

Thank you again, and please try to be understanding of my decision

-Video

[videodildonics]

Some people have brought up concerns to me about the Mammoth’s design, so I thought I’d talk a bit about the design process and what I did to create it.

First off, as much as I hate to have to use a real reference, that was the only thing that I had. The rest was left up to my creative interpretation. I decided the key things to take from it were the triangle-like shape, the wrinkling, and the general distribution of girth (I also kept the base the right shape, but that’s a much smaller detail in the grand scheme of things). While I could have attempted to make a true 1:1 of it, I prefer not to. For projects for Frisky Beast, they work in fantasy toys. There are other companies that specialize in bringing more realistic designs to life, and I would not want to infringe on their territory. However, I wanted it to be clear what it was based on. It’s a fine balancing act when it comes to designing things that have a clear basis.

Being based on a prehistoric creature, I wanted to create a really intense kind of design. My biggest concern while working on this project was preventing a lifeless meat tube of a design. My second concern was to really improve my technique. Around the time I made this design (and others) I put a big emphasis on trying to make my designs a bit more organic. I felt that even for a fantasy design, there’s a place for trying to make things a bit more grounded and naturalistic. Not realistic, but something that feels like it’d be believable as a functional thing. So I wanted to add detail, but to have it be a natural kind of detail. I’m sorry if I’m not conveying that idea very well? But it’s hard to put into words.

Originally, the ribbing/rippling down the front extended less far, but I added more detail to it as I worked on it to really tie it all in the design. The subtle details in between really help the organic look of the design. I wanted to prevent it from being all wrinkles though! So I think the parts from the front/back help that. The idea was to go from tight small wrinkles to looser ones as you go up and then back into tight ones before the head. I thought that would be a logical kind of pacing to the design. Personally, I’m a big stickler for design cohesiveness. I like when all aspects of a design complement each other and feel cohesive.

There used to be no real detail on the back view, just an extension of the side details. The long vertical bit was created through a back and forth revision process and kept the view from being bland. The idea was for a muscle like definition along the back, though, it might be a failing on my part if it does not come across like that. The veining is also a key detail that prevents it from looking like a lifeless tube! And the Corpus spongiosum in the front was a detail I exaggerated to try and make it have a really defined triangle like shape. It actually had to be brought in at some point because I made it way too intense. It was a huge oversight on my part that it ended up that exaggerated. In its current form, it should not cause discomfort in use, but still be very apparent and defining in the shape.

The head was one of the hardest things to settle on for this. Without detail, it simply looked wrong. With a plate like detail, it looked wrong. With a puffy, soft detail with wrinkles, it looked wrong. What I ended up doing was taking the triangle shape and softening up the corners. I curved it up under the head a bit and had it follow a diagonal line. If it was too flat, I felt it would be hard to use, however, I did not want to make it pointy. In the end, I settled on hard and soft folds. After adding those details, I went back and softened them so not too much of it would be standing out. The idea was this way there’d be a nice, subtle detailing to the shape without it pulling or dragging in use. The wrinkles on the inside also help it from just being a void. The tiny urethra just looked strange without any detailing around it. Having concentric lines that ran about the same shape as the head I thought brought the details together best. Once again, I’m a stickler for design cohesiveness…When it comes to why I choose certain small details, the answer is probably almost always “I used this feature somewhere else in the design”.

And that’s about it. That’s the process I go through when I design a toy. “What are the key features of the toy?” “What makes it readable as what it is supposed to be?” “What can I do to bring these design aspects together?” “What can I do to improve my set of skills to bring a better toy for customers?”. I only referenced real images for this toy. How I chose to exaggerate the design were based on my own impressions on what would make the toy most immediately readable as a Mammoth toy.

If you made it all the way through this, I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read my thoughts! I hope you all enjoy the end result and all the work that went into it along the way.

[videodildonics]

I’ve been terribly busy and haven’t gotten these pics up, sorry! It’s great to see all the models live. :) Really, it never becomes less exciting to see a design brought to physical form. I must sound like a broken record by now.

Shellshock was the hardest one of the three for me to work on. There were a lot of revisions to ensure it came out the right way. The details ended up really coming through in silicone. Before release, this was the one I was most nervous about, because it was so different from other things I’ve worked on.

Croxic is on the other end of the spectrum. Designing it was pretty natural and the detailing didn’t give me too much trouble. It was definitely my favorite of the three during development in terms of design. It’s very textured! The swell in the upper shaft is nice for those who like girth but not knots, too. And the base was really neat to work on.

All three designs were a lot of fun to work on and I feel like I learned a lot during the development of these toys. I want to be able to continue improving my modeling skills so I can create more fun designs for people. I’m happy with how they came out and I hope you enjoy them too!

[videodildonics]

The first of the Kaiju Island toys went up! Even to this day, it’s exciting to see a model come together in silicone. Featuring a lot of textures and an upper shaft bulge, it’s different from other takes on whale anatomy. The elongated S curve is also quite a bit different from life, but it should offer a bit more ease of use. One of the nice things about working on fantasy critter designs is the ability to take creative liberties. I’m really happy with how it came out, and I’m super excited to see how the others will look too.

Go check it out!

[videodildonics]

Wait but what's the reasoning behind never wanting to make it? Looks like a rather pleasant shape for use tbh, and your revised iteration doesn't seem like it would land in airbubble hell.

It was a BD labs submission, a long, long time ago. I had it pulled from labs when I got a job modeling, but I’m not sure I can produce it? Would rather not mess with that if it could cause problems.

Plus, I think it’s not a good indication of the work I do now. It’s kind of over detailed for no real reason.

[videodildonics]

I’ll start this by saying, this design is terrible. However, it was the first design I really took seriously and got me into designing and modeling toys. Without it, I’d never be doing what I do today. It was made almost 3 years ago.

Today I decided to revisit it, but not redesign it. Instead, I wanted to attempt to get as close to the drawing as I could in a model. Why? Because in August of 2013 that’s what I was trying to do. I wanted to see, if presented with a design, could I model it better than I used to. A pure modeling challenge, as compared to a design challenge.

The first drawing was made August 7, 2013. The next image is my first (real) attempt at modeling in Sculptris, on August 17, 2013. The final image is my attempt from today. By far, I’m far closer to the drawing than I was ever before (sans the base which I openly admit I just slapped together). The design is over detailed, over rendered, and completely senseless. However, I think I got across what I was going for much better here today. It’s been almost 3 years since I first started modeling, but it’s great to step back and see the progress I have been making. It was a fun exercise

The point I wanted to get across here though, is that even if you currently can’t create what you had in mind, in time (and with enough practice), you can.

Keep at it, and keep trying. Good luck to everyone out there.

Note: This design isn’t going anywhere and was only used for practice purposes. It’s never getting made. The third picture’s details are also muted unless you click the image.

[videodildonics]

On Work and Health

I thought I would catalog some thoughts on work and health (for myself and others) since that’s been something I am thinking about a lot lately. Under a cut because it is very wordy.

It is important to know your limits. Personally, when it comes to modeling, I’m only fresh for about 6 hours straight. Any longer than that and it’s hard to really make something of quality. That’s not to say I cannot work more than 6 hours a day, but a break is needed. If you’re easily engrossed in your work, like me, you might find yourself losing track of time a lot. I can’t tell you how many times I thought I’d been working for an hour or two, but it turns out I had been working for six to eight hours. For cases like that, I’d program reminders in your phone or even get an app to remind you to stop. Eating and drinking is also important, and if you find yourself working a lot, keep a glass of water on your desk.

Also, it’s important to have hobbies outside from the field. It’s surprising how quickly it can consume your life. For the longest time now, my hobby when I was not modeling for cash...making personal models. To a large degree, it still is. The problem is, this doesn’t give yourself much time to rest. It might sound silly, but it’s probably good to have another hobby or two, to prevent yourself from entering overwork territory. I’m still mostly guilty of this one. Sculptris is literally open right now with a model open despite the fact this is supposed to be a break for me. Woops.

Injuries mean you need to take time off. If it’s a recurring injury, something may be wrong with your process or workstation. Take time to ensure your working conditions are good.

It’s okay to put a model down for awhile. I sometimes put down models for weeks or months so that I can come back to it and look it over. Sometimes I catch things I could do better. Sometimes I realize it’s similar to an existing product and should be changed. Sometimes I simply have more skill so I can actually execute what I was attempting to. If you find yourself hitting a wall with a model, take some time away from it to do other things. There’s no rush in this field, and it’s perfectly acceptable to hone your skills and refine your work.

Finally, it is important to make time for yourself. Your own health is important, whether mental or physical. Doing things for yourself, whether that is creating for your own self interests or participating in an activity you like is very, very important. I really can’t stress it enough. It’s important to be healthy.

TL;DR Take care of yourselves when working.

(I should note, no one is expecting me to or making me work, but I just find myself pushing myself pretty hard. So I wrote this up for some helpful reminders for myself as well as helping others avoid certain traps I’ve fallen into)

[videodildonics]

Radio Silence

Sorry that this blog has been really quiet lately. I’ve been very, very busy. Hopefully there will be things to post soon!

[videodildonics]

can you make a tutorial?

I could, but I do not think I should. Sorry!

I assume this is about modeling right? I’m far too new to casting to even think about making a tutorial about that and your mileage will vary with a 3D printer. With all the different models and types of filaments, it wouldn’t do much good for me to talk about what I do. Plus, in both cases, there are many better official resources.

Personally, I use Sculptris. It’s free and it is easy to use. It can export .obj’s which a lot of programs can open and then save as a .stl for printing. Like any art, I honestly suggest you practice a lot! It’s the same as learning to draw or paint. The first step in learning to draw is picking up a pencil, and the first step in modeling is trying out the program! Just keep trying. Play with the different brushes, see what they do, change the settings on them, see how they changed, etc. Practice, practice, practice!

Your first results will honestly not be something you’ll be too proud of later. But just keep at it if you enjoy it. :) Be patient and kind to yourself. Keep your old models around so you can see the progress you make. Do exercises to create different kinds of things. Challenge yourself!

Oh, and remember, if you’re making toys, they should be designed to be used by a human body. Be sure they’re practical and safe! Also, be courteous to other companies and don’t create knock offs of their designs.

Just like downloading someone’s brush packs won’t make you a better artist, there’s really no getting around the learning curve of modeling. There’s no quick shortcut out there to being an expert (I don’t consider myself an expert), and I don’t think any tutorial or guide could ever provide that. Just keep trying, break yourself of bad habits, and learn to use all the tools effectively. Some tools can have some negative aspects and real drawbacks, but those are things I think you’re best off finding on your own. Nothing beats or can replace firsthand experience!

Good luck, keep trying, and be sure you’re having fun with it! :)

[videodildonics]

If you ever wondered what happens to failed prints, now you know! It sucks when you lose progress, but it comes with the territory. Forgive the bad photo and my cluttered desk...

Old print, but now that Drone is out it’s safe to share!

[videodildonics]

I’m going to take today off!

I say as I proceed to print a long personal project. Because who needs sleep, anyway?

[videodildonics]

The print is done and I’ll call it half a success. Not what I was after but will be great for other reasons.

[videodildonics]

I’m going to take today off!

I say as I proceed to print a long personal project. Because who needs sleep, anyway?

[videodildonics]

Meet the Electrofox! Since this just went live, I thought I’d post the model (the colors it was casted in kind of hides the details).

Many careful considerations were made to ensure that it would be different from other people’s canids. I personally feel I can be happy with the results, and I hope everyone likes it. :)

[videodildonics]

I hope all of you out there who are going into printing will not experience the pain of losing a print after 8 hours.

[videodildonics]

Having to make some tough decisions recently, so doing some sculpting to help me think.

Weekend goals are to get some prints going, again.

[videodildonics]

THIS IS NOT A TOY, NOR A SERIOUS VENTURE. I do not own Mara. Nor will this ever be something up for sale.

With that out of the way, here’s story time. I have a good friend who does not know what I do. Unfortunately, eventually it will likely come up that I make strange and unusually shaped sex toys. I have not the slightest how to present that to them, someone who judges even normal sex toys harshly.

As a joke solution, I started modeling this. This way I can introduce it to them:

“What do you do with the 3D printer?” *hands them Mara* “But what about the silicone?” *hands another Mara*

Maybe after enough disturbing, desk-buddy silicone Maras are handed to them they will get the idea and not ask anymore. Because really. Some things are best left unasked.

Being a huge fan of the series in general, it was a fun thing to model. It had to be simplified though, because that chariot was not going to fly. And the jelly-like one wouldn’t have really offered a challenge and would have been more awkward in my opinion.

So now you guys know! When I’m not modeling dicks, I’m modeling dicks.