Hi Skybird,
To give you a brief answer to your question about the number of posing is not simple. It took me 8 years to develop ScoonimDoll to the current level and most of this time I have been spend developing aspects concerning, or related to posing. Before I lose myself in writing digressions about the many tests, improvements, optimalisations, inventions, etcetera, I will give you the end of this story:
Bottom line is that also a ScoonimDoll is not without weak points. It can break.
When?
The weak part of a ScoonimDoll is not in the joints of the skeleton nor the strength of the ‘bones’, but in the bodymass. For the skeleton I have pretty much achieved to make it poseable endlessly. 95% of all joints are metal and all can be posed stepless. The stiffness of the joints is friction based. Some are spring friction based, some adjustable pressure friction based, some multilayer based and a few are wire frame (as for instance fingers and big toes). Breaking a finger is (still) possible, but breaking a joint is very much unlikely.
The bodymass however is a hybrid rubber. To my knowledge the material is the best available worldwide. And I think it is pretty good. At least it is better than any silicon I know off.
The material is the same as some other dollsmakers use and I would not be surprised if also ArteTokio uses it.
Eventhough the bodymaterial is very soft and may feel therefore a bit fragile, when handled with care (no pinching, no picking no stretching it to the extreme) you can move it thousands of times without any problems.
But like all other soft-skin rubbers, stretch it to the extreme and it may tear even within a few minutes.
When using the hybrid rubber compounts, the trick is in finding the best balance between stretchability, adhesiveness and softness. What I have seen is that the other dollmakers choose to use a version with minimum adhesiveness. But this compount is also harder and less stretchable, has more burden to the skeleton and is more vulnerable to cracks .
My processing is different. The body of a ScoonimDoll is multi-layered. Soft and stretchable (and sticky) on the inside, and a very thin layer of harder and not sticky compount on the outside. The result is more stretchability, less chance of tearing, more softness, good moisture reduction, nice touch and excellent visuals (realistic foldings). In comparisment my improvement is considerable, but… it still is not by far as strong as real skin.
As for your question regarding to hold the pose in the position shown (balancing act position). In general I can say I have designed ScoonimDoll in such a way that it can maintain any human position for a longer period of time. For most posing no special precautions will be neccessary.
But some extreme positions for humans (like the balancing act) are also extreme for ScoonimDoll. When you want this kind of posing for a longer period of time a ScoonimDoll will need ‘training’.
The bodymass needs to be gradually adapted to the extreme position. Likely this trick also works on your ArteTokio doll.
Koen
