Alter Sphere Files for a quick color change in MMD

What are sphere files in MikuMikuDance 7.39? What are .sph files in Miku Miku Dance? How do I alter sphere files in MMD 7.39?

Make Radical Color Changes with SPHERE Files!

Many MMD models use sphere files to give a shiny, metallic surface to their hair, skin and clothing. The use of a .sph sphere file is what makes “Metal Miku” metal!

If you look inside the MODEL folder, inside the USER FILE folder, you will see, amongst the other loose files, there, one called metal.sph. THAT is Miku’s “metal” file!

This exercise is so easy, I now you are going to enjoy trying it on ALL of your models!

Before anything else … make a copy of your metal.sph file. Rename it ORIGmetal.sph and don’t make any changes to it.

You can’t just OPEN the metal.sph file in your art program. The .sph file is an image file, a jpeg or a bitmap … but your paint or GIMP program cannot open the .sph file type … so rename it metal.bmp. Now you can open it in your art program and go crazy with it!

Take a look at mine!

I INVERSEd the colors (white to black, blue to orange) and ran the color saturation to the MAX. Then I drew on it a little just to make it more crazy.

When you have had enough fun, SAVE the file … don’t change the file name when you save it … just leave it metal.bmp

Now open the MODEL file again, locate the metal.bmp … and rename it metal.sph   Click YES or OK to the error message. (You know what you are doing!)

You’re Done!

When you open your model in MMD, you will see the new colors. Take a look at my new Metal Miku!

That is an amazing iridescent sheen!

I also tried it … that same brilliantly colored piece of  “art” … on my 1958 Chevy Belaire!

Not only does the chrome gleam with my new colors, but the shading on the hood, sides and glass is all reflecting the new crazy colors.

In the case of that Chevy, the sphere file was named cr.sph … spheres can have all kids of names … not just “metal”.

You can recover the original look of your model by putting the original sphere file image back into place. Just rename your “art” to something else and rename your original sphere file to it’s original name. Easy as pie! – Enjoy!

The 1958 Chevy is one of the cars from the Vehicle download that was available at mmdsekai.com … no longer online… I modified my Chevy by changing its original Yellow paint color file to Red … another easy trick!