Reggie Replies to interesting comments and emails. Send Reggie your question or tell him what you are doing to learn how to use MMD. What have you discovered?
KayLeek wrote: i need help on motion data
how do i use it
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
reply back please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here’s the Long Answer about how to use Motion Data:
Wanna save motion data from your dance?
Let’s pretend you have the Sample Dance open and you want to have Rin doing the dance instead of Miku. You want to copy the motion data from Miku and paste it into Rin.
Use the Range-Select windows under the Frame Counter area.
Set the range for this dance as 0 – 800. See that All Frame is selected.
See that you have Miku Selected (not Camera/Light/Accessory)
Click the Range-Sel button. See that All the diamonds are red. Click COPY.
Now delete Miku. Load Rin. Click PASTE.
All of Miku’s diamonds now drop into place for Rin. Click PLAY and watch Rin do Miku’s dance.
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Want to Save a Motion Data file?
To save that dance motion as a file that you can use later:
After you have the Range selected … and the diamonds are Red … click COPY. That puts all of those diamonds into memory.
Now got to FILE and choose SAVE MOTION DATA. You will be asked to give it a name. Name it and click SAVE.
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Want to use a Motion Data File?
To use a motion file, FIRST go to the frame where you want to paste that file data. If you are aligned with Frame Zero … the data will start at Zero. If you are aligned with Frame 57 … that data will start at Frame 57.
Go to FILE and LOAD MOTION DATA. Pick the file you want. That’s it!
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You can download motion data files online … YouTube … Drop them into your USER folder inside the MOTION folder so that MMD can find it easily.
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Motion files have a .VMD extension. Pose Files have a .VPD extension. Pose Files work the same … except they are only a Single Frame. You make a pose file by highlighting the diamonds in a single frame … go to FILE and click SAVE POSE DATA. To use a pose file, go the frame you want, be sure the right character is selected … and click LOAD POSE FILE.
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Now you know everything! Have fun … keep asking questions!
Rim wrote: When I try to load stages and new models, they either don’t load, or do but no color, it’s all white, except for the shading and some random bits of colour… my new models don’t work?
I DO HAVE a fix for that …
What happens is that you are downloading models from Japanese sources … and their file names use Japanese characters. Your computer is substituting English gibberish for those Japanese characters.
The fix is to download some free software that lets you open a ZIP file, keeping those original file names intact.
Here’s my article about that problem: https://learnmmd.com/http:/learnmmd.com/opening-japanese-models-in-mikumikudance-7-39-sometimes-they-don%E2%80%99t-work/
Read my notes … click that orange link, there, to mikudance.info‘s HELP page … do everything, just right … and you will be in business. (You will like MikuDance.info! … plenty of models and accessories to download … updated often!)
Lemme know if you need more help with it.
SarahP wrote: How can I change the clothes on my models?
Using MMD, alone, you cannot change the clothes on your model. The models are designed as single units. They seem to have fabrics, belts, and chains that could be exchanged for other elements … but the models are actually only one piece. There is now software, just recently available in English, PMD Editor, that let’s you modify your models or even create a new one! Also called PMDE … PMD Editor is getting written-up in the pages of LearnMMD.com. Check it out!
BigS Writes:
Hey, I’m kind of new to MikuMiku Dance and I just have a few questions that I could not find on your (totally awesome) site. Btw, thanks for making your site, it helped alot.
Thanks for asking! Yup … that’s a lot of questions … Here are my answers.
#1 Submit a frame? … I guess that’d be Register the pose in that frame … Every time you move a bone you want to click the Register button in the dark blue Bone Manipulation area under the lower left of the Stage Screen. What I do, that also works well, is just hold your left hand over the Enter key on the keyboard. Every time you move a bone, click Enter … that’s another way to Register the bone. If you move a bunch of bones and THEN decide to Register, you can click on one of the diamonds in that frame and then click V-Sel … Vertical Select … to highlight all of the bones in that frame … and then click that Register button in the blue Bone Manipulation area to catch ’em all.
ALSO … as you move bones in a frame and you want to “undo” … just advance the frame counter a click and every not-registered bone snaps back into its old position.
#2 Move a character without bending their legs … You will find that the two Leg IK bones and the Center bone are the main bones that you will use to move your models around the stage. In the Brown bone chart on the far left of the Frames area, Click the +IK to show all of the IK bones. Click on Leg-IK R and Leg-IK L … hold down the Shift key while you do it so that BOTH are selected at the same time. Still holding Shift, click on Center at the top of the list … so now you have the two Leg IK and the Center bone all selected. NOW you can use the Red/Green/Blue rollers in the bottom right of the stage screen to move your character anywhere you want to.
Another way to select the right bones for moving the entire character is to use the BOX-SEL button in that blue Bone Manipulation area. Now you can drag a box around the character to select every bone in the entire model. Be sure to include everything so that no part is outside the box. You know you have done it correctly when you see the Red/Green/Blue rollers light up. Now roll those rollers to scoot your model wherever you want it.
#3 Download another stage or something … Easy! What you are looking for are called MMD Accessories. Search the web for MMD Accessory Download and you will find a bunch of them that people have made available for you to use. You are looking for files that have a “.x” file extension. Look inside the MMD program folder and see the USER folder … inside that is the Accessory folder … put your new items into that folder … note that all of the accessories have that .x file extension.
You can also make your own new accessories … stages … props … using Google SketchUp … Read the articles on my LearnMMD.com site to learn about that.
When you use an accessory, you can attach it to the Ground, to some part of your character, or to a dummy bone, which lets you manipulate the part as if it was another character. Again … Read about dummy bones on LearnMMD.com .
#4 Adding music. There are 2 ways to add music: 1.) “After the fact” by using a movie editing software that lets you blend your video with your separate soundtrack … or 2.) Adding music directly into your MikuMikuDance by going to the FILE menu and clicking Load WAV File. To do that, your music has to be saved in a WAV format … has the file extension “.wav”. You can’t use an mp3 file … it has to be wav. Again … if you don’t have software to convert your music files into a wav format … search the web for some freeware to do it for you. I went through this, myself in October, 2011, and I found a FREE program called AUDACITY 1.3 that I like. ALSO … like with the accessories, people on the web have WAV files that you can download … search LeekSpin Polkka wav or MMD wav music and see what you find. In my DOWNLOAD page on LearnMMD.com I have a link to a page that has the Ieaven Polkka (the LeekSpin Polkka) WAV for free download.
Once you have a wav file, drop that file into your MMD program file … inside the WAVE folder in your USERS folder … so that you and MMD can both find it. Then you have those WAV options in the file menu. Go to LearnMMD.com … to my File Menu write-up and you can read about how to use those options.
#5 Make Ren Walk, not Neru … Easy! You want to use the Range Select windows under the Frame area. Take a look at the walking motion and determine how many frames are used … what’s the last frame with any data in it? Enter that number into the Range-Sel window. Let’s call it 0 – 450 . See that “All Frame” is showing, there, so that when you click Range-Sel all of the frame data will be selected. (Take a look at the other options and see that you can select a range for any one bone or for all of only the facial movements and etc.) Click Range-Sel and see that all of the Diamonds have turned red … they are selected. Now click COPY to put those diamonds into memory. Now you can DELETE Neru and LOAD Ren. Be sure that the frame counter is at Zero because we are going to PASTE the data into the current frame. See Ren snap into the new Frame Zero position. Click PLAY and watch Ren do the walk.
Range Select is a powerful tool that lets you copy all kinds of motions. Following these same steps is how you can save motion data on your own. You use Range-Sel, Click COPY and then go to FILE and click SAVE MOTION DATA … and MMD lets you save that data as a file that you can reload into another character whenever you want. Easy and fun!
There you go! — Reggie
Josh wrote: I found your page while searching the web for help
with MikuMikuDance. Thank you for your page. I just downloaded MikuMikuDance 7.39 and I did not have the missing file error that you write about. My MMD opened and seems to run just fine. Is that a problem??
HI Josh! That is good news that your MMD is running fine. I think the Missing File Error will happen to people, like me, who are running older computers. Have fun with it! Let me know when you Post a Video to YouTube!
KikiKiki wrote: I can’t get my model to talk in time to the music.
Practice … practice!
I am working to make a model “speak” in sync with the Ievan Polkka. No luck yet! One trick to creating a good lip-flapping motion might be to use only one “Mouse” move at a time. I played back the Sample dance frame-by-frame while keeping an eye on the Mouse panel. I advance the frame to a Diamond in the Facial row and then I click through the various Mouse selections to see which ones are activated and by how much. Doing so, I find that only one attribute is activated at a time in that Sample dance.
If you can load your music as a WAV file, you will be able to see the music on the oscilloscope. I find that the view is too complicated to see much more than the beat of the song. Trying to time mouse moves to the music by matching the mouth action to the visual waves on the screen doesn’t look to be possible. You can click “Play WAV with Frame” in the FILE Menu and then you can here the sound made in each frame. Play a short section with PLAY and then click through those frames one at a time and here the tune almost note by note. That may help you to sync the mouth to the music.
One trick I am trying to exploit is the idea of narrowing the PLAY frame range to only the part of the song I am trying to “mouth”. On my Polkka, the Voice starts at frame 500. I set the Play Range as 500 – 550. Then I repeatedly PLAY the animation for just that 50 frames and adjust the mouth settings until I am happy with the result. Then … set the Play range as 550 – 600, and work on just that next little section.
ALSO … I find that when I click PLAY … the animation skips some of the fast movements that I built into it. Almost like a blur, the mouth averages the tight shapes that I registered. I output a test to AVI and played it as a video and it looks like all of my movements ARE in the video. SOOO … what you see on your screen in MMD during PLAY is not as sharp as what you will see after your animation is rendered to AVI. That makes it tough! You just have to register the frames and know they are there, even when you can’t really see them during Play on MMD.
Good luck! … It is all just experience gained through practice.
Crystal wrote: What’s the best way to Render TO AVI? There are so many choices.
Hi Crystal! Thank you for writing! I use the Cinepak Codec by Radius option as my AVI file. If you are planning to edit your video in another program, you should save the AVI as RAW AVI. That creates a huge file that gives your editing program the cleanest images and the best chance for success. I will write more about the video aspect of MMD as I get deeper into it. I have saved your email and I will reply to you when I have a better answer.
SarahP wrote: How can I change the clothes on my models?
Using MMD, alone, you cannot change the clothes on your model. The models are designed as single units. They seem to have fabrics, belts, and chains that could be exchanged for other elements … but the models are actually only one piece. There is now software, just recently available in English, PMD Editor, that let’s you modify your models or even create a new one! Also called PMDE … PMD Editor is getting written-up in the pages of LearnMMD.com. Check it out!
Send Reggie an email to get your questions answered:
Hello. I recently decided to use Raycast. I was making my second MMD music video on YouTube and well I made a video I love right? I caught it when I watched it, before publishing. The raycast made the stage like….transparent? that… and I can’t use a background picture and the skydome. I can really only use let alone know how to is the pink hemisphere. Got any idea why it makes the stage transparent? Also do you know how to make a stage look better than it does without effects?
Hello… I am trying to read your questions. I tuned-up some of what you wrote, but am not sure of all of it…
“I can really only use let alone know how to is the pink hemisphere.” I couldn’t decipher that… ?
I do not know why the stage goes transparent. …
and “Also do you know how to make a stage look better than it does without effects?” … Sorry, what are you asking??
Can it cause problems to open a model or a pmm in two versions of mmd simultaneously,so like sometimes in mmd 7.31 or sometimes in mmd 9.31?
I tried it and in the first tries it didnt cause problems,but im still worried,my files could give up,because those are completely different versions.
Well, in my experience, having two instances of MMD opened at the same time (if *that’s* what you mean) often causes performance drops; plus, if you save a .pmm in a higher version of MMD, you may not be able to open it in a lower one. Otherwise… I can’t imagine any sort of a problem.
Why would you want to do that, by the way?
Sorry,simultaneously was a bad choice to explain it.Precisely in my case,if i made a pmm in the version 739 and open it in 931,can it cause any problems?
Logically,the models shouldnt cause any problems,because they dont get updated or anything,so should work with any version,but my question is,if for example mmd 739 rewrites some files in a model,which can cause mmd 931 to not recognize it anymore or to rewrite it again,until it doesnt open anymore,can that happen?
I hope,you understand my question now :)
PS: I used 739 normally because I liked its design more than that of 931 but some models glitch in 739,while they work in 931 so i decided to use both versions,but with only one model folder,because its too big in size to copy it two times
MMD shouldn’t write any information to any model files. I’ve never noticed it doing so, and it would be poor practice. If you’re still concerned, you could set model files or directories to read-only or back them up. MMD doesn’t write to any files except via save dialogs, which means the only kinds of files it can write are videos, poses, motions, and scenes (.avi, .vpd, .vmd, .pmm). You’re safe.
> if i made a pmm in the version 739 and open it in 931,can it cause any problems?
It shouldn’t, I believe. (Though the reverse, as I said, is possible)
> if for example mmd 739 rewrites some files in a model,which can cause mmd 931 to not recognize it anymore
No, MMD does not rewrite files in the model, you can be easy about that.
So, I have a problem with my models. I always edit them in PMXE, adding textures and other..
but when I load my models on MMD, even if in PMXE mirror everything seems to be okay it always looks white, at least, the new parts I added..
I even moved every tex in the same folder of the model, so.. maybe there is another problem which I’m ignoring? In less words, the textures I added to my model new parts, in MMD turns white even if in PMXE they seems to be all okay..
Please.. an help will be really appreciated, thanks if you’ll took your time for give an hand to a poor lost soul.. XD I looked everywhere, but most of tutorials speak only of white parts in PMX, in my case they appears when I load everything on MMD..
Hmm… the usual reason for such symptoms *is* about textures not being in the same folder, but if you’re really sure you addressed that properly… Just to check – do they still look healthy if you save the model in PMXE, restart PMXE and load it again? If so, try to zip your model and upload it somewhere for us to take a look.
hello o u o
so ive been having an odd problem.
when i put together a model it worked just fine at first, but i noticed the eyes done close all the way anymore. went into PMX i had to adjust the mrophslider on they eye from 1.00 to 1.09 but it wont stay that way and i have no idea how to fix it. will you help me?
Does this occur when the head is at any position? Does this occur with the eye bones in the default positions? Which base model are you using?
Try clicking on the numbers next to “eyes”, type in 1.00, and click register. What happens?
A good way to solve this without too many trouble is to use a group morph to control the eye morph. Right click in PMXE morph window, new morph->group, add an index referencing your blink morph, set the group impact to 1.1., give it the proper name, then rename your original blink morph so it doesn’t conflict.
when i try to save my video, i do the avi thing, it pops up the tab of the video recording but when the actual motion is done it doesnt stop recording! please help
Do you have the length of the animation showing in those buttons below the PLAY button… 0 – 1300, or whatever the proper length of your animation… ? THAT tells MMD how many frames are in your animation; how many frames to record in your AVI. … and if you start from any other than frame zero, the AVI will record, but no sound will be in that recording.
I tried everyway to open AVI as background but still can”t open it. I made.
Microsoft video 1 but still cant open it, i downloaded a file what was up for background video and the program can open that too.
What can be the problem? And how can i solve it?
Can somebody help me?
My guess would be that it’s an AVI encoding issue. MMD only accepts AVI Raw or AVI AVC(H264) encoded videos. Render a short clip with the AVI Raw codec, the default option. If that works, set your encoder to output AVI AVC(H264).
Is the video you’re trying to encode originally a Microsoft Video 1 (.MSVC) file?
… MMD uses other AVI besides RAW. I just ran a test where I Render to AVI and used “Cinepack Codec by Radius”…. and another test where I used “Microsoft Video 1″… and BOTH of those worked as background AVI on my system. I also tried one using UTvideo… but that AVI was not accepted by MMD.
It does export to other codecs, but it will only read AVI raw or AVI AVC(H264) in a background file.
I have two problems but really, I don’t know how fix them..
First one: Sometimes when I load some mmd files (like stages, but especially effects) my pc says it cannot be open because is write in japanese… even if the folder’s name is write in english.. what I must do? Or what files I must to modify?
Second one: Sometimes (more times with effects) the pc says during the loading of files there was an error, but no matter how many times I keep try, this problem contines.
What could it be? And what I can do for fix it?
Sorry if I’ve annoyed you, but I really need to understand for my projects, so..thank you if you answer! I’ll really appreciate it <3
First, try to use Bandizip to extract your files. This will ensure that if the archive contains files or folders with Japanese filenames, at least they will be extracted *correctly*.
Then, try to rename them into English (always keep backups, in case something goes wrong). For effect files, it’s important to remember that there usually are pairs of .x/.fx files with same first names, and they should remain same after renaming. It’s also possible that you may need some more editing for effect to work correctly, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
As for your second question, it’s hard to tell anything without knowing more about what kind of situation you have and what kind of error you get. Details are important.
So, I had MMD before and it worked fine. My computer busted and we had to replace the main drive.
Now, when I try to download it like I had before, it keeps giving me the side-to-side error. Plus, when I download the 08 and 10 C++, they both show up as vcredist and then either a (1) after it. I’m doing it the same, I’m downloading the files needed, yet it still gives me that warning and any additional things don’t work besides PMD and that only shows the options.
Is it the new driver? Please help.
Yes, VC++ distributives, unfortunately, are named uniformly as vcredist.exe regardless of the version (an oversight on Microsoft’s side, I believe). You’re supposed to download and *launch* one, then another (or you simply can rename downloaded files, it doesn’t really affect the outcome). Did you try to install them, or just left where they are?
I downloaded MMD but I Can’t open the app. How do I open It
For starters, unpack the archive into a folder in case you didn’t. The app is *inside*.
Second, make sure you’ve installed all the necessary software.
If you *still* don’t succeed after that, explain your situation in more details. All our telepaths are currently on vacation.
See the simple step-by-step…
https://learnmmd.com/StartHere/
Need video tutorials for beginners for daz studio.
So far we only have this.
Can you guys share some tutorials with me on hackr, for my community. https://hackr.io/tutorials/learn-daz-studio
Jimmie: When you came pulling in here, did you notice a sign out in front of my house that said “Daz Tutorial Storage”?
Jules: Jimmie, you know I ain’t seen no…
Jimmie: [cutting him off again; getting angry] Did you notice a sign out in front of my house that said “Daz Tutorial Storage”?
Jules: [pause] No. I didn’t.
Jimmie: You know WHY you didn’t see that sign?
Jules: Why?
Jimmie: ‘Cause it ain’t there, ’cause storing Daz tutorials ain’t my #$&*$# business, that’s why!
Please help me with you can guide me detailed effects are not, including darkening effect, firefly effect, bloody effect on the character …
There are plenty of effects tutorials on the website. Just search for the effect you’re trying to use.
I download models into the model files, but they wont appear when i try to load them into MMD.
Do you load them through the Model Manipulation panel? (Do you *unpack* them from their archive files, for that matter?)
Recently ive had an issue with very low fps in MMD, this just started about 3 days ago and I have no idea why. I can’t let the phyics work like normal and I have to have it set on no calculation just for it to load properly. Does anyone know how to fix this issue? I’m currently using the newest version of MMD and i even tried it in the last version. I’ve made lots of MMDs and never have this issue until now
“Very low fps”… only effects your MMD time. When you Render to AVI, that video should be fine. SLOW FPS may be due to a complicated model you are using… or an MME effect that requires fierce computations. When you push PLAY in MMD… those tough models, stages, accessories and MME effects have to be calculated frame-by-frame… and so your computer cannot keep up with your requested 30 FPS… I often see 6, 4, and even 3 fps when I am using effects. Again… the finished video will be fine.
From one of my Making of Arrow article: “The Spotlight effect is amazing… and overpowering! It acts as a shader, a shadow-smoother, and the lighting controller. I found my overhead lights (the basic MMD lighting) did have a little effect on shadows… but the spotlight is really in control. Spotlight ate-up my computing power so that I couldn’t PLAY my animation within MMD at more than a 2 or 3 FPS rate. … and when it comes time to do the render, it increased my render by 8- or 10-times.”
… it happens… .
As Reggie said, it might have something to do with a particular model or effect that taxes your CPU more than usual. Then again, if it happens to any model at all, regardless of MME used, there might be an issue of Windows update breaking something. Check your Update panel’s history and see what fixes were installed three days ago or earlier. If you can, revert to an earlier System Restore point and see if MMD starts to act normal again. If so, turn off automatic update and start to install updates one by one, each time restarting Windows and checking MMD’s behavior (if your System Restore point is rather old, you can probably reinstall earlier updates by batch to save time). If you find a particular update to be a culprit, revert again and then reinstall all updates *except* that one.
If you manage to make MMD act normal using this method, please write back to us about your finding, so we could warn our further readers about the particular update they should avoid.
I downloaded a model, how do i load it into mmd?
How, indeed?
Seriously… if you download a model, you use the software, BANDIZIP, to unzip the downloaded ZIP or RAR folder. … then you drag and drop that new model folder into the MODEL folder inside your MMD folder… and open MMD and LOAD that model.
i was wondering, could anyone help me figure out what effect that is that creates all those sparkles like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9iL6Bo1r7k
ive been trying to find out what that is for such a long time and i cant figure it out lol.
Hello! … I do not recognize that effect. I have used KiraKira… a sparkle effect… but it doesn’t have the twinkles we see there. Leave a comment on that video and ask about the effect… you might get an answer.. or click the artist’s name and send a message… you might get an answer.
i think the effect is called “EmitParticle” or “EMv1.25”
someone gave me a direct link to the download for it but i’ve never heard of it or seen it on any other site before, so i dont know who made it
i dont even understand how it works
this is the link i was given https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GRY6LB5ZIjRvjVTTw3aFtIeeJTfbMrNT
It’s not EmitParticle … That’s more of a “fire” effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVWYaD8uJZY
… and that Google Drive link didn’t work for me… Couldn’t find a reference to EMv1.25
Still cannot identify that sparkly effect.
The EMv1.25 link does work if you remove trailing junk symbols from the address:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GRY6LB5ZIjRvjVTTw3aFtIeeJTfbMrNT/view
…though no, it’s not the one in the video either. Have no idea what that one is.