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.
—
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.
—
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.
—
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.
—
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:
Okay soooooo I went to the site you list to help me with the “side by side comparison” error, you told me to download something, when i clicked the link to download it it says the page i requested could not be found. I *really really really really* realllllyyyyy want to use mmd! But I can’t and it’s really upsetting I can’t use it :(
Check these out…. the links work…
Is there any difference between the original 32-bit PMXE and the 64-bit version, other than plugin compatibility-related stuff?
Good question… I’ve got no idea.
I’m very novice at MMD and VRoid Studio so please bear with me if this is an easy to fix mistake.
When i convert my model from vrm to pmx and load it in vrois, the hair gets pretty severely messed up and I can’t figure out why. This is a link to an image of my original model
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11NUbfG0p3D3L0aZBYU16nFXx-7lmPNux/view?usp=sharing
And this is what happens after I process it into the program linked into the article about converting Vroid models to ones usable in mmd
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j_lJojSTE3b0VhE0KrwpifoMQ7ecG0GA/view?usp=sharing
Again, I’m very new at this so this might be a stupid mistake on my part but I’m very confused.
I emailed our Mae Blythe and she replied with this info:
“Hi there! Thank you so much for including images. I spend most of my time on my phone these days!
So, if you turn on physics in MMD with the model, does the hair go crazy and jump about? I believe the issue is physics. I don’t think VRoid and MMD use the same system, so something that looks beautiful in Vroid Studio will be a mess in MMD.
My advice is to open the model back up in VRoid Studio and deleting all of the physics before doing the export process again with the model with no hair physics. The ponytail in the back can still probably have physics.
My first time making an MMD model in VRoid, a similar thing happened to me. The hair was perfect in VRoid Studio, but a twitchy mess in MMD! Not fun at all realizing the differences!
– Mae”
When converting my VRM models to PMX, the model’s hair seems to mess up quite a bit and I can’t figure out why. This is the original model I’ve made
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k5pLxqPoaVylql_h1zAesfNmC72p_gX8/view?usp=sharing
And this is what happened after I loaded it into mmd after processing it into the program linked in the article about converting vrm to pmx.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j_lJojSTE3b0VhE0KrwpifoMQ7ecG0GA/view?usp=sharing
This might be a very obvious fix as I’m very new to this but I’m very confused
I’m having an issue with IKMakerX. For whatever reason, when I try to implement it on a model, I keep getting an error stating ‘Value cannot be null. Parameter name: value’. This has been appearing on both the original and English Translated versions of the plugin, and only non Japanese models (though I have already translated the bone names on this model into Japanese). I am unsure of what else to do.
Please clarify: does IKMaker work properly on regular models (check stock Animasa Miku for a guaranteed answer) and only the custom model with bones initially not named in Japanese gives you trouble?
Keep in mind that IKMaker not just expects Japanese bone names to be filled; it requires *exactly* matching standard names for all bones involved. In fact, a lot of MMD features rely on bones’ standard naming scheme. Most of downloadable MMD model bases already have that set up, but if you got your model from some other source (for example, designed it in Blender first and converted to MMD later), you better take care of that.
Also, just in case, check your Regional Settings for decimal point/digit grouping symbols. MMD expects them to be set in a particular way; my IKMaker didn’t seem to mind them as I experimented, but test it anyway.
Hi. I try to make semi transparent piece of cloth (opaque 0.5). In PMXE looks everything fine, but when I load model into MMD the part have strange triangels. How to fix it? Thanks!
https://imgur.com/a/GIjswx8
I have seen similar before… Trackdancer wrote this:
So… maybe Blender would be the tool… Search LearnMMD for Normals. HERE is an incredible article about making a texture in Blender. .. Best wishes… best of luck!
We were looking at this reader’s skirt fabric and saw these patterns…
Actually, this is created in Blender and I checked the normals and they all heading outside (how they should). I also try more versions, where they heading inside or I subdivided it or decimate and in all caseses I have same/similar result :/ But when I use raycast the problem dissappear but with simple shaders (I tried HAtoon) it doesn’t work. So I think I have wrong settings in Material tab in PMXE. Thanks for the article I check it later and hope I find there solution ^^ or maybe MMD just can’t handle it :/ Thank you for answer ^^
Double check the vertices and especially faces using the PMXeditor. What maybe happening here is that when the model was exported to PMX format, the export process might have doubled some of the faces which is another cause for this type of issue.
If this is the issue, try fixing it first in the PMXeditor by manually isolating the duplicated vertices and deleting them.
I often ran into this issue when I exported from SketchUp into PMX format. But if I exported the model in OBJ format, there seemed to have been no issues so that is another approach you might want to try.
help I try to use effect ex. kirakira 966_DigitalRipple and another effect that should load in accessory tab but it all-white look like paper…
I try many hours to fix this but I can’t
There is no fix for this sort of issue. Some of the older effects no longer work because they use coding that are no longer valid with more modern rendering systems.
Oh thanks for answering me ,what about if I use older version of mmd will can I use the effects???
You could give that a try… and let us know the answer… See this article for downloading the previous versions… ALL of the DirectX versions are available from our archives. … 7.39 was the first “in English” DirectX version… and I used to like 9.10… and 9.26 was “it” for quite a while… and then 9.31… and then 9.32… Let us know what you discover… Thanks!
We also have THESE versions of MME available for download…
… same basic download link: https://learnmmd.com/MMEffect027.zip
— Reggie
The smarter thing to do is actually the opposite: see if you can find an updated version of the effect. Especially with the Kira Kira effect, the author of that effect is pretty good about keeping his effects current.
Also, and I forgot about this as I am not always awake when I answer questions … >< … The other reason why you might see the white squares is that your graphics adapter isn't powerful enough.
BTW, do you get any error messages when you load these effects? If you do, let us know what they are and we can have a better idea of what the root issues are.
omg, why I can’t think, thx so so much now it works I download the new updated version of it but some of them don’t have an update so I gonna use old ver. how pity, thx so much
Hello, I have such a problem, I do not work many effects, or rather all. They just don’t load, how many times I haven’t tried anything comes out. I have a good laptop, since I recently bought it, version MMD-9.32 and MME-0.37. Both are 64 bit, I suspect the roblem is in MME. Please help with this problem.
Top Two (and a fraction) Probable Reasons Your MMD Doesn’t Run
I wanna expand my bases when it comes to looking for effects, models etc. Although DeviantArt is still a big source, if I run dry, I’m thinking of doing bowlroll and niconico hunts for them since I heard you can find some good stuff from there. So, are there any phrases or words in japanese that I need to keep a lookout for or would help me optimize my search? Are there any top artists I should follow?
Try using “エフェクト” and “MME”
Probably one of the best ways to find MMD models is actually YouTube. If you see a MMD model in a video that you like, just go find a link for it if one isn’t already provided. I use this method often, as I to see the model in action before I make a decision on whether or not it is worth adding to my collection.
Another good source and usually password hassle free is Niconi Solid (https://3d.nicovideo.jp/). They have a good selection of some of the latest MMD models made by Japanese MMDers.
I’m currently working on the rigging of a model. Thing is, I am me, so I want to have the jacket sleeve move half-realistically along with the hand, and I want to see if restricting its movement in a couple axis would help. I’ve tried, and I have indeed tried, but either I simply don’t understand how the Axis limit works in PMX, or I got the entirely wrong idea.
Not going to add physics to the sleeves, the model doesn’t actually have arms because it’s a game rip.
It’s not wide sleeves like the ones you see in the animasa models, it’s more akin to normal, human sleeves.
So how could I restrict rotational movement?
I’m trying to create an mmd model in the English version of PMX/PMD editor. It’s not letting me move parts without them stretching like crazy. How should I select and attach parts?
Please see these three articles… they may contain info to help you.
Silent Headset: Placeholder Dummy
Silent Headset: Make model almost from scratch
May Blythe: Make a model from scratch using PMXE and Blender
Good luck… “Making a model”… a good model… takes a lot of learning, a lot of patience, and a lot of experimentation and practice. It may take you many months, or longer, to get “good” at it.
So whenever I opened PMX Editor, the tabs were largely shrunk.
https://imgur.com/a/UuJ2F0W
https://www.deviantart.com/n00b-toshi/art/Fixing-Big-PMX-Editor-Display-Icons-767888450
Hi, I’m trying to load a motion and it says I can’t register over 30,000 point. How do I fix this?
I’ve got no idea… why is that motion so huge?? You might get that if you use the motion-smoother tool. That tool registers all bones in every frame. I have played it with it for a short motion segment… and was amazed at how huge a file it created. … an entire animation would be way too huge to even consider.
MMD has a hard limit on the size of motion data files. If the file is too big, you will need to chop it up into more manageable sized chunks. This can actually be easily done using a spreadsheet app like MS Excel IF you know what you are doing.
At 30000 frames worth of data, that’s approximately double MMD’s upper limit, so you’re going to need to halve the size of the data.
Honestly, it’s more trouble than it is worth. Just find some other motion. There are plenty of excellent motions available these days.
So it’s no possible to lock it. :/ And If I’ll distribute it, always will be somebody who break the rules. :/ thanks ^^
Why distribute at all if you don’t want it to be used?
I want it to distribute, but I don’t want that they take parts and make another models from it or even worse sell it or make money.
Yeah… that’s the game. The best you can do is request that they don’t.
Yeah, I hope they will not break rules…I’ll have faith in humanity xD
Hmm, I wonder, did *you* develop the whole model from scratch in Blender or Maya, or whatever, without taking any parts from other models that didn’t bother to have that limitation, or just from part collections? No? Mind you, I’m not saying it’s impossible, there *are* people who make those parts in the first place, but statistically speaking, there are very few MMD artists who would be capable *and* willing to do the whole work by themselves, without cross-pollination. I can understand your stance if you’re one of those few, but if not… well, that’s double-standards.
On a lighter note, it’s not very likely that someone will want to sell your model for cash. Taking money for commission *works* is a normal practice, though not very often, but selling models is an exception rather than a rule, especially stolen ones. MMD community *is* built on free exchange of assets, after all, and with amount of models freely circulating around, for someone to consider your model worth stealing for making a buck it must be *exceptionally* good and attractive for other people. Is yours?
Uf, long post I hope I understood properly xD (english is not my native language)
Yes, model belong to me (but not character design, it’s from anime :D). I made it in VRoid and Blender…It’s not 100% from scratch, because VRoid have body and some clothes presets, but VRoid policy said that model which I create belong to me ^^ So I didn’t take any parts from anybody.
And for making money I also though something like monetize YouTube videos or Patreon, because I saw so many videos using TDA models monetize on Patreon, but my model is not that great so I think that part will be alright xD
If your model depicts a character from an anime franchise, ALL rights to that model belongs to the company that owns that franchise and you will need a license from them to do anything commercial with your model.
Period, end of discussion.
Your work is a derivative work or “fan art”. Most commercial companies will tolerate people making fan art for enjoyment purposes only.
The moment you try do anything commercial with the model, including trying to monetize your work via YouTube or Patreon you are actually in violation of applicable copyright laws and can be subject to either criminal charges or civil fines (or both).
In other words, if you don’t have a license to use the character beyond making fan art, don’t try any money off your efforts.
That’s the point… I don’t want that somebody steal my model and make money with it… But I was always curious about selling/monetize fanart from anime/manga without creator permission/license. So you say that’s illegal? So that also mean that people who draw artwork and sell their prints or cosplayers who make also prints /photos and sell them is illegal?
Yes… that’s how I understand it… if anybody cared to prosecute… yes. Imagine if you drew a nice Mickey Mouse / Donald Duck poster that suddenly sold a million copies, Disney would serve a “Cease and Desist” order and then they’d sue you in court for copyright infringement and be asking for reparations.
If you create a fan-art of Miku and sell a few copies… Crypton Future Media Inc/Piapro (owner of the design image of Miku) probably couldn’t care less. Do a FORD TV commercial for the Super Bowl game featuring Miku without paying for the proper permissions, you’d get your ass sued! … so fan art or a copy of a model… illegal? Yes… but if your activity isn’t worth the price of a phone call, you probably will not be sued.
Thanks! I have similar opinion I wasn’t only sure :)
Let me clarify one thing for you. You don’t own your model. Since you made it without a license/permission of the IP owners, they actually own your model.
Thanks that you let me know ^^ I never properly understand this things.
You’re welcome. Yeah, it is incredibly complex and even lawyers can get confused.
Also let me clarify my last statement as I missed one word. So the true situation is that YOU own your model, but the IP owner reserves ALL rights with regards to the use of the model.
You have the right to show off the model or do whatever with it with the following exceptions:
1. No commercial usage, not even for charity.
2. In most countries, you cannot use the model to insult the IP owner or otherwise cause them negative results. This is actual “moral right” which IP owner automatic get.
But you are also protected by moral rights. No one can use your model to insult or damage your reputation either.
Hi. I made MMD model in VRoid and Blender, so it’s 100% my and I want to ask if it’s possible to lock it, that it can’t be editable in PMX editor. Thanks
Just don’t distribute your model… that way no one will have it. if you “share” it, it is out of your control. You can list your restrictions in a README… but many users do not read ’em.