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:
How do I change the time of day in a stage, like turning this stage (https://www.deviantart.com/mist-to-zero/art/MMD-Stage-Utagawa-Machi-Redistribute-885228987) into this (https://www.deviantart.com/rolneeq/art/City-in-the-night-563050081)?
(Or even more specific, how do I combine this (https://www.deviantart.com/yoshxxmmd/art/MMD-Utagawa-town-ver0-10-977469306) with this (https://www.deviantart.com/hack-girl/art/Night-time-City-skydome-stage-MMD-DOWNLOAD-627113941) to get this (https://www.deviantart.com/rolneeq/art/City-in-the-night-563050081)?)
Sorry… there is no magic tip that I can give you for a day and night city. You will need a stage model created for a dyligtht scene and another stage model created for a night scene…
https://learnmmd.com/?s=town
…
Here is a link to a complicated stage that has both DAY and Nighht elements: https://bowlroll.net/file/125409 … (the actual Download Button is the big orange button at about 1/4 way down the page.) … it a 45MB download.
I used some of the night elements in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnZgYLYpLJw
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Our author, Trackdancer2015, has written, like 60 tutorials on our pages… many of them are about adjusting the visual environment of your scenes. and, of course, many of them will have not much to do with your question, here… but scroll through the six screens of his tutorials, and you may find inspiration.
I spent close to two hours answering your questions as best I could… I love this stuff!
Good Luck, I hope this helps you.
— Reggie
How do I body morphing (e.g. breast/belly expansions) in MMD?
Complicated question: https://learnmmd.com/http:/learnmmd.com/editing-uv-morphs-mmd-models/
Complicated answers!
https://learnmmd.com/http:/learnmmd.com/editing-uv-morphs-mmd-models/
You cannot mechanically enlarge breast and belly. You will need to create a new model that is dressed with “the Fat clothes”… clothes that have the body shape you are looking for. But I do not know how to make a smooth transition between the two models.
There IS the simple “Opai Effect” that wii enlarge or reduce a model’s breasts… but again, there is no transition: it is “on” or “off”.
… you will need to become a master of PMXE to accomplish your goals. It’s a complicated subject.
https://learnmmd.com/how-to-mmd/contents-list-learnmmd-tutorials-articles/#AboutPMDE
https://learnmmd.com/how-to-mmd/contents-list-learnmmd-tutorials-articles/#MakeModl
https://learnmmd.com/how-to-mmd/contents-list-learnmmd-tutorials-articles/#AdvanPMDE
Go, man, go!
— Reggie
hello, new person here but i’m having a problem with pmx and been having it for four years now. the problem is pmx ain’t opening at all. it loads as if its opening like any other application but after a few seconds the loading stops and nothing else happens, no errors pop up as well so i’m unsure what i’m supposed to do even though i have the requirements for it to work
PMX…do you mean PMXE… the model editor, right? Maybe it comes down to which version you have downloaded. The version we offer from our downloads page is tried and true… and it has been running since 2019… 5 years, now.
https://learnmmd.com/http:/learnmmd.com/pmxe-0254f-a-newer-pmxe-in-english/
… PMXE meeds the same C++ and DirectX 9c as does MMD…
Sorry, I have no idea what might be going on with your PMXE.
— Reggie
Hi. I want to know: how do I animate belly and breast expansions in MMD?
Hi. I would like to like to know how to animate belly and breast expansions and button popping/belt snapping in MMD.
Wow! I don’t think that’s possible. The MMD model structure is too rigid. Even to flex a belt or crack a whip, the belt or whip model needs to be created with bones and textures and then animated as a model in its own right. … I can see what you are asking for: like a person bursting out of their clothes… but not happening in MMD. You will need to go with an AI digital engine.
— Reggie
An AI digital engine? Like what?
What AI digital engines are there that I can use?
Google it… free ai animation
I downloaded Project Sekai PMX models, and loaded them into MMD. MMD kinda makes the texture a shader(??)
Here’s the Miku model:
https://app.gemoo.com/share/image-annotation/638994047303634944?codeId=MpOEnnrRAlB01&origin=imageurlgenerator&card=638994042882838528
https://app.gemoo.com/share/image-annotation/638994906368368640?codeId=v67gb6pKZ76yl&origin=imageurlgenerator&card=638994903629488128
Hmmm… I have no answer for you. Are those “Project Sekai” models ripped from a game? That almost always leads to models with issues. Check with the model creator or check with the comments in the community. I have no idea.
— Reggie
Hello, I am using the https://quickmagic.ai/ service recently.
In order to obtain ‘face expression’ and motion capture data at the same time in the above service, I can only receive the ‘fbx’ file.
I want to know how to convert fbx to vmd and use it in mmd,
Please help me.
Sorry… that’s above my pay-grade. I have no idea.
— Reggie
I have a problem regarding the model, why when I enter the model in PMX or PMD format that I downloaded doesn’t appear in MikuMikuDance, only the white model appears. what’s the solution
Hello! This is a common issue… it involves MMD not being able to find the model’s texture files. Those texture image files may be hidden inside of folders that MMD doesn’t know about. Try moving the texture files into the model’s main folder. …LearnMMD has several notes bout this issue… THIS ONE is one of the more scholarly tutorials.
I hope that helps… please let me know… Best wishes!
— Reggie
Hey hello again! I need gelp with this problems if are possible
To give a little more context, I have to say that I have gone back to using Windows 10 since Windows 11 was going very badly in terms of performance.
Basically the problem occurs in the TransformView of PMX since it shows blank, and again I have problems with the editor plugins, it should be noted that yes, I have unlocked the editor file before unzipping it and yes, I have all the drivers for the program. I do not know if I need to unzip an external driver to the usual ones or if it is directly a problem of my PC since in my previous computer this did not happen.
Thanks for your time and have a nice day!!!
The questions you ask here are above my pay grade… I cannot help you… I hope another reader will find these notes and have an answer for you.
Thanks by the way
hi! not a problem but, i wanted to make a UV slider that automatically animates a certain texture, like making rotating objects using ROT+ and bone morph, but with UV instead. is it possible? sorry if it sounds confusing :s
I am not good at creating something like that, myself… but I did a search for Morph on LearnMMD.com (by using the search Magnifying Glass on the top right of every page) and the top few search results look like what you want.
Also see that, at the bottom of those results, it says there are 6 pages of results (each with a dozen tutorials listed). I see a good one for you on the second page and another on the third page, too.
— Reggie
Hi, I’m having a problem with the PmxEditor. I’m running MMD with no problems. I’ve clicked the deviantart link and downloaded all the necessary files for PmxEditor and unblocked the files before I extracted them, but I keep getting this error message when I try to run the program;
Direct3D initialization failed – Could not load file or assembly ‘PmxNLib.dll’ or one of its dependencies. The specified module could not be found.
I’ve tried reinstalling direct x, and the redistributable packages from the links provided and nothing changed. I’ve tried looking for ‘PmxNLib.dll’ and only found ‘PmxLib.dll’ in the Lib file, tried renaming it to the missing file, and the program won’t start. changed it back, program starts with the same error message. I am at my wits end here.
Weird. I found two ‘PmxNLib.dll’ in every installation of PMXE I have (and I have a lot) – one in \Lib\System\x64\ and another in \Lib\System\x86\. Are you sure you don’t have them? (and if you have, check again whether they are unlocked)
I have the same problem! but in my case i can run the PMX, the problem is my plugins does’nt work and the TransFormView are only in white
Hello! I’m a begginer to mmd, so the problem is that my model wont move even when i load motion data, i got it from some nico nico, https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm25223310 this one, and i have all the files, but just the camera works, but not my model.
Hi! Excuse me, i have a problem with the PMXE, the plugins doesn’t work correctly, i unlocked the zip file before use them and i still having problems, Are something here i can do?
I must say i have this problem in my new PC, i have the all files of Microsoft Visuals, I Didn’t have this troubles in my last PC
Do you also have installed .NET Framework? MMD does not require it, but PMXE does.
Yeah i have it, and i try reinstall all but that doesn’t works, i must say the editor looks weird, Some letters are in a very large size and go out of the window, I must say that I have a common graph to use and I have all the necessary components. And actually how i say unlocked the files, i try an old version but i still don’t know what’s happening and why it are crashed
also sorry for late reply
Try this: https://learnmmd.com/http:/learnmmd.com/dpi-scaling-stops-text-cut-off-pmxe/
Okay is nice! i try it and i fix the PMXE! now the only problem y have is the plugins still don’t work but is a nice start!
Hello, I’m having problem when I render videos, since a couple of days ago when I render a video starting from a frame different than 0 the WAV audio is not recorded, no matter what type of codec I use, if I don’t start recording at frame 0 the audio is not recorded. I don’t know what I screwed up in the program.
Hello. That is how MMD was created. If you render to AVI from anywhere besides frame zero, you will get no audio. You must Render to AVI starting from frame zero if you want the audio. Otherwise, you will need to edit the video to add your soundtrack. One of the simple programs for this is the old Windows MovieMaker. Easy to use and probably already on your computer.
I have an issue that you would maybe only understand with a screenshot. Basically, I’m converting an XPS model to MMD. Not all my Xps models do this, but some have this issue where the lower legs (the ankles) poke out of the clothing (example: long skirt). It does not act how it should and pokes out of the skirt and you just see the ankle limbs. how do I fix this?
I am sorry but I have no answer for you. I am unfamiliar with XPS.