So earlier this month I posted a showcase of my newest stage (link) and one of its functions was that you could make the armillary sphere spin with just a morph. I'll try my best to explain here how to make a morph like this yourself! ( ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ )
Model by Etheluu
To start of, add one bone and rig the parts that you want to spin to the said bone.
In the 'Bone' section, select the bone that you made (you can name it whatever you want, I named it 'rotate') and click CRTL+D twice to duplicate it twice.
Name those two bones as well, they shouldn't share all the same name! One bone will be the actual IK bone ('rotateIK') and one will be just a target bone for the IK bone ('rotate+').
Now into the each of the bones' settings:
For 'rotate' bone:
assign the parent bone (P-Bone) to the main bone (or a bone that the rotating bone should be attached to)
set 'Append' to 'Rot+', where parent is the 'rotate' bone (yes, the bone must refer to itself! in PMX info it will show up as an error but it will work either way)
turn on 'Axis Limit' and type in '1' in a box that refers to the axis that the bone should be rotating on (X, Y or Z)
For 'rotate+' bone:
assign the parent bone (P-Bone) to the 'rotate' bone
turn off the visibility for this bone (not neccessary for it to work)
For 'rotateIK' bone:
assign the parent bone (P-Bone) to the 'rotate' bone
turn on the 'IK' setting
in IK section, in the 'Target' box, type in the number of the 'rotate+' bone
in IK section, in the 'Loop' box, type in '100'
ik IK section, in the 'Link' box, add the 'rotate' bone (you can do it by right-clicking on the 'rotate' bone on the left side and select 'Copy Index (X)' option from the menu and then right-clicking on the 'Link' box and selecting 'Copy From Index (V)' option)
Now, you must move the IK bone ('rotateIK') along the same axis that the whole thing will be rotating along. Example: if you want the materials to rotate by the Y axis, move the IK bone ('rotateIK') by the Y axis.
An infographic(?) if you want to see the direction of the rotation of the axisses in PMXE:
Switching to the 'Morph' tab, add a new morph. Right-click on the area on the left -> New (N) -> Bone (B). Name it however you want.
Don't mind the other morphs on the screenshot, those are just pre-existing morphs I made and are irrevelant.
Add the bone that you rigged the materials to ('rotate'). You can do it with the same method as earlier with the IK settings ("Copy Index (X)" and "Paste From Index (X)").
In the 'Offset Amount' section and under 'Bone Rotation/Torque Impulse (X/Y/Z)' text, enter a number from 0 to 1/-1. This determines the speed at which the bone will rotate at:
0 = not moving at all
1 = moving quickly
-1 = moving quickly but in the opposite direction
Theoretically, you can enter higher number but it might result in the bone moving way too fast so I would just simply not recommend doing that.
And here you go! You've made a morph that makes a bone rotate on its own ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
Remember that this will work only in MMD itself and not in PMX Editor!! If you try to test it in PMXE, don't be alarmed! This does not work in the PMX Editor (for some unknown to me reason) but if you test it in MMD then everything will be alright!
The following tutorial is an English translation of the original one in Japanese by ngreeed. (WARNING: the website is NSFW)
Let’s get started? If you just landed on this tutorial for advanced MMDers and is wondering what the hell is going on, there are beginner Raycast tutorials in Learn MMD! Also, if you feel like reading more about rendering tips, I suggest taking a look at my other tutorial: advanced MMD rendering tutorial (and why you should care).
Content Index:
Introduction
Lighting: introduction
Lighting: basics
Fog
Other Tips
Final Notes
Introduction to Lighting Content Index:
Directional Light
Rectangle Light
Sphere Light
Point Light
Spot Light
Spot Light IES
Disk Light
Tube Light
Basics of Lighting Content Index:
Ambient
Shadow
Fog
IES
LED
IBL
GIF
Fog Content Index:
Atmospheric Fog
Ground Fog
Volumetric Cube And Sphere
1. INTRODUCTION
This compilation was brought together by the MMD community and contemplates ngreeed’s own experiences with fog and lighting usages. Every picture shown in this translation can be found in the original documentations on Iwara and GitHub.
It was translated from Japanese to English by ryuu with written permission from the author to share it on my blog and add information. The translation was done with the aid of the online translator DeepL and my friends’ help. This tutorial has no intention in replacing the original author’s.
2. LIGHTING: INTRODUCTION
By learning lighting, you’ll have more freedom in directing your videos, but it’s only for those who are confident that they understand how to use Ray-mmd, because it’s a pre-requisite and an additional part of understanding how to use skybox and materials. If you’re unsure about the other two items, start by reading this wiki.
Originally, surface lights in a 3DCG software are characterized by their ability to create soft shadows, but the surface lights used in Ray-MMD are very difficult to handle and don’t provide much benefit, so we recommend using point lights or directional lights.
Translator’s note: for those wondering what lights are available in Raycast, there’s a translation below of the wiki’s list.
2.1 Directional Light
Directional light simulates lighting hitting an object from an infinite distance. The angle of each ray reaching the object is negligible and the rays will always be parallel to each other, so it is also called sunlight.
Directional light doesn’t take into account the coordinates of the light source and won’t affect the lighting effect when placed in any position of the scene. Only the rotation will affect the lighting, because of the nature of directional light requires shading calculations for the whole scene.
Therefore its computational overhead is the largest among all multi-source shadows, and its shadow quality is only suitable for lighting characters at very high quality, which you may use when you want to attach a bone to the main light source.
2.2 Rectangle Light
The light source will shine from a plane towards a fixed range. It’s used to simulate monitors, screens, smartphones, etc.
Since the light source of the area light needs to consider the volume of the light source, the real calculation of its shadow in real time is very difficult to do. It’s recommended to use spot light shadow instead.
2.3 Sphere Light
The light is emitted from the location of the light source to the surrounding area and the volume of the light source is taken into account to illuminate all the objects within the range.
Since the light source of the area light needs to consider the volume of the light source, the real calculation of its shadow in real time is very difficult to do, so the point light source shadow is used instead.
2.4 Point Light
Light source from a point, uniformly emitting light to the surrounding area, all objects within the range of light.
The point light source needs to calculate the shadows of objects within the range and will lead to a large shadow calculation overhead, while its shadow quality isn’t suitable for character lighting.
2.5 Spot Light
Spotlight dosn’t take into account the volume of the light source from a point, in a fixed direction to a certain range of cone angle irradiation object. The brightness of the edges of the ball will gradually fade and the angle of the ball can be controlled by the (Angle +/-) morph.
It’s used to simulate lampshade, flashlight and a car high beam. The quality of shadows is the best of all light sources, so it’s very suitable for irradiating the character on the simulation of stage lighting.
2.6 Spot Light IES
Sampling IES textures simultaneously on the behavior of the spotlight.
IES defines the luminous flux of its light at different angles, so that certain areas will be brighter or darker, thus simulating light coming through certain places and shining around the scene.
2.7 Disk Light
The light source will be irradiated from a plane object towards a fixed range. It’s used to simulate light from afar, because the light source of the area light needs to consider the volume of the light source.
The calculation of its shadow in real time is very difficult to do, so use spotlight shadow instead.
2.8 Tube Light
Uniform illumination of the surrounding objects. It’s used to simulate the light source of a lamp, because the light source of the area light needs to consider its volume
The calculation of its shadow in real time is very difficult to do, so use a point light source shadow instead.
3. LIGHTING: BASICS
Before explaining the parameters, let's start with an explanation of how to use the Lighting folder.
In the Lighting folder of ray-mmd, there are 10 different .pmx's to load into the MMD and their respective folders. Basically, the MME of the light will assign the .pmx's in the Default (Ambient/LED/GIF/IBL) folder of the respective light folder to the light’s .fx.
.....lightning.... .fx is assigned to the LightMap tab of MME, and ...fog... .fx is assigned to the FogMap tab of MME.
Translator’s note: a fog .fx can be assigned to LightMap, but it’ll produce only fog.
Once you know this, you can play around with the lights and learn what you can do with them.
This spreadsheet shows the parameters and .fx available for each light, along with a brief explanation. The explanation of the terms is pretty much a translation.
3.1 Ambient
Reference: twitter.com
Assign the .fx in the Default Ambient folder to the LightMap to create a light without reflections or highlights when a material with high parameters such as Specular is lit. It is good to use it when loading multiple lights.
DirectionalLight is located in the Default folder, not in the DefaultAmbient folder.
3.2 Shadow
There are four types of shadow: low, medium, high and very high. If you assign it, when light (or fog) hits the model, it won’t shine on the model beyond it. Rather than increasing the shadow, it’ll stop when the light hits the model. In other words, it isn’t attached to the initial light, the light will be brightened nonetheless.
Default spot light.
The same spot light with shadow (very high).
3.3 Fog
When fog is loaded, light streaks are created at the location of the light emitted by the light. There are also special parameters called MiePhase and MieDensity, but be aware that other parameters aren’t isolated. The godray may or may not be displayed depending on the angle and position of the camera. So be careful.
Godray representation using volumetric fog and disk light.
3.4 IES
Reference: unrealengine.com
Simply put, it’s a light which displays the distortion caused by the reflective surface of the lighting fixture, the shape of the bulb, and the lens effect.
It can express a light closer to the one you have at home than a straight spot light like the ones used on stage. You can think of it as basically spot light with just a little distortion in the shape of the light. A point light IES is also spot light.
3.5 LED
Reference: twitter.com
The light source itself is the same as rectangle light, but it can display AVI images or screen images.
In order to display images on the LED light source, load DummyScreen.x in the Extension folder and set the Background (B) in the upper left corner of MMD to ON mode. You can also load the background AVI and change the mode to display any image.
If you just want to display the image, you can set the material of your favorite model to material_screen, but you can use the LED as a light source for the image.
Translator’s note: in practice, it looks like this. In a more straight forward way to explain this, load the LED light and add main.fx to it. Then, load the dummy and select any AVI file or just enable the capture mode. The LED will start capturing the screen and emit light. You can play with the RBG sliders and all. I added a volumetric cube for the dark room effect and Sugiura-san for you to see how the panel behaves. Whenever there’s a change in the captured screen, the light behaves accordingly i.e. a red screen emits red light; a mostly white screen with green details emits white-ish.
3.6 IBL
This and the GIF sections were writen by the translator, ryuu, as the original author requested information about it.
IBL stands for Image Based Lighting, which is what Raycast does! The image is projected into a sphere and it samples the data to light the objects. All of the skyboxes we use have images in the .dds format for easier rendering.
According to the spreadsheet, the only light capable of using IBL is sphere. To activate it, head to the Default IBL folder instead of the default one that opens when loading light properties. You’ll notice the sphere reacts with weaker lighting, you have to increase the intensity.
The following images are color tests with sphere IBL. The most visible differences are in how RG and RBG react: they produce shades of red and yellow, then white and pink respectively.
Now with disabled IBL, this making the sphere another common light. The default is very strong compared to IBL, Zhao-san hand’s shadow is even huge on the door behind him.
The .dds used was the default one in the Default IBL folder. I haven’t experimented with a different one yet, plus I believe it isn’t any .dds image that’ll work there. If we follow the logic of how custom skydomes are created, a HDR image is needed and you have to “craft” them.
3.7 GIF
A rectangle light can load .gif images and project them on their light, Just load the .fx inside the Default GIF folder to activate it. The default GIF is the following. However, when loaded as light, it doesn’t animate and has some distortions on the edges.
For now, the only advantage I see in using a GIF light is to mimic a projector effect at the cinema. You can use custom images by renaming the default one to rance1 and the new one to rance.
The projection’s size depends on the rectangle’s, so a small rectangle will show a small GIF. Also, keep in mind that the projection is a mirror of the original image.
4. FOG
The fog can be used to create realistic perspective, smoke, and air, and it can also be used in conjunction with fog lights to change the atmosphere. It’s important to note that when the fog is loaded, it’s rarely displayed in Model Edit mode, so be sure to check it in Camera mode. In this case, you may need to tweak the model display order a little to get it to show up.
There are four types of fogs: atmospheric fog, ground fog, volumetric cube and volumetric sphere.
4.1 Atmospheric Fog
If you don't know what you're doing, but want to use a fog, just load this to get a sense of perspective (or rather, fading in the distance). So if you have a stage that extends far into the distance, you can use this to get a certain atmosphere.
Also, only the atmospheric fog has multiple fog maps, which can be found in the AtmosphericFog folder with a godray .fx file. You can apply godray to the lighting (sunlight) in MMD and, by assigning a fog map with ...without sky... .fx, you can disable the fog effect on the skybox.
You can also disable the fog effect for skyboxes by assigning a fog map with ...without sky.... .fx.
The number of parameters is overwhelming and difficult to adjust, but it may be easier if you think that the parameters with Mie are related to the lighting (sunlight) in MMD.
Without fog.
With atmospheric fog and changed density and range values. The farther away the image is, the lower the saturation and lightness become. The perspective is clearer. It’s rare to see much difference, but the atmosphere changes quite a bit with and without the atmospheric fog.
4.2 Ground Fog
When loaded, the fog is displayed based on the ground, and its color and height can be adjusted using morphs. The number of adjustable parameters is small, but if you adjust them, you can use it in the same way as the ground-based atmospheric fog.
Without ground fog.
With ground fog.
4.3 Volumetric Cube And Sphere
Unlike the other fogs, these two are only loaded and not applied to the entire room. At first, they only appear small at the foot of the screen and need to be resized to fit the room. By the way, they are basically the same, just round or square. The advantage is that it can be assigned to a limited space only.
Without light.
With light.
With light and volumetric fog. It might be good for a dusty atmosphere in a closed room.
5. OTHER TIPS
If you feel that your PC can't handle it, you can lower the shadow to low and get by.
The skybox time of day can be used as a second atmospheric fog which is easy to handle since it is built into the skybox. If you turn off EnvLightMap, Main and MaterialMap, it won't interfere with other skyboxes. It's pretty easy to use, but not for everyone.
Turn on Bokeh (DOF effect of Ray-MMD) and pull the MeasureMode morph of ray-controller to the right to bring the ray.x accessory into focus.
It's a good idea to set the SSAOMap of eyes and face to 0.
6. FINAL NOTES
Stages shown in this tutorial: P.T by G_Wuuuuu, warehouse by hiro K, skyscrapper by 化身バレッタ and abandoned city by NOB.
Models by SEGA.
I tried to keep the translation as faithful as possible to the original documentation. Thank you, ngreeed, for allowing me to share your tutorial with non-Japanese speakers.
Also, I absorbed many knowledge from this tutorial and rendered a new image using the improved technique. Only the sphere light had fog. The colors were applied after adjusting all the lights in their black and white counterpart. Retouched in GIMP.
Using motion data on chibi models in MMD, tutorial!
Everything is pretty much covered here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! Click on the images to view and read them better!
Boyfriend and Girlfriend models by me.
Stage is the default one that comes with MMD
Cursed Lemon Demon pic is from my FNF video "You will not eat my Girlfriend" lol
[Following text is also in description of the tutorial post]
▲ Notes on Tutorial ▲
For Step 2 - the half triangle will give you sharp, tall cheekbones, and works very well if the mesh of the face is built in that tall shape. Think of sullen cheekbones; ones you see on 40yr old rich white men. You know what I mean? [Basically, a bit skeletal, makes the skin appear thin.] If you don't want this look, experiment with the shape you draw in that space. If you want a shadow that goes along with a square jawline, extend the lower leg of the half triangle to more towards the shading of the face's edge. Then you just thicken
that stiff/box-like "C" shape a bit, and blend.
For Step 3 + 4 - Arx's cheekbones turned out closer than I thought, which isn't what I wanted. They were also lower than the curve live on the mesh's cheek structure. I transformed the layer [you'll be screwed if you merge the new layer, so //don't do it//.
For Step 5 - The cheekbones were positioned right this time/to my liking, but they were dark, so I turned down the layer opacity to make them less dark. Layer opacity is your best friend, okay? //Life saver// In my opinion, the harsher the shadow, the older it will make the model seem [since the cheekbone is then very prominent]. So then, to make the shadow less harsh, turn down the opacity level of the layer :')
That's all, folks.
Thanks for reading this, hope it helps.
I finally finished a video tutorial that explains the process I go through in making the animal crossing models MMD compatible. Yes I will make the static animal crossing models available to the public but please be patient while I convert them to formats you can open.
While you wait why not check the playlist and install the needed programs if you are interested in helping me out. If you have any suggestion let me know on youtube.
Hello! Today I have something that I'm really proud of - a page that is all about how I'm making my comic in MMD. Some of you might already know about this since it was first published as a DeviantArt post. Although now it has a new version - ✨ the rewritten one ✨and it was published on my notion page (link below).
-> Link to the page here <-
All comments and suggestions regarding this page are greatly appreciated! ( ´ ▿ ` )
We don't talk about how it was published back in September and I'm writing about this in the middle of November, I just forgot.
More info under the cut ↷
What does this page consists of?
Main topic is the process of making an episode
I describe each step of this process in details to show to the reader how does all of this looks like and how it works.
My ways of crediting
Crediting is a very important thing in MMD community and so I showcase my system of crediting on almost a mass scale.
Tips regarding stuff related to MMD and a comic
It's a short section where I share my tips regarding e.g.: making good poses or 2D-ish effect style.
Disclamers
My native language is not English therefore there may be some spelling mistakes I haven’t noticed. I’m using translators too. I’m sorry for that in advance.
I’m not trying to force anyone to do everything exactly like I described in this document. It’s for you to read if you’re curious about how I’m making episodes for Webtoon and it’s for you to decide whether you’ll try to do something from it or not.
This document is based only on my experience. I’m not an expert in making comics or 3D art, it’s just a hobby for me. There won’t be any professional advice, only my personal ones.
Do not repost this anywhere. You’re allowed to share the link to this page with it but not copying the entire content of the page itself. Quoting with sourcing the original post is of course allowed.
I do not take responsibility for any damages caused by any advice included in this document.
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding anything related to me making episodes for a comic or the comic itself, you may send them through one of my social medias. Frequently asked questions might be anonymously added into the page for others.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make an animation in MMD looking like this. This effect can be very useful for animators interested in 2D stylization.
This Croquis mods works with any shader you want and doesn’t require complicated set up.
Before we start, you’ll have to download a modded version of Croquis 改 v2, since the website that held the original download is down nowadays. But don’t worry, it works just fine, as it’s more of a compatibility mod.
Next, download the doodle mod. You’ll notice it only comes with the .fx files. According to the modder, you have to copy-paste these files into the Croquis 改 v2 folder. That’s why we get the usopa compatible version to work as our base.
Make a copy of the usopa mod’s folder before anything. Now, copy all the .fx files and the random.png from doodle mod and paste them into the usopa mod. I recommend doing it little by little, since it looks overwhelming if pasting everything at once.
The next step is to rename the following files and add - usopa to replace the original one:
Fake normal mapping on textures and other tricks for MMD
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to improve textures with a normals-on-texture technique I’ve developed. I’ll focus on game ports, since they need it the most.
Content index:
Introduction
Applying The Technique
Useful Tricks
Credits
1. INTRODUCTION
In 3D, a normal map is a texture mapping technique very useful for adding details to meshes without using more polygons. It’s an “improved” bump map, which simulates bumps and wrinkles on the object’s surface.
Everyone knows MMD doesn’t support native bump or normal mapping, meaning the user only achieves it by using a shader and applying the texture as spa. However, not every shader has normal map support, plus a low-end user can’t have it without heavily (CPU) shading the model.
With that in mind, I developed a lifesaving technique for those with weaker hardwares. Or if you want to simply keep your normals while playing with other shaders.
2. APPLYING THE TECHNIQUE
First of all, we need to spot the normal map in the model’s files. They usually look like this one:
Normally, they’re added to the texture in the 3D software. What we’re going to do here is to add that texture to the base texture. For this, we’ll need a photo editing software. I use GIMP because it’s free, open source and low-end friendly. You can download it here.
You’ll open the base texture and paste the normal map over it. I’m not going to show them here because they’re from a game. In green, we have the base texture; orange is the normal map.
You’re going to select the normal map layer and decrease its saturation to black and white. It’s a necessary step, we don’t want a colored details messing up the texture.
Next, change normal map’s the layer mode to soft light and you’ll have only the details applied to the base texture.
In practice on a model, the base texture is going to change like that. It gives a lot of detail to the model’s face.
Akiyama-san looks more tired than ever.
This technique is extra useful when dealing with clothes so they don’t look horrible. Kiryu-san’s suit looks much better with the improved texture. You can do that to any part that has a normal map, even hair.
3. USEFUL TRICKS
Another texture trick is adding patterns to clothes, like shirt and suit stripes, maybe leather. Let’s call Akiyama-san back to help us with that. This is the default suit texture with normal maps, but it has no stripes! Odd, right? Because his suit has it in the game!
Hi there, Trakinas face!
His files come with a pattern for his suit. I picked this texture and added it as a sph sub-tex. Now his suit looks much better, although has no other sph. I tried coming up with a gimmick to work around this, but no success. Better leave it to the shader.
Another example using Kasuga-san’s shirt:
It won’t work all the time though. Also, some patterns will make the part too dark to see anything, so we have to do it the traditional way.
It didn’t work here. The base texture is almost solid black.
So what we do is duplicate the part you want to apply the pattern, add it as a normal texture and change the UV size. It’ll look a little wonky, but that’s the nature of it. You’re always free to try adding it to the texture on GIMP/Photoshop or edit the UV later.
Then make the duplicate part opaque. I usually use 0,3 so it doesn’t interfere a lot. You can keep the sph or not, it’s up to you.
If your game port comes with a texture mapping for shadow and highlights, you can add it to the base texture the same way we did before with the normal maps. I recommend placing the shadow one above the normal.
It helps with shading and creates results closer to the game. Yagami-san looks a lot better with improved textures.
