Making a spinning morph (MMD/PMXe)
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!
