My First Try Using Vocaloid and Miku Miku Dance (MMD)
This is my first try using Vocaloid, Miku Miku Dance (MMD) especially is whole new thing to me.
I've been familiar with software such as Vocaloid from Cubase, a Digital Audio Workstation Software far better than Vocaloid but for producing the music tracks.
First, I make the music tracks using the music score I got from Josh's Anime Music Sheet.
Then from the melody, I compose the drums and bass line by ear. (Not refering any music score.)
Here's the music tracks only.
The song is Tsubasa Wo Kudasai.
I was first introduced to this song from K-ON!
But they happen to cover that song also. LOL!
Yeah, not so energetic. :D
And here's the video with Miku voice.
Trying to understand the timeline of the MMD frames but still don't understand and it happen to be shorter then the music. T_T
So I filled it up with those "fancy" text.
And I've found this super cute song. XD
It's by someone else...
Anyone into these kind of things too?
Any critics? >.<
I've tried dabbling with Miku a little, but haven't quite gotten anything to the point of being presentable yet; seems a few notes/phonemes were recorded just a hair off key, so I need to go in and fix them using the pitch bend or something.
Having so little experience with Vocaloid or any music arranging software, it's hard for me to critique the audio, but the animation I feel better about giving my two cents' worth about. :) Granted, my animation experience is currently with 3DS Max and in old-school 2D, but a lot of the principles should carry over--it's mostly going to be an issue of looking up tutorials on where this stuff lives.
First, the timeline probably has a time control dialogue somewhere, where you can extend the number of frames, change the frame rate if so desired, and a few more arcane functions that I've never touched. The frame rate should default to 24, 29.97, or 30 FPS. If it's not at any of these, change it when you change the timeline length. These are all standard frame rates that any decent video program should recognize.
Second, you're going to want to look up where the curve editor lives. This thing will be your best friend! What this does is it gives you a graphic representation of the speed at which individual things are moving. The key to getting a sense of weight is making sure that speed is NOT constant. You can probably fudge a little on things like hand gestures just by having your keyframes spaced at variable times, but on that jump and her walk you'll have to go into the curve editor. Use it to make sure that it's on a slow in, slow out at the height of those motions, and on fast in, fast out on the key where she makes contact with the ground.
If any of this is confusing, I highly recommend picking up The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams from your library or bookstore. It's a fantastic book, all about the terms of animation, what they mean, and what goes into making a good animation. Some of it won't directly apply because Williams is a 2D guy, but a LOT of it will carry over to 3D. Once you get these principles, getting any 3D program to work will become more about quirks of the interface to work than anything else, since you'll have a better sense of what it is you want the program to do. :)
Pith bending? Why is that so?
Wasn't that you can change the pitch in the piano roll?
I've never touch 3DS Max or any 3D modeling softwares.
In MMD when recording or export to .avi there's option how many fps and I choose my desired fps which is 12fps.
I even use count how many frames I need to actually produce 50s videos but it ends up becoming 19s. >.<
There are curve line editor in MMD but I don't understand what it mean or what it do. LOL
To control the speed, I just add another key frame between the two existing key frame like this I mean.
X__________X (The key frame)
To make it move faster for first few second I add another key frame like this.
X__X_______X
LOL! I never thought it's gonna be more easier with the key editor!
This book, The Animator's Survival I think we have it at my university library...
Thanks for the guidance. ^^,
If you have any forums or website or where you always hang out talk about this, I'm gladly to know too.
Yeah, the pitch bending is so you can change the pitch on a note; it's supposed to be used stylistically for expressive reasons, but like I said, there are a couple notes that appear to be recorded a little off, so the pitch bend could be used to correct that. Subversive, but effective!
Technically, since the computer does all the inbetweens for you, it's no harder to do 30fps than 12. It's old-school 2D where a lower framerate is a blessing. And actually, a higher framerate should allow you to add more subtlety to your animations when you get better. But that IS kind of weird that the FPS shows up when rendering. I'm almost certain a time controls function must exist as well, because you'd want your framerate to be set *before* animating, really. I'm going to go look that up, since i have some idea of what kind of function I'm looking for.
I'll admit the curve editor is not intuitive at first. But it's really a powerful tool; you'll love it once you get used to it. Start off just making her jump up and down a couple times, and play around with the curves for her pelvis, and check out what doing different curves do to the motion. Some will look really bizarre, and some will look awesome. You'll have to think fairly analytically to figure out what does what, but once you do you'll have a good grasp of what to try when something looks off. :)
Changing the spacing of your keys like that can help, but I've personally found it more beneficial for body language and hand gestures than for emulating physics. I recommend trying to do some simple physical exercises like a jump, a walk, and maybe a run before worrying about your character acting. Then when you *do* get the physics, you can take the skills you've learned and really play with making her come to life!
Here's some of the stuff I've done: http://www.youtube.com/user/Poofiemus I did the 3D stuff in Max, and most of the 2D stuff by hand, save for Git It, which was done in Flash. Just to put things in perspective though, my first animation assignment (besides Git It, which I did at a different school entirely) was a bouncing ball. That was it. Just a ball bouncing. Incredibly boring to watch, but a huge help in understanding the importance of making things accelerate and decelerate over the course of the animation.
Bouncing ball?
The ball that look like a skunk or whatever it is in your channel?
Haha... my youtube username is wgnwhite just in case you're wondering the one commenting on your videos.
Will try to look at the 3D Max slowly later.
That guy, is he using 3D Max?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDxayry2kjQ
That is my goal and I believe I can. ^o^ of course not in 1 months or 2 months...
I'll learn whatever it takes!
The tail ball was the second assignment. I didn't bother uploading the bouncing ball because, well, it was boring. XD And yeah, I figured that was you, though it took me a moment.
I'm not 100% sure, but it sure LOOKS like Max from the few shots of his interface you get. Might be a modified version of Maya, too, but most likely Max. There's another shot where you can clearly see him using After Effects, which makes sense. He probably keeps his sets in separate files, renders each out as an image sequence, then puts everything together in AE. Image sequences are the preferred rendering method over directly rendering a video file, because if the program crashes you don't loose the frames already rendered. Well, that, and you can extract particularly nice stills that way should you decide you want to.
I'll admit, Nebula is an AMAZING piece of work, especially considering that he did everything (except possibly the guitar) himself. Modeling, rigging, materials, lighting, animation, composing, lyrics, arranging, and vocaloid settings. Awesome, yet absolutely insane. XD His is my favorite model of Miku, with the Project Diva cinematic model a close second. I'd love to do work like his too, though I think I'm closer to the animation and modeling than I am to matching his rigging. Gah, the skinning is virtually flawless; I'm so envious. XD
Let's strive to animation awesomeness together! *fist in the air*
Ooooo! (^o^)/
Wah?
There's no identical 3D software?
Hmm...
But, at industrial level people use MAX as people use Illustrator, and Photoshop in graphic design right?
Like Cubase is also an industrial level software.
Learning those used in the industry somehow secure some bright future don't you agree?
Even though I'm actually in Film and Television stream, I am really into animation as well. Well, they are just sit next to each other. ^.^
Well, Nebula creator is a hired professional.
We too one day will become like him.
Just don't lose our passion!
Hm, not really, though it may be worth noting that both Max and Maya are owned by Autodesk. Both Max and Maya are frequently used professionally, though Max has a higher likelihood of being used for games where Maya is slightly preferred for animation. (From what little Maya work I've done so far, I mostly prefer Maya's interface, though its spline modeling support is inferior to Max's, I can live with the flaw since that's a relatively esoteric method.) It's also worth noting that major studios often *heavily* customize either program, and in Pixar's case they basically eventually got some programmers to write them their own proprietary software, Marionette. Additionally, there are a few more pro programs that I haven't even touched yet, like Zbrush and Mudbox, which are supposed to have a very different workflow from Max and Maya. Even weirder, people have been known to use multiple 3D programs on one project, because each one has strengths and weaknesses.
Learning the common programs will help, though like I said, Maya and Max out of the box aren't always the same as a studio's customized version. The main help is getting used to working in 3D and getting used to making good edge loops etc. in your models; if you know what you should be doing and have some idea of how to do it, it then becomes a matter of finding the equivalent in whatever interface you're using.
Heh, I ended up coming to animation from graphic design of all things! Granted, I was just in a graphic design degree program at another school and then transferred, but I'll admit some of my graphic design stuff came in handy--especially working in Illustrator, since I can then import that stuff into After Effects.
True, he *is* a pro. It's just that often highly skilled people will eventually end up specializing in one branch, especially in 3D. For instance, Pixar's got an entire department that *just* deals with lighting, another that deals with the materials, yet another for rigging, each with people who work full time just doing that one task, so seeing someone who's so good at ALL of it is a little intimidating. =P
We WILL persevere!
I see...
Then, at beginner level I think I'll just play with freeware such as MMD first. >.<
If I can't master this little thing, let along to handle full fledge software such as MAX or MAYA. LOL
Now, to be good in all fields is not that hard. :p
I have a little secret for it.
Don't need to be original. :p
Copy what the pro do in that fields.
I'm can say I'm pretty good in "reverse engineering" if I really interested in that particular fields.
One more thing Poofiemus, you learn some music already?
Hehe.
Just like that guy, writing lyrics, composing the song, video production, is all one man operator.
Let's aim for that!