PMDE and MMD

In all my midnight ramblings, I realized I still haven't really ever explained MMD!
MikuMikuDance is a sort of Stop-Motion Program that's completely free to download. It uses three-dimensional models that you pose, and is mainly focused towards the characters from Vocaloid. (Definition of Vocaloid as given by UrbanDictionary: "a computer remixing and voice editing program, in which one is supplied with different seiyuu, or voice actors. one shall proceed to type the melody and lyric of a song, and upon pressing play, hear that character sing the chosen song. there are many different vocaloids, but the most common is the first... hatsune miku, literally meaning 'voice of the future' 
she dons bright blue pig tails, a super tiny mini skirt, arm warmers, and flings a leek. there is much of vocaloid on youtube and nico video.") However, one can easily download other available models, and can pose anyone from Iron Man to Frodo Baggins. Some models are 'made', though I have no idea how--most likely from scratch. Some of the more popular model makers include Animasa, Kio, Nukude, and LAT. Others are 'ripped' from games, such as those from Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Lord of the Rings, and even Sonic.
Each of the models is completely 3D--they can be turned at any angle and still have lights, shadows, and highlights both on themselves and on their environment.

Here's what the English Ver. 7.30 looks like when you first open the program

Models aren't the only things that can be made/ripped. Accessories, such as hats, instruments, weapons, food, etc, can also be used through the MMD program. You can even load a 'background' or 'stage' to give the scene an environment!
It makes great stills through an option called 'Render to Picture File', but as it is a Stop-Motion program, most people tend to use it to make 'AMVs' (Animated Music Videos). The nice thing about this is that there are things called 'motion data'. So, for instance, if I wanted Haku Yowane from Vocaloid to do the Macarena, all I'd do is load the model, put it in whatever environment I want, and open the Motion Data file.

(VIDEO IS NOT MADE BY ME. I FOUND IT OFF YOUTUBE AND IT WAS THE FIRST ONE I COULD FIND, SO YEAH. EXCUSE THE AWKWARD OUTFITS KTHXBAI)

Now, on to PMDE! I'm not exactly what 'PMD' stands for, but here's a little blurb about it from Miku Miku Beat:
"PMD Editor is a compact, but powerful tool to give MMD users the chance to create and edit their own models for use with MMD. For a long time, the near indecipherable Japanese user interface and strict technical requirements left many English users high and dry!

For most software, it's up to the user to provide the equipment and environment needed to run the program. If you can't do that, it won't run. But the problem lies in not knowing what those requirements are. I created this page (and this site) to help answer those kinds of questions.PMD can be used either to edit an existing model, or create one from a DirectX 3D model. It takes a bit of practice to learn how to make good models, especially humanoids (Depending on your comprehension of how 3D works, and your skill in using the tool set in the program you most often work with). Some people can take months to finish a model, others just seem to breeze through it. It also depends what you're making.

Alternatively, PMD Editor can now export DirectX files. It's possible that you could use it for data conversion outside of MMD related purposes."

There's supposedly a limited English version floating around somewhere, but I have yet to find it, which sucks because there's really a lot of potential in that program. 

I've done all of my edits through that program, from my first Haku recolor as Aanyx to my most recent work of resizing, deleting, Frankenstien-ing, retexturing, and more. Both the models I'd talked about in the last journal and the SelfModel ver. 5.6 seen in my banner were all made through PMDE. Granted, they're all made by taking another's parts and putting them together (Frankenstien-ing) but I am still quite a newbie at this, so that's okay. I'd like to eventually be able to make my own things with PMDE, but for now I'll have to stick with what I know and keep Tutorial Hunting. 8D

Here's a basic screenshot of all the windows required for PMDE:

Lots of windows...

The biggest window looks much like the view screen on MMD, and that's where you actually get to see what you're doing. The next biggest one is the one I call the 'Main Menu' because you use this one for loading models, adding new parts, recoloring, changing textures, etc. A lot of the less specific things happen through this window. The one in the center I call the 'Layer Menu' because when a model is actually loaded, it lists all the different layers the parts are actually on. The final window I call the 'Size and Move' because the first column of X, Y, and Z moves the model/selected layer/item along each axis. The middle column rotates the selected around each axis, and the final column sizes.

For example, I'll be using my fail Sora model:

View window with model loaded and bones visible

I honestly can't stand the bones visible, because it makes it VERY difficult to see around more often than not. Especially if the model has a skirt or something, because that's a LOT of bones to try and see through.
Notice in the bottom left-hand corner there's a blue thing, a green thing, and an orange thing? The blue one toggles the bones on/off, the green one will show you what parts are on which layer, and the orange one will show you what you've highlighted. More on that later.

There are, unfortunately, only two tabs of the Main Menu that I know how to use. This one is the one most used--each of the numbers on the left represents one of the layers. The colored rectangles labled in blue are the different colors (Top and Bottom fuse to make the main color; Middle is generally the shadow color) and in the bottom right we have the texture/spa/spf boxes. "Skin.bmp" is the texture for Sora's body (even though it's just a square of color) and the type box below that is generally used for .spa or .spf files. These generally give the part of a model a sort of metallic shine depending on the file, but I'm still sorta new to these so I'm not exactly sure how they work...

Here is the other tab I know about. It's quite similar to the first tab, so in a sense I know three tabs, but this one seems to be the only one that works with English models, so I use this one. I have no idea why there's two, but I do know that unless that checkmark is checked, my version of MMD doesn't recognize a model with English data.

Remember the green and the orange? Yeah, here I've highlighted '11' on the layer menu, and it shows his legs. This one is very handy if you're trying to get only one part of a layer to seporate, because you can clearly see what is there to be highlighted. This also comes in handy with recoloring and texturing, since there's really no way to rename layers. All you have to do is find, say, the pants, find out what layer that is, and go into the fourth tab on the Main Menu to change/edit the pants/

The orange shows what you've highlighted as apposed to what else is on that layer. I have a love/hate relationship with this, because on one hand it's very handy when you're working, but on the other every single time you highlight anything that stupid little circle thing pops up and stays there and there's no bloody option to get rid of it. It's the one drawback aside from the lack of English--You can't see around/through the bloody thing!

So yeah, there's a little mini tour of PMDE and MMD! Tune in next time for a step-by-step process of how I use MMD for pictures!

(See, I would make actual stop-motion things but 1 I have nothing to save it with and 2 all my models lag :/)

This has been a certified drabble courtesy of Sincerely Doubtful Productions. All characters, models, situations, programs, etc. (c) respectful owners.