MMD models: What to expect.

Hey guys! I know I've said I don't want to get too technical about models, but I think this is important because this is the first time an MMD model is going to come to The Model Corner. 

The reason for this post is, while not being too heavy on information, I want to get you guys an idea of what to expect in the future for MMD models and what to expect and what you will get so you don't get caught by surprise.

You can read a TL;DR at the bottom.

First: MMD.

What is MMD?

MMD is a japanese software for animations using anime based characters. It's mostly used to make Music Videos. It uses its own model format and its own collision and physics config which are pretty interesting. It also contains its own collection of shaders, you can create your own. This is where stuff starts gets a little complicated.

Textures

As any model, MMD models use texture files aswell, however, it also uses something called "spheres". Spheres, I assume, are a sort of sub-shader, basically, it tells MMD how to render a material. This becomes problematic because these spheres are used on flat color bodies. This means that those spheres are used on materials that have no textures. These Spheres are used as Material, but they don't work like that on SFM or anywhere else out of MMD really.

So, what to expect from textures?

• Small model files because of flat colored textures.
• Never expect a 1:1 looking model from In-Game to SFM. It doesn't work on regular games. It gets even more notorious on MMD models.

Lucky for us, Esmeralda have regular textures.

Bones (and by extension, flexes)

MMD models are pretty famous because they don't have any single face bone. Eyes? Eyelids? Lips? Nope. Zero bones. That means no jaw bones neither.

To pay off for this though, most MMD models come with a very extensive list of flexes.

Also, due how people can make MMD manage physics, it's almost a fact that the hair and every outfit is rigged, maybe in some cases even overrigged. 

 So, what to expect from the bones?

• You won't get any of my facial flexes. You will get MMD flexes.
• Weird flex name because they are translated from Nihongo to English.
• You won't get any face bones.
• You might get outfits that will give you tons of posing options due to how they are rigged.

TL;DR

• There's a chance the models are going to look weird on SFM.
• You won't get any of my facial flexes. You will get MMD flexes.
• Weird flex name because they are translated from Nihongo to English.
• You won't get any face bones.
• You might get outfits that will give you tons of posing options due to how they are rigged.

So that's it, keep this in mind for this and every future MMD model you find! Also, please don't get biased against them, they can be very nice as well when used with actual textures.