Yuri Kuma Arashi ED TERRITORY Miku Cover Process Log

Ok this is a few days late but whatever I didn't even plan to write one for this at first.

So, yea my first Vocaloid cover!!! I was insistent on it being a HachioujiP-related work, because well, that man ignited my burning passion for VocaloidPs years ago and that led me to where I am today. (If you knew me well enough you'll know everything I did for him for 2 events when he was here in SG. I AM A BIG HACHIOUJI-P FAN!!)
Laughs I only knew about YKA because he was in-charge of the ED, but I found myself really loving the anime a lot! if you wanna talk abt YKA you're always welcome i love Lulu and Mirun and Yurizono  It has really intricate art and the tessellations are easily my fav thing. To me, it's not a character driven show, so I treat the characters more like representations. Anyway---

Composer: 八王子P

Arrangement: DJ’TEKINA//SOMETHING

Lyrics: はいのことん

I used Crescen♪o's midi to help know where to put the notes. in the end i messed up anyway i'm an embarrassment i'm sorry

Tuning Part

Just a heads up that I am practically 99% music illiterate. And most probably tone deaf. This is just a process log I think my methods grate the ears of musicians.

Hmm here's what she sounded like at first when I did the midi and input the lyrics and stuff:

If you're music literate unlike me, you'll know right away that it's slow and longer than the original.
Well I didn't realise it and just went right ahead to tune. Man was I in for a huge shock when I tried to match up my finished tuned vocal track with the instrumental. so yeeeeeeaaaahhhh *redos everything for the 19329864th time*

Oh this was a realisation that I had after uploading everything and was working on my current cover: After Jing's suggested to look up on keys, I realised I had made a huge mistake in music. Miku is actually off tune with the music and the major she is in is totally messed up. This is because after importing the midi I simply dragged all the notes down without any regard to changing the notes to suit whatever key I was going for.
please be proud of my new discovery; i read so many different explanations trying to understand what the hell are chords

I'll stick to original keys from now on lol everything i touch dies.

I keep using small bits and pieces of notes to bend the pitch so uhhhhhh idk if it's ok??? Original sounds alright with this method, but when I tried it with Dark, Soft, Sweet, she sounded even more horrible than she usually does (yes i love miku but c'mon we all love flawed humans too right *vague shrugging*), but for pitch bends that use the parameters they sound good, especially Dark ohhhhhh boooy i love Dark's pitchbends.

It's like I do the dumbest shit in every upload I make. This time I didn't realise that the instrumental for the song in the ED single was for the full length song only when I bought it. So yeaaaa.... I had to cut the instrumental and piece it like it's some jugsaw. The front part i got from the anime(the original instrumental didn't have the 'uwuwwwwwuuuaaaaa' part and hey i like that part ok.)

But ok the CD design is really cute-pretty and I'm adding it to my HachioujiP CD collection so I don't regret anything whooooo

MMD Image Part

was based on a scene from the anime:

I absolutely adore the mirror scene(s) ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh so beautifullll the whole anime is beautiful

I really really REALLY love REM-maple's model of MikuV3 so yea using the model in this video was a no brainer!!! I was lucky to find DamianHandy's model of a rifle, and it looks similar to the one in the show so yaaaayy

Set it up, posed miku, loaded a BG img file, used the usual ドゥドゥ, そぼろ, おたもん, ビームマン effects I use...

After remembering belatedly that WorkingFloor doesn't reflect the effects applied to the model (and the reflection IS the main part of the image), I rendered two different images, one with miku's back and the other her front. After that i just combined them in CSP.

The most amusing part was the "mirror reflection" effect duuuuude I just used white spray brush, drew diagonal stripes, erase the parts where non-mirror Miku was at and viola I just bullshitted my way in a minute bravo cheating self.

If you want the image in full res(3840x2160, no text), I've uploaded it here! Under Options, click on Download. Personal use only!

Then yea AviUtl is my BFF in video editing. WAaaaaAAAaaaAAAaaavVVVVvvEEEeeeeforms. Gotta luv waveforms. Bless easy AviUtl waveforms. *bows to KEN-sama*

So yea this was another wiiiilldd ride. Learning new things everyday that's what I live for man.

On a side note, my HQ!!MMD has reached 2,525 views on NND!!! (2525 is ni-go-ni-go in Japanese, it sounds like niconico. they have something like an achievement for it lol)

MMD - HQ x GSNK OP Vid Process Log

I spent more than a whole month working on this bloody MMD so damn right you know I am gonna write a long ass post about it lest I forget how I wasted my month away.

Credits
Motion: あああ
Original Dance: RAB
Models: mori, ageha, 皐月
Accessory: Past@
Stage: 九零
Skydome: のるねり
MME: ドゥドゥ, そぼろ, おたもん, ビームマン, 針金, Elle
Special Thanks to Garmus1 and Trackdancer for all their tutorials

Models
Shoutout to Athen who helped me figure out the password for Suga's model (THANKKK YOUUU). Once the gang is all here I subjected myself to days of torture learning PMD for the first time and trying to edit working models w/o messing up the bones and physics. Ok I only did it for Asahi and Suga but it was enough to kill me. (all because i insisted on using the black jersey version instead of their uniforms.) I messed up A LOT and this is prob the funniest screw-up:

Goodbye Asahi

I'm really dumb so it only occurred to me a while later that i should just delete the extra materials like the arm that would be covered by the jersey anyway. Also his fingers looks like the Terminator cause I misaligned his finger bones; it also took me awhile to figure out why on earth it happened cause i dumb.

LEARN FROM MY DUMB MISTAKES FRIENDS

Suga's model was kinda weird cause whenever i deleted certain extra bones or moved the physics it'll crash on MMD when loaded.

Motion
Basically aaa's motions only works with a particular bone build of mmd models; its motion doesn't really use the normal IKs but more of the individual bones itself. If you used his motions on an unedited model like TDAs, etc, you'll get pretty messed up motions where the model will be floating in mid air and the legs continue to float(see the Asahi pic above). There is a way to add the extra bones via 4 plug-ins in PMX for the motions, you can find instructions in section 2.1.3 of the pdf file included in his motion folder(google translate my BFF). Because these bones were kinda forced out with the plug-ins he described, the result is more often than not still wonky and you have to further adjust it yourself. So uhh yea if you really wanna use this motion be prepared for the massive amount of work you have to do(2700 frames x 5 models GG).
Some parts are still ok but pay really close attention to their feet (one of the bones with the name D) cause it really screws up their legs a lot. Everyone needs fine-tuning you can't run from editing the motion for this son and it's like 40% BREAK-DANCING. If you're stuck you can always refer to the original dance and YT has this really neat function that slows down the vid so referencing is easier. Now I have an even greater respect for people who make motions from scratch wow hats off to you guys.

Hinata's turning hand stand part was probably the worst to adjust. Slow-mo on YT is your best friend!

but yea it cool i learnt the basics of PMD and motion editing this time but the workings of PMX still confuse me to no end. *vague shrugging*


I didn't have the idea of putting in the Karasuno banner until I started on camera motions and was kinda at a loss at where to focus after the ball rolling part. (Mori had a really nice banner in one of her vids, But I couldn't find it anywhere). So yea *insert crash course on 3D modelling in Metasequoria and trying to recreate the banner texture here* and I crapped out a flat piece of banner. If anyone wants the banner in .x or .pmx format just holla ya. You'll most likely need to clean up the sides of the PNG texture cause I was too dead at that time to care any more..... in the end i felt that the banner looked really small cause i pinned it to the back of the stage which was really far back..... but w/e man I tried. I can see myself enjoying 3D modelling actually....... i am truly a masochist

MMEs (Effects)

Before vs After. I love this so much i felt really great.

Firstly I added the different MassLight-s to each component of the stage after subset-extract. Alpha_bend, Self_Overlay, bleachbypass, ExSSAO, ExcellentShadow, AutoLuminous for only the exit signs, Diffusion, Cheaplens... yea... Oh even after adjusting the default light source in MMD, I felt that the "sunlight" strength wasn't strong enough, so i added a PostPointLight and moved it to the top right of the stage. It really helped to brighten the parts that had too harsh a shadow. For the models I used different variants of adultshader (cause the models have different textures), but for clothes I used Greenershader-s. I wanted to use my favorite variant of Greenershader but it turned out really weird in this sunny setting... I also decided not to use AutoLuminous for the eyes cause it'll be too over-the-top for this setting hahaha..

The ones who make magic are the people who created all these effects; i have the easy job of just loading everything. Thank you creators so much ;___;

Because the school gym hall stage is a .pmx file, having the MMD program do the shadows for the models ends up with real shitty opaque light grey shadows on the floor(see trackdancer's post on shadows and model draw order). So I turned them off. I wanted to use the WorkingFloorX but when I actually saw it in use it looks too extreme considering the setting.... Then idk what happened next. I didnt register the Y axis value so it dropped to below the floor the next time I played it, and I turned the shadows in its accessory box on and tadaaaaa I got some decent looking shadows that were in the right direction according to where I put my light source. Even the floor looked shiner and that was awesome. To get the standard floor reflection I just used normal WorkingFloor but with Y value adjusted above the WorkingFloorX. It was a total accidental discovery thank you dumb self my stupid-ness is actually useful for once.  I LOVE THOSE SHADOWS MMMM c'mon i even put it there for the 3rd camera scene

LOOK @ MAH SHADOWSSSSSSS

Well you can only see it for a brief second but I added GodRay too. It's my first time using it so at first I was just puzzled why it wasn't showing up... but yea it is a really great effect to use actually, just that it wasn't obvious in my video cause my light source was off-screen...

Camera
The original didn't have a camera that moves so I did the camera myself this time. It would probably be easier if i didn't load the damn 23872424 effects on everything first that makes the program lag when i play it..... *looks up at sky and whispers "why"*
Man my camera motions were so awkward the first few times i did it, i cry every time i rendered it to AVI to check and GDI it was so bloody awkward..... So i redid it quite a lot of times..... i mean i feel it's still awkward at some parts but i aint no hollywood filmmaker u feel so i'll settle.
If you want the camera the download is here! Do read the ReadMe for rules and elaborations on some parts where you have to adjust the camera yourself.


Thank you for reading my WOT! MMD is a wild ride. Learning stuff is always a wild ride. I'm still not as good as I want to be but I'm content with my progress *thinks of my first jojo mmd and shudders*