Anonymous at Wed, 16 Nov 2022 10:13:36 UTC No. 926170

>>926164
mmd is fine. But I suggest using at least blender to learn the basic first.

Anonymous at Wed, 16 Nov 2022 17:42:13 UTC No. 926200

>>926170
How does it compare to mmd? I know it's more advanced. Would it be daunting?

Anonymous at Wed, 16 Nov 2022 21:15:46 UTC No. 926216

Can't speak on mmd but especially character animation in blender is a serious pia.
I'd suggest you get comfortable with mmd and learn a workflow of importing/exporting mmd from/to blender.
Best of both worlds.

Anonymous at Wed, 16 Nov 2022 23:47:35 UTC No. 926224

I'm assuming you're limiting yourself to MMD models, which generally only have leg ik and not much else. In which case the difference isn't big since fk animation is, well, simple enough to be pretty much the same no matter the software. Well, you get more control over interpolation curves and such in blender but the difference isn't big. Keyframe control in mmd is robust enough.
Now if you have an actually complex model made in blender then mmd obviously won't cut it since you can't really translate more complex bone constraints to MMD. MMD is limited to global space "copy rotation/translation" and IK in which you can't control IK axis limits in local space, and since almost all MMD models are in A-pose you can't really make correct elbow bending using IK. Well you can through a ridiculous hack I worked out a while back, I forget the exact details since it was so long ago but it involved having the axis limited IK chain in t-pose, lowering the ik chain using a IK parent pointing 30deg down, and aiming the actual a-pose limbs using IK toward the IK bones, and then copying the IK chain's twist across the twist bones along the arm (to make nice arm twisting). You also obviously can't use shapekeys in MMD, only corrective bones at best, but this is potentially another problem since MMD, and most realtime engines limit you to 4 vertex groups per bone whereas you can have unlimited vertex groups in blender, and the 4 vgroup limit can make it hard to squeeze in corrective bones. Well, all of this would require some manual re-rigging (ie adjusting the bone structure and constraints/scripted drivers) and possibly even re-skinning (ie adjusting the weights on the mesh) but I consider those part of good animation, so.

Anonymous at Thu, 17 Nov 2022 06:03:12 UTC No. 926255

>>926164
MMD is totally fine, OP. You're not being 'held back' by anything, it has all the essentials you'd want out of something like this - bones, weights, IK, blendshapes, keyframes, very good performance...

What you'd get out of something like Blender or Maya is purely more choices - more renderers, more materials, more ways to light your scene - which isn't something that should be of much of a concern to you if all you want is to download a stringed-up Miku and have her do the floss or whatever.

My opinion is that you should honestly just go for it, dive right into MMD with no regrets and if you're interested in any extra features those other programs have, you could always pick it up little by little as you go, maybe retarget the finished motion from MMD to Blender and play with the scene there, whatever. A good MMD video really punches above its weight so you shouldn't ever need to do it anyway.

Anonymous at Fri, 18 Nov 2022 01:30:02 UTC No. 926379

>>926170
>>926216
>>926224
>>926255
Thanks for the info guys. Looks like I'll just use mmd for now, and if I find myself wanting more or something like that I'll check out blender. If anything, I can make stuff in mmd and export it to blender.

Anonymous at Sat, 26 Nov 2022 11:33:21 UTC No. 927391

Not OP, but am I holding myself back by making fun and memes in sfm? I've never really used Blender for anything but polymodeling, but the viewport when animating seems really sluggish in comparison. I'm guessing the multitude of settings in blender can fix that.

viewport aside, I'm finding sfm doesn't have the tools it should, so I'll probably move on, anyway. All the little workarounds keep adding up to time not actually animating.

Anonymous at Mon, 5 Dec 2022 02:52:28 UTC No. 928501

>>927391
why?

Anonymous at Wed, 14 Dec 2022 13:39:47 UTC No. 929651

>>926164
MMD is a janky hellhole, but if you're animating for fun and as an amateur, it's simple to get around.
And absolutely comfy UI and process. I hope someone can expand on it.
learnmmd.com is your best pal, highly recommend grabbing MMEffect and MMAccel

Anonymous at Wed, 28 Dec 2022 13:12:02 UTC No. 931328

>>928501
kill yourself, cris