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MMD Gothica 2 Stage + Scarborough Fair motion

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I tend to avoid models with long dresses as usually, long dresses have physics that either derp like hell or else they have enough physics on the skirt to make the model bullet proof (and slows my system down to a crawl). However, I was browsing through Xoriu 's blog the other day to see what nice new models were out there to add to my collection. To be honest, I don't collect many models these days. There are a lot of nice ones available to be sure but models that don't get used just take up disk space - so the model really has to be 'special' to be a keeper in my collection. However, I did come across this model of Rayneshia and she caught my attention straight off so I downloaded her.

Downloaded her and left her unpackaged for quite awhile to be honest as I had other things to do and didn't have time to sort her out before adding her to my collection. But I got around to it eventually and she turned out to be ... AMAZING. She looked great and she has superb physics. Also, and this is important for motion development work, she has beautiful lip facials and a very sound bone structure and weighting. She looks like a porcelain doll, and in actual fact, I do collect porcelain dolls - well at least old ones which I find at swap meets and garage sales. They're not quite antiques, just nice curiosities which catch my fancy.

For some reason, although I suppose she's supposed to be a fairy tale type character, she reminds me of the ladies in the Sun King's Court in France. Minus the stupid head dresses they wore in those days.

So I was thinking, why not build a stage for her? She won't fit in on one of my sci-fi/techno themed stage at all now would she? For quite awhile, I've been thinking of building a fairy tale castle / Cinderella palace type stage, but I took a closer look at Snow White's castle in Disney Land and the compexities of that design looked like way too much work. I did some scribbles and everything ended up looking like they could top a wedding cake; so scratch that idea for now.

I listen to music when I'm working, preferring soft rock and folksongs as they are the least distractive. One piece of music caught my attention: Scarborough Fair by Hayley Westenra (Celtic Woman). So just out of sheer curiosity I opened up Mogg Face and Lips, added the tune and Rayneshia. Did one verse and was hooked - it looked ... how should I put it? It was touching - nearly bought a tear to the eyes. But Hayley's voice was a bit too 'mature' for Rayneshia so I rehashed the tune in Audacity and it was a perfect fit for Raynesia so I finished the lip sync but left it at that.

Nothing to watch on TV as usual so I opened up SketchUp and started doodling and ended up with a rough form of this stage set. Put Rayneshia in it because, I wanted to use her for a LOTR animation skit that you can see here: youtu.be/TLfv42BF11k

Anyway, I finally had a light bulb moment and it looked like this: Rayneshia + this stage + that motion.

To cut a long story short:

1/. I rebuilt the stage using classic proportions but styled it in the Norman style. But it does have some modern elements. Preview images of the stage can be seen here: fav.me/d7riqp6
2/. Finished off the motion.

The motion actually took more work than the stage. The music is only 3 minutes long but it was hard to figure out what movements to incorporate. In actual fact, Rayneshia could have just stood there to sing the whole song and it would have worked fine but that would have made for a boring video, so she had to move. Moving her was harder than I first thought as she's wearing a hooped skirt and that made me have to go watch some period dramas just to see how a woman actually moves wearing one of those things. I didn't want to take a short cut by just having her hover across the floor - that doesn't work - you really need to know what the legs are doing and how her body has to adjust for the hooped skirt.

Then she had to have "character", otherwise it'll just looked like canned motion now wouldn't it? Besides, that's always the fun part of creating performance motions - making the character believable, likeable and giving them 'personality'.

Well anyway, the stage is on offer for download for you to use in your own projects. It is a nice stage in itself and a little different from my more conventional designs. It's actually very 'basic' but that in no way detracts from its versatility and its design allows for some really nice visuals to be created with it. It does have a 'classical', Middle Ages and fantasy architecture feel to it.

As for the motion, since there isn't any motion data made specifically for a MMD model wearing a ball gown, it is included with the download; so do have a look at it if you have a chance. Do note, however, that the motion was made specifically for Rayneshia so some degree of modification will be necessary if the motion is applied to another model. The performance is different from most MMD videos and the song is in English. It has a different flavor and texture as the song itself is centuries old, but it does capture well a more nostalgic view of the past and in itself is a beautiful piece of music.

Also, in case you're wondering why I designed Rayneshia's MME suite to look the way it does, please see my reference to collecting old porcelain dolls above - but it does work and it works a charm.

Cheers.


D/L (Bowlroll): bowlroll.net/up/dl43068
Demo Video: youtu.be/-ep0ModF2JM

Notes:
1/. Credits and the download PASSWORD are on the video page.
2/. If you do download it, please do respect the fact that the design does include Christian symbology so please don't be using it for things like black magic rituals and such. There are other MMD stages out there already which can be used for that sort of thing.
3/. If you want the Rayneshia model, the link to her download is listed on Citrus-Smoothie ( citrusmoothie.tumblr.com/searc… ). The model is based on the character from the Log Horizon anime series.
Image size
1024x1024px 1.62 MB
© 2014 - 2024 Trackdancer
Comments39
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HoshiNoGarudo's avatar
This stage is lovely! Downloaded.