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Description
I have been playing around with the idea of creating a motion around the beautiful traditional hymn "Amazing Grace" for some time but for one reason or another the idea was left on the back burner for quite awhile. I did make a start a while back with a choral version that would have featured a bunch of girls from the KanColle franchise, but that didn't work out due to limitations with my computer.

Whilst sorting out my CD collection the other day I found an old CD that I seldom listen to, primarily because I bought it by mistake. It's a collection of religious music by various Irish artists. Not being a particularly religious person, I paid that CD scant attention. But looking over the list of titles I did note that it did include a short version of "Amazing Grace".

It was an interesting interpretation in that it is an abbreviated version plus half of it's 1:50 length is instrumental. Not on first impression a likely candidate for consideration for MMD use, especially since the singer has a very rich, deep and mature voice. But it did have potentials as it is a lovely performance. On the plus side, the words were clearly articulated and it featured bagpipes in the mix. The former makes it relatively easy to create lip sync for it so I tweaked the piece a bit in Audacity until I got a render that sounds like it was sung by a younger person.

So the next thing was to find a suitable model to cast into the singing role and as it so happened I had downloaded a set of six MMD Ragnarok Online Priestess models by Pufeyarou about a month ago. It's a lovely set of six models but they are the type of model that would be hard to use due to the costume and theme choices. However, the models do wear a crucifix and that made them an ideal choice for reprising this music. So I chose one and got down to creating the lip sync and facial animation.

That worked really well, so I pushed on to do the actual movement motion. Here there was a conceptual problem. There was basically two routes to go. The first was to recreate a church service type performance, which suits the theme and would have been really easy to program but would have been boring to watch. You can fall asleep within a minute given the right conditions...

So I took a risk and went ahead with the second conceptual approach. With this approach I fully accepted the fact that I am working with an anime style cartoon character. These generally have distorted human proportions and humongous eyes, so adopting a caricature approach, I felt, was perfectly permissible. The advantage of this approach was more movement and the whole trick was to strike the right balace so as not to make a joke of the song. In other words, the presentation, though more interesting to watch, still needed to be respectful to the meaning of the lyrics and the religion at the root of the theme.

This turned out to be a lot harder to do than I initially envisionalize and I ended up having to redo some parts, taking out others and tweaked the timing like mad until I felt that it looked right. However, I think I did end up doing a credible job at the end despite the fact that the main movement parts of the performance is cramped into only the first half of the song. There is a lot of movement in a very short time which needed to express the meaning of the words sung without being overly dramatic.

One of the main objectives in designing and programming the movements was that I really did want the model to convey the illusion that she really is singing the song and expressing the meanings of the words. Additionally, I wanted the performer to convey the impression of her 'character'. She is after all, a kick-ass RPG healer, quite capable of single handedly dealing with a horde of monsters with a host of powerful spells or attending to the healing needs of her comrades even in dire situations and yet at the same time she is supposedly a devout follower of her religious creed. This all worked out rather well in the end and I'm generally quite happy with the results.

As for the setting, that was easy. I have long built the potential for something like this into my Gothica II stage model. I just threw in some 'polish' to the floor and it just looked right and blends in well with the mood, the song and the performer.

Please feel free to have a watch at the link provided below and do leave a comment on your impression of this work in the comment section below. I would love to hear what you think of this work.

Video link: youtu.be/yGrOnVwU-Zw

If you want the motion, this can be accessed using the download button on this page.

- The motion will work with any of the priestess models in Pufeyarou's set or models with a TDA style advance bone structure.
- It won't work as well on basic bone models.
- Modified audio clip included (mp3 format).

*** DO NOT USE THIS MOTION IN A MANNER THAT IS DISRESPECTFUL TO CHRISTIANITY ***

The priestess models can be accessed via the author's blog: blog.psocafe.com/view/3173

Description
I have been playing around with the idea of creating a motion around the beautiful traditional hymn "Amazing Grace" for some time but for one reason or another the idea was left on the back burner for quite awhile. I did make a start a while back with a choral version that would have featured a bunch of girls from the KanColle franchise, but that didn't work out due to limitations with my computer.

Whilst sorting out my CD collection the other day I found an old CD that I seldom listen to, primarily because I bought it by mistake. It's a collection of religious music by various Irish artists. Not being a particularly religious person, I paid that CD scant attention. But looking over the list of titles I did note that it did include a short version of "Amazing Grace".

It was an interesting interpretation in that it is an abbreviated version plus half of it's 1:50 length is instrumental. Not on first impression a likely candidate for consideration for MMD use, especially since the singer has a very rich, deep and mature voice. But it did have potentials as it is a lovely performance. On the plus side, the words were clearly articulated and it featured bagpipes in the mix. The former makes it relatively easy to create lip sync for it so I tweaked the piece a bit in Audacity until I got a render that sounds like it was sung by a younger person.

So the next thing was to find a suitable model to cast into the singing role and as it so happened I had downloaded a set of six MMD Ragnarok Online Priestess models by Pufeyarou about a month ago. It's a lovely set of six models but they are the type of model that would be hard to use due to the costume and theme choices. However, the models do wear a crucifix and that made them an ideal choice for reprising this music. So I chose one and got down to creating the lip sync and facial animation.

That worked really well, so I pushed on to do the actual movement motion. Here there was a conceptual problem. There was basically two routes to go. The first was to recreate a church service type performance, which suits the theme and would have been really easy to program but would have been boring to watch. You can fall asleep within a minute given the right conditions...

So I took a risk and went ahead with the second conceptual approach. With this approach I fully accepted the fact that I am working with an anime style cartoon character. These generally have distorted human proportions and humongous eyes, so adopting a caricature approach, I felt, was perfectly permissible. The advantage of this approach was more movement and the whole trick was to strike the right balace so as not to make a joke of the song. In other words, the presentation, though more interesting to watch, still needed to be respectful to the meaning of the lyrics and the religion at the root of the theme.

This turned out to be a lot harder to do than I initially envisionalize and I ended up having to redo some parts, taking out others and tweaked the timing like mad until I felt that it looked right. However, I think I did end up doing a credible job at the end despite the fact that the main movement parts of the performance is cramped into only the first half of the song. There is a lot of movement in a very short time which needed to express the meaning of the words sung without being overly dramatic.

One of the main objectives in designing and programming the movements was that I really did want the model to convey the illusion that she really is singing the song and expressing the meanings of the words. Additionally, I wanted the performer to convey the impression of her 'character'. She is after all, a kick-ass RPG healer, quite capable of single handedly dealing with a horde of monsters with a host of powerful spells or attending to the healing needs of her comrades even in dire situations and yet at the same time she is supposedly a devout follower of her religious creed. This all worked out rather well in the end and I'm generally quite happy with the results.

As for the setting, that was easy. I have long built the potential for something like this into my Gothica II stage model. I just threw in some 'polish' to the floor and it just looked right and blends in well with the mood, the song and the performer.

Please feel free to have a watch at the link provided below and do leave a comment on your impression of this work in the comment section below. I would love to hear what you think of this work.

Video link: youtu.be/yGrOnVwU-Zw

If you want the motion, this can be accessed using the download button on this page.

- The motion will work with any of the priestess models in Pufeyarou's set or models with a TDA style advance bone structure.
- It won't work as well on basic bone models.
- Modified audio clip included (mp3 format).

*** DO NOT USE THIS MOTION IN A MANNER THAT IS DISRESPECTFUL TO CHRISTIANITY ***

The priestess models can be accessed via the author's blog: blog.psocafe.com/view/3173