MMD Tda Future Rin Append - Romeo X Juliet Theme

Maddoktor2 sent over a copy of his latest project: Tda Future Rin Append, a couple of days ago. Ostensibly, I think I was suppose to beta test the model and send back my findings. Well, at least I think that was the plan, but in all honesty, I wasn't really in the mood to write another model review.

Then again, I think I've going through an autumn melancholy. I am just not in the mood or don't have the energy to really start anything new. So out of sheer boredom I went to the local public library and borrowed a stack of anime DVDs and one of them was Romeo X Juliet. I watched half the series but not the second half as those discs were too badly scratched and wouldn't play. No big deal, as I didn't really get into it. Not a big fan of tragedies anyway plus the plot for me was a little bit too much of a stretch.

But I did like the opening tune which was a Japanese version of "You Raise Me Up" by Korean singer Lena Park Inori. It has nice lyrics too. Now I did do a motion of this song sung in English with Teto in the lead role, so I put the Japanese lyrics to that motion and it didn't quite jive since the meanings of the songs are different. To make it work, the motion would have to be redone, so I shelved the idea.

And then I received Maddoktor2 's version of Rin...

What I didn't quite realise about the model until I first saw it was this is an older version of Rin. I'm going to let you into a little secret of mine: I'm not a big fan of high school girls. Women are like fine wines, they get (much) better with age, so I really don't get the Japanese Otakus' obsession with females in this age group. This Rin model probably still falls into that age group, but she's definitely more mature plus the model itself is stunning. It's also very well rigged and comes with superb physics.

So off she went to the PMD Editor, well at least my copy, and I made a few slight changes to make her easier to work with the way I like to do things and then I did the Japanese lyric lip sync. Loaded that on to the Rin model in MMD and just used the old motion to get a feel of what the performance would be like. Honestly, I was thinking I would just modify the existing motion and make it work. But the amount of work that would be required to reworking the old motion would be about the same as starting from scratch so forget that.

The point, however, was that this version of Rin could pull this song off very credibly so I sat down and did the performance motion the following evening. Now right off the bat, I did realize that this was an Append style Rin and I had made a stage for this style of Rin yonks ago. Put the two together and I had a perfect fit, but I really wanted this version of Rin to show her stuff and at the same time really use the stage.

All of that in a 90 second performance? Could it even be done?

Well, this was where lateral thinking comes in and I am trained to think laterally. Well to be perfectly honest, my logic is twisted most of the time anyway. But here's the thing. Most motions use the center of the stage, but this stage has perfectly good railings on either side.

And so I had 'better idea'...

Honestly, I pushed the envelope a bit on this one in terms of my portrayal of Rin's character. On the one hand I've deliberately included some 'moe' motifs in her posing, but I've also flavored it with a more provocative, mature and slightly aggressive sensuality and it works rather well. The model also has a superb bone/weighting structure, so I took full advantage of that too; her movements and expressions are, despite the fact that it was all done in only two evenings, very fluid and natural.

Anyway, see what you think.

The video can be seen here: youtu.be/qxwuitlpias

As for the Rin model, my recommendation is to definitely check her out when she is finally released. An absolutely superb model edit, and unlike far too many DA edits, excellent craftsmanship with superior attention to visual and functional details. You should be able to download her from Maddoktor2 's gallery when she becomes available.


Quibbles ( to Maddoktor2 ):

1. Some of the bone names are too long and won't all fit in the frames display. Also please label the mother bone as the 'mother bone' (or 'mother' or 'root') and the upper body bones as 'upper body' and 'upper body2' respectively.

2. The tail of the Append gear (you see this at the beginning of the video) seems rather starched (too stiff) don't you think? On the plus side it does kind of help sort out her hair at the rear to an extent, but it does tend to stretch credibility if someone wants to be really nick-picky.

3. The hair IK + physics system is top notch; really good choice to go this route, didn't have to use a single trick to keep all that mass of hair under control at all times.

4. I love that you have facials to remove her teeth. Really helped with this particular set of lip sync data.


Cheers.



CREDITS

- Maddoktor2
MMD Rin Chan's Append Stage Set - Trackdancer
Skydome - UssiP

MME:
Serious Shader
dDarkAdultShader_ES
Object Luminous
Auto Luminous
Post Point Light
o_BleachByPass
o_SelfOverlay
Diffusion 7
Kozu

Music: Theme from Romeo X Juliet anime - Lena Park Inori
Motion/Camera - Trackdancer

Software:
MMD 9.26
PMD 0.1.3.9
Mogg Face and Lips
Audacity

Rin Kagamine © Crypton Future Media, Inc.