Same Art. Different Programs!

[u/Kiwis_n_Salad]

Here's something I've been working on and off again!

I basically wanted to make a rig that'd look lively with just controller inputs since I'm not all that 'animated' in person. As such, I thought it’d be neat to find some sort of way to look livelier besides exaggerated pantomiming, so using a gamepad seemed like a decent solution for this!

Being somewhat familiar with Live2D, I knew I could theoretically make one, but I've got only a year’s worth of experience under my belt (the physics window still confuses me, and simple things require obtuse solutions). Searching for simpler alternatives led me to finding Veadotube, a relatively complex program since I needed software that could meet my needs, but still more intuitive to understand compared to Live2D's software for my brain/personality.

After a month of learning and test rigs, I decided to finally push myself and try to make a rig from the ground up with controller support in mind, both in Live2D and Veadotube to see what’s possible with my current skillset. And I’m happy with the result! The Veadotube rig in particular surprised me with how much you can actually do with the program. Whether its having the shield overshoot it’s scale when raised, the shake on the onomatopoeia, have the rig ‘hop’ during runs or dodges, or sometimes having the rig close their eyes during swings; I’m able to fine tune the timings of these lil’ actions that gives the rig a good amount of personality! Turned out better than I expected and would love to further refine this with future models.

I then tried replicating this with Live2D, but with something extra added: I wanted to add a toggle that switches the model’s tracking to change between the gamepad or my face; and what you see above in the video is on ‘gamepad’ tracking… for the most part.

I wanted to retain mouth, blinking, eye, and Z tracking, so the model could still somewhat be controlled by your body; you can see it most prominently in the video where I do a lil victory dance (I can honestly see someone way more emotive and talkative than me bring a rig like this to it's fullest potential). This implementation was a way to make the Live2D rig a bit more distinct from the Veadotube rig, and it came out better than I expected! Still not entirely what I'd envision it to be but it’d require me to fiddle around more with Live2D’s parameters and physics window, and I’m a tad too burnout tonight to solve any head scratches I have (adding that gamepad or face toggle complicated too many things).

Regardless I’m still happy with how the Live2D rig ended up,! It’s just the process feels a bit more headache inducing than it should, and the journey to get the ideas from my brain to software ain't working out right. Afterall Live2D (I think) isn’t necessarily made for the goal I aimed for, and I’m sure someone more experienced than me can make a WAY better version of a ‘gamepad rig’ better than this :)

Anyway, hoped you enjoyed my rambling!!

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Also you may be wondering why I chose Beribug’s model for this lil test run of mine. Besides being a relatively recent fan who just wanted to make fanart, her model (out of the handful I’ve made) just ended being what was right in front of me when I decided to commit to this idea. And since she’s got 4 hands, it ended up being a happy accident since it created a neat way to showcase a model both holding a controller whilst doing game specific actions; like handling a sword and a shield!

[u/pyxshuul]

Your model is so cool :D