10.4. VRoid/VRM (2)

As the amount of information has increased, the page has been split.

10.4.1. Natural rotation of hands and ankles 

Added from version 2.10.0.

Until now, when moving the upper arms or shins, the hands and ankles had to be rotated afterwards. By enabling this property, the hands and ankles can be moved in a natural orientation like a human body.

Both hands and feet can be enabled separately

A specific example is shown in the following figure.

However, to add finer rotation you must uncheck this.

If you uncheck the property, the rotation angle of the hand and ankle will be reflected in the IK marker.

Hint

If you find it tedious to rotate the hands and ankles after moving the arms and shins, you can check this property to automatically rotate them to a natural orientation, then uncheck it to add finer rotations.

10.4.2. Operation of hand poses 

To operate the palms, open the “Arms/Hands” tab from the properties on the right and select the pose you like for the left and right hands.

You can adjust the degree of pose with the slider. More hand poses will be added in future updates.

Ver 1.0.0:

Generally
Open
Close
Point
V-sign
Thumbs up
Grasp

From Ver 1.0.4, the following has been supported.

Manual operation

thumb to pinky joints: Each slider rotates a knuckle. The top is the 1st joint to the 2nd joint, and the bottom is the 3rd joint.
Operation of the finger itself (between fingers, rotation of finger axis): The red slider adjusts the degree of opening between the fingers with the slider.

The green slider rotates around the finger axis. (It’s not possible as a real human, but it’s a rotation operation that is often necessary with 3D models.)
Base of thumb: You can adjust the rotation of the base of the thumb with a circular slider. The left represents the perspective distance between the thumb and the palm, and the right mainly represents left-right rotation.

10.4.3. BlendShape 

To put it simply, you can switch the facial expressions of VRoid/VRM. Open the “Blendshape” tab of the property on the right, and adjust the value of your favorite blendshape with the slider.

Blend shapes are determined for each VRM file, and the number that can be manipulated varies depending on the character.
Move the slider next to each shape key between 0 and 100.

Note

From ver 2.3.0, it has been changed so that it is registered as a key frame only when the check box is turned on. When you move the slider, the checkbox is automatically checked.

If you do not want to register a shape, uncheck it and the value of that shape will not be saved.

As a result, only the truly modified blendshapes are saved in motions and projects, reducing file size.

Search: You can incrementally search by blendshape name. If blank, all blendshapes will be displayed.

Dedicated and common blendshapes

Dedicated:: Each VRM has its own shape. Even if the shape here is made into a motion or pose file described later and applied to another VRM, it may not be reproduced.
Common:: It is a shape common to all, regardless of whether it is a VRM1.0 model or a migration model from VRM0.x. The shapes here can be reproduced in other VRMs by putting them in a motion or pose file.

The name has been changed to support VRM1.x.

Due to the VRM 1.0 specification, the behavior of SkinnedMeshRenderer’s blend shapes has been affected, and some general-purpose shapes that used SkinnedMeshRenderer in this application no longer work. This application maintains compatibility and can be used, but since it may cause confusion, we have changed the name as follows.

This app version	The shape of the SkinnedMeshRenderer	The shape of the Expression
Ver 2.0	Dedicated	Common
Ver 1.x	Generic	Dedicated

Caution

Note that private is reversed .

Note

The original Expression only has the bare minimum of common shapes for all VRMs.
There is a possibility that the number of Expressions in other apps is small, but that is the standard state. This application emphasizes compatibility, so we have made it possible to use all blendshapes as Expressions with our own improvements.

10.4.3.1. Automatic blink 

Auto blink keeps VRM blinking at the specified timing.

It keeps moving independently of the animation keyframes, so you don’t have to incorporate the opening and closing of the eyes into the keyframes from scratch with blendshapes.

Blink interval, number of seconds the eyelids open, number of seconds closed, number of seconds closed: By specifying each of them, you can feel the expression even with the movement of the eyes.

It is on by default. If you don’t need it, uncheck “Enable automatic blink” to turn it off.

Caution

Competes with the eye blendshape. We recommend that you use one or the other.

10.4.3.2. Lip sync 

VRoid/VRM keeps moving its mouth as if it is talking.

Since it continues to move independently of the animation keyframes, there is no need to incorporate the opening and closing of the mouth into keyframes from scratch using blend shapes.

Speed to open the mouth:: Specifies how quickly the mouth changes from aa from 0.0 to 0.5.
Speed to close the mouth:: Specifies how quickly the mouth changes from aa from 0.5 to 0.0.
Lip sync interval:: Specify the time it takes to start moving again after the mouth opens and closes once. The more you have, the longer the interval will be and the less frequently you will have to move your mouth.

Default is off. It is suitable for use when enabling it and then disabling it a few seconds later in the next frame to create a scene where the character is speaking.

Hint

This feature allows you to move aa and other shapes independently while aa changes.

Caution

This function does not cause VRoid/VRM to move its mouth according to the user’s speech. It is just an auxiliary function to make VRoid/VRM appear to be talking.

10.4.4. wearing an object 

You can link different objects such as FBX, Obj, Light, etc. to specific body parts of VRoid/VRM and link their movements. Open the “Attach Objects” tab in the properties on the right.

Add another object in advance.

Note

Adjust the position and rotation according to the part of the body you want to tie.

Select VRoid/VRM, select the target body part, and click the Add button.

Select the object you want to link and press the “OK” button.

Wearable objects are:

Object type
3D objects such as FBX / OBJ
Image
Light
Camera
Effect

Information about the attached object will be displayed.

After that, the object attached to the part of the body will also move in conjunction with it.

You can remove it with the delete button on the far right.

Caution

Handling of attached objects
Objects equipped with VRM will not be able to register deformation operations such as position and rotation in keyframes during animation. Even if you select it from the list, the IK marker will not be displayed.
Be sure to set various properties before mounting.

About wearing objects in animation projects

Equipping this object is complex, so be careful with its use and preparation in your animations. Attaching and removing an object must be separate from the start/end of the desired motion .

It is a good idea to register to the keyframes in the following order.

Example:: Equip a 3D sword object on the VRM’s right hand

Frame	VRM	Other objects
1	move the right hand to the desired position	Move the sword to the specified position
2	wear a sword object to the right hand	Register the position and rotation at this time to the key frame
~		None
9	move the right hand	None
10	Release the sword attached to the right hand	Register the position and rotation at this time to the key frame

Other object properties cannot be changed between 2 and 10 frames.
The point in the animation is that the wearing state is the same at the start and end. For example, if the 1st frame is without attachments and the 10th frame is with attachments, if you operate the frame or press the play button again, the position of the object may gradually shift.

10.4.5. Gravity settings 

The bones of VRoid/VRM have gravity settings as standard. Bones usually move automatically by Unity’s standard collision detection function during game and motion production.

Even with this app, hair flutters when the VRoid/VRM moves, but you can make fine adjustments manually.

Although this is an effect only for this application, for example, you can correct the phenomenon that the skirt is turned up too much by setting this gravity.

Warning

Conflicts with the stage wind effects and settings described below. Do not use this feature when using wind.

Information on the gravity settings of bones owned by the VRM being operated is listed on the spreadsheet. The bones displayed here are:

Bones that the VRM itself has (already held during creation in VRoidStudio)
Bones held by 3D models retrofitted to VRM with tools such as the Unity editor and my work VRMOneEditor

In addition, since it should have gone through conversion with UniVRM once, it depends on the VRMSpringBone component for bone information.

Please check in advance on VRoidStudio or Unity which bones are actually located. The cells that can be changed are:

Power	Direct strength of gravity on that bone (0 to 1)
Direction X / Y / Z	Directional strength of gravity on that bone (-1 to 1)

Note

-1 for each Direction is the negative direction. For example, the Y axis will be downward. (1 means up)
Power * Direction reflects how the bones flutter due to gravity.
To reload the latest information, press the load button on the toolbar.

10.4.6. Texture 

You can change the settings of textures held by VRM in detail. The setting and usage of OtherObject are exactly the same.

See Texture for details.

10.4.7. Play the VRMAnimation 

Similar to OtherObject’s animation, VRMAnimation can also be controlled to play within an animation project using this app. The difference from FBX etc. is that VRMAnimation is completely different from VRM, so the same motion can be reused in multiple VRMs.

Preview playback	アニメーション登録用

It will play instantly. This operation is not registered in the keyframe.	Register the keyframe after selecting “Play” or “Stop”.

Open VRMAnimation from Open of Pose/Motion in the 3D Model tab of the ribbon bar.
Select VRMAnimation from the combo box at the top of this property panel.
Select the animation clip you want to play from the second combo box.
Adjust the playback mode, animation speed, etc. as necessary.
Play and check.
If you like, select the playback state in the animation state (for registration) and register the keyframe.

About the placement of controls:

Combo box for the motion file name
Combo box for an animation clip
Play	Stop	Play mode selection box
seek position slider
speed slider
Set the animation state to `To seek`

Rotation of this app and VRMAnimation:

The rotation direction of the VRM itself in this application and VRMAnimation is different in the Z direction. In this app, the default is for VRM to face in the negative direction of his Z. VRMAnimation, on the other hand, depends on each animation.

In order to absorb the difference in orientation as much as possible, this application reverses the Z direction only immediately after selecting VRMAnimation.

Close VRMAnimation:

If you really want to close it, select the target file from the project settings screen and delete it.

About IK operations

You cannot manipulate IK markers while VRMAnimation is enabled.

To temporarily disable VRMAnimation, select --- from the motion file name combo box. Then you can deselect VRMAnimation.

You can now move the VRM freely by manipulating the IK marker again.

Note

If there are multiple motions in VRMAnimation, please select them.
The animation data of the 3D object is not expanded or displayed in the key frame, but only the states of play, pause, stop, and seek are registered in the key frame.

Hint

Even if you register only changing the seek position by changing the playback position as a keyframe instead of playing or stopping, you can freely play the animation of that object.

To change the motion seek position, do the following:

Move the seek position slider
Set the animation state to To seek
Registering/updating to a keyframe

Example:

Loaded a VRMAnimation into VRM A

Frame number	Animation state (for registration)	Seek position
1	Change playback position	0.855 seconds
2	Change playback position	0.124 seconds

Duration is 1 second.
This VRM A animates as if playing in reverse.