Ai's Renders

About MMD & My Renders :p

MMD (MikuMikuDance) is a 3D animation program. I use it primarily for posing 3D game characters and making transparent images/renders of them for people to use for profile decor or other personal use ventures.

Read my ToS before usage or I will show up at your house.

Also individual renders may have additional terms which I put in the mediafire file description/a txt file, AND tumblr post

Credits are always listed in the actual post, but if you can't find the og post, you can probably assume I use the same effects and persons models for every one of that media/source. I try to have the model source in the files description on MediaFire as well but I tend to forget. ( ˶°ㅁ°) !!

WEIRD NOTE: For Project Sekai if the model has "byz" in the credits do NOT tag with any Japanese. This is due to the models ToS.

List of fandoms I've done & Requests~

Project Sekai

Vocaloid

Honkai Star Rail

Madoka Magica (only can do Madoka atm)

Genshin Impact

I only ever tend to use game rips. This is due to how my renders are intended to be used and with consideration that people may ignore my terms (DON'T THIS IS NOT AN INVITE TOO IT IS CONSIDERATION OF ALL POSSIBILITIES IT'S LIKE A MORAL DEBATE ON CANNIBALISM BUT LESS SERIOUS). Or otherwise official models. Some I use more freely even though they're fanmade because their terms seem well open to the idea and they're more well-known.

You can make requests for any fandom/character I've done before. You can also request Zenless Zone Zero and Genshin Impact, or some other 3D video games. Feel free to ask if it's popular enough, or if anything shows up on deviantart for "game name mmd model dl" then I can probably use it but no guarantees as the models could very well be broken. (((^^;)

Feel free to send requests in the Ask box, or on Strawpage :p

Masterlists & Tags

Genshin Impact pfps

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#ai's renders = all my renders

#other creations = other stuff I've made

#ai's ref resources = mostly 360 spins of characters, or rendered reference sheets, etc.

#mmd asks = any asks about mmd; doesn't include requests

#ai's mmd info = mmd tutorials & other info

#mmd dl = mmd downloads (poses, motions, etc)

#ai's wisdom = tutorials unrelated to mmd

#sims 4 cc - sims 4 CC

⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂)⸝♡ Dividers on this post by cafekitsune

Note they posted:

NOTE: Bag is meant to be this. The black thing (badges) is a glitch with the shaders where it combines stuff blah blah blah. I'm too lazy to redo the 360 since it's a minor detail.

Headshot + different angles + close-ups

After this, some images have parts removed/hidden for clarity of specified!!

No white part of outfit (also removes some other stuff) to focus on wings(?)

Head (no ears)

Without metal (and some other stuff)

Tattoos/markings?

No bag

Ear close-ups

The following are in blender (please note my method was just posing the objects out of view since it's the fastest)

Back no bag

No tie

Macarena: Epic Games / Hulasemoos Griddy: Epic Games / Leomarie Gnarly: Epic Games / Hulasemoos Miniskirt: sparks1805‬ Gangnam style: Epic Games / Hulasemoos

I'll also throw in this. It's not a super exciting pose and I'm not putting it in the DL folder. No effects either.

I originally was gonna give her a salute pose, but um.... her sleeve kinda gets in the way.

Renders: emu for pfp by lovejins on deviantart / kanade @heavxnlyyou / ena @sekaitransparents / ichika vamp-q / Minori BudHIH on deviantart / emu for banner by @riens-prescripts

Pfp: overlay from hwaunted-doll / random png of a lace doily is the frame

lace/bow thing behind minori / dot things behind ichika / lace you can barely see below kanade / Behind emu thing/ gradient behind whole thing / diamond pattern & cursive text behind ena / all else are random pngs I lost eons ago, lmk if you want them since they're photos long since lost to the public

uncompressed:

Creds/sources:

Banner Banner star mask by selysie Lace (both) Emu render from sekaitransparents Pearls Ballerina silhouette Cookies Nutcracker Rectangle doily Cursive text & harlequin pattern Text I remade from some scam t-shirt site idk

Step 1. Download Sims 4 Studio Despite what it says, you don't need to register to download it.

If you're the kinda annoying person whose brain shuts off when they see Old Web Design, press whichever of the following matches your computer:

Windows requires a framework thing, if you download the program without downloading that first it'll give you a pop-up with a direct link to it. If you don't, they have how to download it under "system requirements." MAC just needs 10.11 (El Capitan) or higher.

Step 2. Make project

Click "CAS" with the default option selected

All the nails are named "mani" so search "mani" to get all of them. The nails are separated by gender for adults only, for kids/younger if you have anything other than "all" selected nothing will show up. I'd recommend using the filters to make sure you have the right item.

Also know several nails have glossy and matte versions.

As it says "shift+click" to select all color choices, so if you want all the nude nails or you're using the pre-existing colors as a base do that. It'll make the project have all of them as swatches like they are in-game, though do not they will be out of order.

DO NOTE, several nails have different textures. The typical one allows every nail to be a different color, and most nails are this. However some are a single texture applied across every nail, the (normal) french tips, and some are the pride french tips which have their own system. And the Other One too.

It'll pull up a page to name your new file, as you are making a new file.

Step 3. Get texture

First step is scroll down and export. This is the texture of the nail you currently have.

You need this for sizing, or I've personally spliced components of pre-existing nails for nail CC.

If you need more EA textures, click this (you can also do this without making a package):

Step 4. Okay really it's just info on how the textures work

Now open the texture in whatever application. I'm using Krita because it's free, but it literally Doesn't Matter.

There are DIFFERENT KINDS OF NAIL TEXTURES. You NEED to have opened the mesh for the kind you want, as stated before.

NORMAL NAIL TEXTURE:

The texture is basically a line of squares left-right that is mirrored across both hands.

If that confuses you, here's the pride flag nails

It takes the red and applies it to the thumb, then so on.

As you can see from the purple/blue nail it A. is sideways B. the edges of the texture aren't really visible.

The texture actually goes like below, with the arrow pointing to the top of the nail

And below is a SLIGHTLY INNACURATE highlight of the invisible parts of the texture. Just what isn't visible. And again it's very rough. (Female coffin nail)

The texture for all ages is the exact same formatting (size and the spot where it transitions from nail to nail), but as the nails are all different sizes they will show up differently across ages. But yeah you *can* just use one texture for all ages, though I find it squashes toddlers nail texture a tiny bit.

(single) FRENCH TIP TEXTURE:

Just look at it and guess.

PRIDE/MULTICOLOR FRENCH TIP:

One texture for the base, then a texture each for every french tip color.

FRENCH TIP TYPE 3:

I'll get back to you on that (I think the system is every nail and every tip is different, no I will not test)

Step 5. Draw on the nail & Add several swatches

What it sounds like.

For the sake of this tutorial, let's just say I edited these single french tips to be pink instead of peach on the top using a simple "color" layer.

I take this texture and I press "import"

And ta-da! It's in the game.

Just pink isn't enough, so let's get blue too.

Scroll up and "add swatch" then with it selected import that texture the same as pink was.

But now the swatch thumbnail is brown, which is only half right. You can have up to 3 colors in one thumbnail (unless you custom make one), so you can either click brown and replace it with the blue

But now the swatch thumbnail is brown, which is only half right. You can have up to 3 colors in one thumbnail (unless you custom make one), so you can either click the brown thumbnail and replace it with the blue

Or leave the brown and click the transparent checkboard texture to the right of it and add the blue there instead.

To get the color easily, you can use the eyedropper tool. You have to hold and only release when you are hovering over the color you want.

Step 6. Categories

Majority of this you can ignore, only some things are important which I'll outline below. I put the important ones in bold. These are SEPARATE ACROSS SWATCHES. Apply to all swatches as needed, but try not to hit it accidentally thinking it's the save button. It isn't.

"Outfit type" is self-explanatory, if you think the nails should show up under this category or that category. As they are nails I advise leaving this as default, except nude which for some reason isn't selected by default for half the nails... I never have my sims nude, but when you make them nude do their nails just.. disappear sometimes?????

You can select an archetype, vampire style, or color palette if you want but typically you probably won't have any applicable, and I'm not sure that any EA nail has a color palette or vampire style selected.

"Style" is for the style you think it fits. Hit whatever makes sense, most EA nails have one or two hit.

"Colors" select the colors. For each swatch.

"Allow for random" under "Part flags" at the very bottom. This controls whether or not you want randomized sims/townies to wear the nails, which I'd recommend hitting for nude-colored nails (as they'll likely have the wrong color match) and more gaudy nails.

Step 7. Thumbnail & testing in game

If you don't care if it has a custom thumbnail, such as if you're not going to upload it online, you can omit this step. But even if you don't care about aesthetics I still recommend setting a custom thumbnail. Makes it stand out more.

There are several ways to make a thumbnail: A. Use the default thumbnail and add a logo to it B. Render it in some program idk not useful for this tutorial as that's probably out of your pay grade C. In-game screenshot

I'll focus on A and C for this tutorial.

My number one tip for all thumbnail though is PUT YOUR NAME. NOT A SYMBOL LOGO. YOUR NAME. OR WHATEVER YOU UPLOAD THE CC UNDER. Or else people will forget you. Also make sure to put it in the file name.

Anyways, to get either we need to put these in the game. So I just hit save and shoved them in my mod folder without a care in the world.

And the nails are in the game!

I first recommend you hover over every single swatch to generate a thumbnail for every swatch.

If you want in game screenshots, you'll never believe this but you just kinda. Take screenshots in the game using a pose mod. And then import it as a thumbnail for swatch 1, and honestly don't bother with a custom swatch for the rest.

Most people just take photos of the nails over a white background or something. This is the most aesthetic method, and you can even see it above. I use this method, and the pose I use I made and you can download here

However the lazy mans method is after hovering over every swatch you close the game and open the .package back up in sims 4 studio.

You can export the image, or you can make an overlay or underlay and import that (size is 104 x 148).

And do note, you CANNOT add an overlay/underlay before the automatic thumbnail. It will make it so the sims 4 doesn't generate one because, well, it already has a thumbnail.

I recommend making any logos on the bottom of the thumbnail as the cc logo will cover it if it's on the top.

Now I save it and ta-da that's Literally It.

Again, I recommend adding your username to the file name.

If you need more tutorial-izing, go to their tutorials page

Dividers on this post by cafekitsune

Additional in-game screenshots:

Poses: Woof Woof - Roselipa, Posepack N6 - Ozii / In CAS Controlled Position by northern siberia winds

TERMINOLOGY

Kinds of Figures:

Scale = Referring to all fancy pre-painted figures. It's a meaningless name as ALL figures have/are a scale, as scale is referring to the figures size. See below.

Prize = Claw machine prizes

Trading/gacha/blindbox/etc = Tiny figures that are found in blindboxes, gachapons, etc. Happy meal toys.

Garage Kit = a DIY kinda deal. Can be more or less DIY, but it's just the (usually) unpainted pieces to assemble the figure. Made of resin.

Model Kit = Model kits. Like Gundams and I guess like 3D puzzles and your grandpas hobby. model kit. collection. Made of plastic, usually painted unlike garage kits. Very commonly model kits are also action figures.

Pre-painted = The figure is pre-painted. Average figure. Minimal assembly required. You put it in a peg and That's It. Congrats.

Doujin means self-published. Refers to indie stuff and fanart.

Products that are kinda their own thing or are very popular:

POP UP PARADE = A weird middleman of quality. Intended to be budget but not prize figures.

Nendoroids = Chibi poseable figures Often shortened as "Nendo." Do not confuse with nendoroid petit (small trading figures) or nendoroid dolls (shares faces with nendoroids but are dolls that wear fabric clothes).

Figma = Poseable action figures.

Gunpla = AKA Gundam, which is a franchise but we're referring to their model kits. They're like transformers, I guess? You may also know them from "diy mecha headphones" which use (typically) bootleg gunpla pieces.

Gachapon/Gashapon = They're a specific brand of capsule toys that work the same as gumball machines. I feel like they're sometimes used as a generic term (like kleenex instead of tissues) but they truly are the usual capsule toy brand. (Officially romanized as gashapon, but most people call them gachapon) (They have locations in the USA & Ontario)

Sales Terms:

ISO = In Search Of

WTB = Want To Buy. ISO is more common, but I see both

WTT = Want To Trade. I've never actually seen this used before I'm gonna be honest, it's just the middle of the trio of wt() sales terms)

WTS = Want To Sell. I mostly just see people say "selling [Name]" instead.

Grail = Favorites of all times that they are actively searching for. Sometimes just rare ones they're hunting for, sometimes all their faves, or somewhere in between!

Watching/following = I only see this on myfigcollect lists but it means they're looking to see if they'll want to buy it once it's released.

I find it very common to specify the location on ISO posts, so don't forget that. "ISO in USA" so people selling know they'd have to ship it there. (Also specify on sales posts so people know what to expect for shipping cost...)

Swap meet = Secondhand sales in-person event. People rarely actually trade at these, and only if organized beforehand or if like their booths are next to each other. Relatively uncommon and only really at conventions (and since they're mainly at cons they made have other names special to that con since they like to Be Quirky).

Most of em are normal sales terms. Just google them

Scales

Scale is referring to the scale compared to a human. Again, not all figures are "scale figures" but all figures Have A Scale or it doesn't exist. (Probably derived from old prize figures being like, 5 inches tall? This is a guess on my part; I genuinely don't know) 1/2 is half a human size, for reference. 1/7 and 1/8 are relatively common and 1/7 is AROUND 25cm-29cm tall. 25cm is a little under 10 inches (not actual guideline for size). It varies around one number, otherwise we'd have 1.6352/1 scales. Idk where to find the measurement chart honestly I looked once but I could only find one that I knew was wrong and was based on comic book action figures... which logically should be the same scales, but it was wrong either way 1/1 figures are as far as I've seen and expect ALWAYS exclusive. Very commonly one-of-a-kind or like... less than ten made. Also commonly just lobby decor or something for the company.

OTHER

Cast-off = A piece is detachable, for the purpose of turning a relatively SFW figure into a NSFW figure. Detachable clothing is not considered cast-off unless there is nothing or something inappropriate underneath.

Pre-order bonus = A freebie if you pre-order the figure, which is buying the figure before it's made (en masse. I've never seen pre-sample pre-orders for figures before)

OOAK = One-of-a-kind. I mostly see "limited-to-one" used instead, however.

Supports = Pieces of plastic (usually transparent) supporting floating pieces of figures, such as long hair or legs.

Bases = The base a figure stands on.

WORDS RELATED TO MAKING FIGURES & MATERIALS

Resin = A liquid that turns into a polymer. Only thing you'll hear of is synthetic resin that is hard and naturally clear; not really plastic, I'm not sure how to describe it. Very common material, if you ever wanted to make a figure (other than out of clay) you'd most likely 3D print it with resin.

PLA = Polylactic Acid. ...It's thermo bioplastic. It melts. It's the most common 3D printer filament (equivalent of ink on a normal printer) but for figures it's more likely injection molded.

ABS = Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene! Also a thermoplastic! The plastic used to makes legos, if that helps. Usually used for injection molding, it is possible to be 3D printed as well. Very common material for figures.

PVC = PVC pipes. You know what PVC is. It's a plastic polymer thing. It's PVC.

Screening/screened = Printing, specifically referring to the figures face.

Mold/Mould = Most figures are made via shooting plastic or resin into molds. Say you take a ball and pour liquid silicone around it until halfway, so only half the ball is encased. When the silicone dries and hardens you now have a silicone mold of half a ball. Mold can also be referring to the item made using that mold.

^ Seam = The molded item needs to be capable of being taken out of the mold. This leads to three solutions: One: Make one side flat and where it is taken out/poured in (hence why most resin jewelry & candy are flat on one side) and in this case you'd also glue the two halves together. Two: Make a mold that will be destroyed and can only be used once. Three: Split the mold in half and join the two parts of the mold together. One and three results in seams where you can either see the part where the item was glued, which is also impractical for other reasons, and three results on the fact it is unlikely for both sides of the mold to be perfectly flush to each other and thus very likely to seep out, so when you take it out there is extra.

Sculpt = A figure is, as stated, sculpted. This is referring to what was sculpted.

3D printing = A 3D printer, referring in this case to either resin or PLA/ABS (filament) 3D printers, are machines capable of making 3D objects from 3D models. Filament printers work by heating up a string of plastic then extruding like a hot glue gun to make items from bottom to top. They are not ideal for figurines as they lose the details/muddy them, but are simpler and require less user input that resin printers. Resin 3D printers require more user input, I have no idea how they work google it yourself, and are typically only used for self-produced figures. If you own one, I'd recommend looking for people who 3D model figurines and sell the 3D files. You can make a cool doujin unlicensed garage kit, eh? (Be careful that you buy from the actual modeler and not some phony scammer) I know there is this one Miku figurine that is very cool and free, but most other free figure 3D models are posed game rips (not that I have something against that, just know they will not be separated and thus a pain to paint)

BUYING

Most scale figures are pre-orders.

You will primarily be buying from Chinese and Japanese companies for figures. Unless you plan on on missing out on some figures and never buying garage kits, you WILL need to learn to navigate JP and CN websites via a translator and shipping proxy. Look up shipping proxies. If you're only interested in ever buying prepainted prize/scale figures new, you're probably fine living off Amiami for the rest of your life.

LOOK UP REVIEWS. Look up the companies figure quality. Look for unboxings of their past figures. Look up reviews of the website!! Use basic online shopping common sense!!

Cheapest secondhand prize figures you will find via: Claw machine addicts (fb marketplace & con swap meets), local secondhand anime stores, and random teenage girls on poshmark, mercari (us but jp too ig), and depop. Or from Japanese secondhand websites. But shipping.

^ Suruga-ya's global website has free shipping deals every 2 seconds and "spend over 5000 yen and get free shipping" often too. Useful for prize figures, even if the global website has a markup it's never more than the shipping cost from Japan which makes it worth it.

^^ figures have abnormally high shipping costs. Due to. Being in a big box. Even my tiny little Iono maybe 5 inch tall figure had a massive box. Scale figures are worse those things can be huge huge.

^^^ In my opinion at present I find a lot of US retailers take advantage of the fact non-committed collectors buy the most prize figures, which means one or two $30 purchases mean less to them over convenience and they just Don't Know Better. PRICE CHECK THE PRIZE FIGURE!!!!!!! be a cheapskate!!

SPECIFIC

Wonder Festival (wonfest, wonderfest) is THE convention in Tokyo and Shanghai (wfs) for figures. Tons of prototypes get revealed there, and garage kits are also sold there. You can think of it like the exhibitors hall (big figure) and artist alley (little garage kit land). The one in Tokyo is held twice a year, while I believe the one in Shanghai is once a year? since 2018. However, the Tokyo one is one day while the Shanghai one is two days.

Goodsmile Company (GSC). Made Nendoroids and POP UP PARADEs. And more. Need I say more. You WILL hear about them it is not a matter of if.

Bandai Namco. You know em from Pac-man, but they're also responsible for tons of toys, gundam, and gachapons. They own so much I'm not even sure of all of it.

Round 1 is a USA arcade chain with claw machines that often carries anime figures and popular plushies.

Myfigurecollection dot net is a popular website. It's a database where you can log what you want, what you own, see what merch exists, share photos of your collection/figures, post blogs & stuff, and sell (you can advertise - it is NOT a sales platform it's more like tweeting "figure pay via paypal"). Do be warned the search could be significantly better (coming from a database fanatic such as myself) and the server is run on 2 potatoes. DO NOT use the search bar it's a scam. Just click database -> search. I mean, you can it's not like broken. For any search bar including the detailed one, write what you mean then WAIT for the tag to show up probably with an image and click the correct tag. You can't just search the words or else it'll search as the title, which means it'll only show up if it's the actual title of the item which MOST ITEMS DON'T HAVE TITLES.

^ thread 21580 on myfigcollect has info on US tariffs. It's their third one so check if they make any new ones.

MISC

If you dislike the execution of a figure, or you don't like it enough to buy, look and see if there's an acrylic stand (or other merch) of it. Basically all new Miku scales have one, and tons of other ones do as well.

To get the CM from MM remove the last 0. (Actual conversion is 1cm = 10mm... so you can also divide, but removing the last 0 or making it a decimal is easier since they're usually rounded)

If you love a garage kit but don't want to make it there are people who do commissions to paint and assemble them.

Few options to get news: 1. Subscribe to newsletters (will show all new releases from the company, and sales) 2. Turn notifications on for 1000 accounts on Twitter (I recommend all ~30 of amiami's accounts) 3. Go on myfigcollect -> character/series/whatever -> click the bell icon on each category you want news for:

Also, buyfriend.moe (NOT AFFILATED) lets you get Emails for new listings on amiami and mandarake with specific keywords. I find this mostly gives me emails for irrelevant products, but I only use it for niche figures, so...