Introduction to Live2D

Week 4. Day 30 (31) Report.

• End of 30 days.
• Severely underestimated the impact of recent events on my motivation to work on my DK30.
• Purpose of project goals met but written project goals not quite met.
• Satisfied with newly gained knowledge.
• Observing Live2D animations with scrutiny in how they are created/animated.

I received an illustration of a character my wife drew and took the knowledge I had gained to make some simple animation in arm moving, breathing and floating. I may not have created a stellar animation but I am glad that I can see how these animations are created when I encounter them in games, streams, etc.

A lot of the work is organizing your assets and making those parameters for movement. Once you have your assets set up properly, it really is like having your own digital toy/figure that you created and can play with. Quite fun!

I took a bit more time off in Week 4 on this project due to current events, work and distractions (the game releases!). However, I am satisfied with what I have gained from my DK30. I am happy that I had a project like DK30 to push me to get into a new skill, even if it is just for fun! My DK30 goal is complete (Introduction to Live2D) and I look forward to where I can take my newfound knowledge.

Week 4. Day 21 Report.

• Actual illustration get!
• Preparing the PSD properly for Live2D import.
• Understanding of tool: Able to quickly create a simple arm movement from static illustration.

Moving away from stick figure illustrations! Obtained sample assets from my wife (illustrator) to work with! After organizing the illustration’s PSD layers for Live2D import, I was able to work with it in Live2D and quickly create some simple animations.

At this point I am not feeling intimidated by the Live2D tool and am beginning to embrace it as a new skill; this aligns with the goal I had set for this project.

Will upload some sample animations once I get some more life into them in later posts.

Week 3. Day 20 Report. Days 15 - 20.

• A little off track due to health.
• Focused more on studying other examples.
• Made sample model + animation from scratch!
• Awaiting character assets (delay) for week 4 goal.

Haven’t been feeling the greatest to focus on the project until now where I can write this report! I did a thing:

While this isn’t my target character to animate, this demonstrates that I have gotten familiar with the tool (and some fancy buttons like synthesizing corners and deformers).

I now look at Live2D animations in a different light by seeing parts and specific animation techniques used to achieve the product. This was a big part of why I wanted to start this project!

Hoping to obtain character assets soon to work with for a simple animation to show by the end of the DK30.

Week 2. Day 13.

• Got to watch a more anticipated video from library and feeling much more confident in the use of the Live2D software.
• Even though I work in education, realizing the impact of a certain teaching style can be for specific people.

The articles I read and videos I watched prior to the one I just finished this evening were more catered towards those looking to have Live2D as a career since the use is growing and becoming more popular. This had a lot of the content coming off as “academic” and while that was good for terminology and basic foundations, it was lacking in excitement.

My most recent tutorial video was from a user that put a lot of fun Live2D videos of J-idol drama tracks to Live2D animated characters. The tutorial was very informal, basic (no speaking) and very silly (showing all the silly things you can do with parameters) but I realize that understanding the boundaries that you can take these instead of just aiming for the bullseye in your work is a great teacher for me. I got to where I am in my career by messing around and having fun while learning.

Motivation very high and excited to get into Week 3’s task of tackling the tool and achieving the basic goal!

Week 2. Weekend 10/24 - 10/25 Report. Days 10 - 11.

• Minor setback. Haven’t been feeling too great in my usual timeslot I have scheduled for this project. A little behind on watching some videos I have in my library.
• As an aside, I instead explored yet another game/app utilizing Live2D in the D4DJ app. An excellent study for how intricate movements can be made using Live2D models.
• Was able to have a late dinner and get through some tutorial videos which made me feel better about project progress.

While there was a minor setback due to health, I’m glad that I was able to find an alternative to the scheduled tutorial videos to keep my inspiration high. This also reinforces that learning Live2D is very much related to many of my interests.

Will try to catch up on tutorials this week moving into Week 3!

Week 1. End. 10/20 - 10/21 Report. Days 6 - 7.

• Bonus Goal [somewhat] met! There are not a lot of available Live2D tutorials in English from basic Google/Youtube/Internet searching but I have a board with some useful links to learn from.
• Got a head start on some tutorial videos by having them on in the background while doing other tasks.

The initial dip into the tutorial videos in my library has proven to be a good confidence booster in reaching my DK30 goal. Most of the videos are from/for professionals looking to make a career out of being a Live2D artist/animator. I’m just looking for understanding of the concepts and to make something fun; Live2D in my back pocket as a useful tool/skill.

Motivation is high and looking forward to the coming weeks where the real work begins!

Week 1. Weekend 10/17 - 10/18 Report. Days 1 - 4.

• Reviewed recent inspiration videos to actually start this project in watching a playlist of Arknights Live2D Music Videos. Helped me get started on my project.
• Photoshop regained and memories returning on how to use.
• Live2D Cubism installed and did what I preferred to do before tutorials: dive right into the tool & buttons. Haven’t done a learning activity like this in a long time and it feels good to do so again.

Before button pressing, everything is unknown and very intimidating. After button pressing (and loading a demo model provided by the site), everything is still relatively unknown but exciting to discover what they will really do.

Continuing with week 1 and reaching for the bonus goal of being organized with a library of tutorials for week 2 to keep this learning experience structured.