Vocaloid Hatsune Miku

Description:
"No one knows the power of the Voice, or Thu'um, better than those who are the embodiment of it: the Vocaloids."
– Unknown sage of the Bard's College in Solitude


http://youtu.be/IT3Nttw4VpQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzh_avvcouM (better audio than Demo 01 + includes a brief look at some crafting recipes at the end)

This mod is my effort to create a full-blown extension of the original Vocaloid Hatsune Miku mod (aka "MikuMod") by LT@3DM for players of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by Bethesda Softworks. For those who do not know about Vocaloid or Hatsune Miku and are curious about them, the last section of this overview includes a brief summary of official information about both. The game modding and Vocaloid communities are two successful examples of consumer generated media (CGM), so it seems quite logical to combine the creative efforts from the two areas.

The original Hatsune Miku mod allowed players to use armor/outfit pieces (DragonPriest wooden mask, cuirass, and boots) in order to change their character to appear as Miku while playing Skyrim. An update to the mod added the negi weapon that is Miku's character item (sometimes called a leek, but negi is actually a spring onion in Japan). The first version of the mod was a replacer, but the update offered the mod as a non-replacer. My extension of the original mod uses the non-replacer version.

Planned:
The original mod was quite nice, but it suffered from several limitations due to being released prior to the official Creation Kit toolset, as well as certain choices regarding the properties of the pieces of equipment. This caused it to only offer the appearance of being Miku without any attempt at balancing the new content so that the player could actually play through the game as her. For example, the damage for the negi weapon in the original mod was 64, but the highest base damage for one-handed swords in Skyrim is 14 or so. Also, there was no provision for the negi being any weapon other than a sword (e.g., there was no way to play Miku as a mage using a staff or dual-wielding staves). Finally, the armor outfit was set to values roughly equal to Ebony, and neither weapons nor armor could be upgraded.

My mod will (hopefully) allow the player to use the new equipment to play as Vocaloid Hatsune Miku almost from the very beginning of the game (i.e., once the very first main quest, "Unbound," is complete, you are freed after entering Helgen Keep, and you defeat the initial band of either Imperial soldiers or Stormcloak rebels). Miku's outfit will be matched to each type of base armor, as well as a cloth-based outfit for unarmored characters (e.g., mages). Likewise, her negi weapon will be matched to the various types of base one-handed weapons, as well as the various staves used by mages. Both armor and one-handed negi weapons will be able to be created and/or upgraded via the Smithing skill. Some of these items will require additional elements for crafting Miku's version of them.

In addition to these features, I would like to actually recreate various voice files using Vocaloid Hatsune Miku (i.e., her actual voice bank). There are already voice mods for the player character that use other sound sources, so why not make the mod use Miku's actual voice? She is capable of such things, so it only requires having the software and the skill to create the files. I hope to acquire the Miku's Japanese voicebanks (both original and Append upgrade), as well as her upcoming English voicebank. However, doing this depends on financial resources (mine are very limited right now) and having the skill, time, etc. to create the files (which are also very limited for me right now). I'll see how things go, but this is the plan, anyway.

The potential exists to do much more, of course, including creating entirely new characters. Depending on the response of the communities, other Vocaloid mods are certainly feasible. I probably wouldn't be making them, but they are at least possible if there is good support from the Vocaloid and Skyrim communities. The original mod includes an outfit for Vocaloid Megurine Luka. A mod for Luka's hair style is already available, so creating a mod that enables players to play Luka as a full-featured, playable character would probably be the logical choice for a second Vocaloid mod.

Please note that the general approach for this mod is a bit different than creating a unique, custom Vocaloid race. Players will still choose a default race from the very beginning of the game, and they will still get the same default abilities, spells, etc. However, this approach should avoid any conflicts, or at least most conflicts, including alternate starts or custom races from other mods, because you are simply wearing a different outfit rather than changing inherent character traits.

Disclaimer:
I am currently pursuing my doctoral degree in technology with a concentration in technology studies. I am a doctoral candidate (i.e., I have completed all the required coursework), and I am about to begin formal work on my dissertation and research. This project is related to my dissertation topic.

I do not have any abilities in 3D CG art and modeling, nor do I have any time to create new assets even if I did have the skills. Likewise, I do not have any skills or time for scripting. Actually, I do not currently have experience in using the Vocaloid software, but it is intended for both average users and professional musicians. Of course, people who have such skills or are interested in obtaining them are welcome to contact me to help with the project. I would love to hear from someone who has skills that might make the mod even better!

Complete:
For now, there are two respawning chests with many of the items in them. One chest is in Helgen Keep at the beginning of the game, and the other is in Whiterun. Players can decide what to take and how much to use or avoid using these chests as cheats.

Weapons:

• Negi swords are available in the following material types, including crafting and tempering recipes, depending on the Smithing skill of the character:
  
  • Iron
    
  • Steel
    
  • Orcish
    
  • Dwarven
    
  • Elven
    
  • Glass
    
  • Ebony
    
  • Daedric
• Negi versions of the various Mage Staves are available via crafting by converting an acquired staff into a Negi that has the same properties as the original staff.

Armor/Clothes:

• Miku's outfit pieces (i.e., Mask, Cuirass, and Boots) are available in the following Heavy Armor material types, including crafting and tempering, depending on the Smithing skill of the character:
  
  • Iron
    
  • Steel
    
  • Steel Plate
    
  • Dwarven
    
  • Orcish
    
  • Ebony
    
  • Daedric
    
  • Dragonplate
• Miku's outfit pieces (i.e., Mask, Cuirass, and Boots) are available in the following Light Armor material types, including crafting and tempering, depending on the Smithing skill of the character:
  
  • Hide
    
  • Leather
    
  • Elven
    
  • Scaled
    
  • Glass
    
  • Dragonscale
• I have not included enchanted versions of the armor at this time because I do not think it is needed, but we will see.
  
• Miku's outfit pieces (i.e., Mask, Clothes, and Boots) are available as a form of unarmored Clothing by crafting the pieces from common materials.
  
• The enchanted versions of Mage College Robes, including the Archmage Robes, can be converted into enchanted versions of Miku's Clothes via crafting, depending on the Enchanting skill of the character.
  
• I have not included either Necromancer or Warlock robes at this time as I do not think it is needed, but we will see.
  
• The few examples of enchanted versions of the unarmored Boots, including the Archmage Boots, can be converted into enchanted versions of Miku's Boots via crafting.
  
• The various enchanted versions of Circlets can be converted into Miku's Mask via crafting.

Miscellaneous:

• Leeks have been added to all leveled lists for food using Cabbage as the guideline (i.e., the Cabbage lists were mirrored and edited to include Leeks, then the new Leek lists were added to the lists for randomly found food). The original leveled lists for food did not include Leeks as a possible item, thus leading to Leeks being one of the rarer food items in the game (see the UESP Wiki entry for Leek). However, since Negi weapons require Leeks for crafting, I felt that it was important to include them (not to mention it makes much more sense in the game world).
  
• I have included a couple of small fixes that I noticed when I was going through the one-handed weapons data specifics, but that have not yet been included in the Unofficial Skyrim Patch. These fixes are outlined below and I have reported them to the USKP team on the bugs web site. The changed values match all other one-handed weapons values for that particular weapon type.
  
  • Iron Sword: Critical% = 0.00, all other one-handed swords Critical% = 1.00 (changed to Critical% = 1.00 for Iron as well)
    
  • Ebony Dagger: Speed = 1.00, all other daggers Speed = 1.30 (changed to Speed = 1.30 for Ebony as well)
    
  • Orcish Waraxe: Critical% = 0.00, all other waraxes Critical% = 1.00 (changed to Critical% = 1.00 for Orcish as well)
    
  • Orcish Waraxe: Speed = 1.00, all other waraxes Speed = 0.90 (changed to Speed = 0.90 for Orcish as well)

Incomplete:
The following changes are intended but have not yet been done:

• Waraxe versions of Miku's Negi one-handed weapons (see Known Issues)
  
• Mace versions of Miku's Negi one-handed weapons (see Known Issues)

Known Issues:

• I have attempted to use the available assets to create versions of the waraxe and mace so that players can choose whichever one-handed perk path they desire. However, the assets that came with the original mod were for one-handed swords and have some type of error when changed to either waraxes or maces. They work fine as one-handed swords, of course, and they even work fine as staves. However, both the waraxe and the mace disappear from Miku's right hand when the assets are changed to Negi versions. They appear okay in her left hand, but not her right. Someone with skills in 3DCG modeling would have to correct this problem in order for me to offer these weapon options. If anyone is interested in working on this issue, please contact me.

• The Negi versions of Mage Staves use the Negi Sword assets because that is what is available from the original mod. This works as far as animation and combat, but it also means that the alternate textures are the ones for Swords, not the ones for the original Staves. If anyone wants to remake the Negi assets as Staves with the various alternate textures from the originals, please contact me.

• Miku's synthesizer sleeves are not shown in 1st person view. This appears to be due to a lack of assets in the original mod, so I cannot do anything about it at this point. Someone with skills in 3DCG modeling would have to create the 1st person perspective of Miku's arms and hands in order to correct this issue. This would be a form of "Miku Gloves" just as the current assets consist of "Miku Cuirass" (or "Miku Clothes") for the body, "Miku Mask" for the face, and "Miku Boots" for the legs and feet. If anyone is interested in working on this issue, please contact me.

Contact Information:
Please feel free to contact me via the official Bethesda Softworks forums. You could either post a public message on the thread for this mod or you could contact me via PM if you like.

About Vocaloid and Hatsune Miku:
As you absorb the following information, you may notice that there is a great deal of similarity between the creative efforts within the game modding community and the creative efforts within the Vocaloid community.

Vocaloid is a singing synthesis software technology developed by Yamaha Corporation in a joint effort with Pompeu Fabra University in Spain. It is somewhat anologous to speech synthesis software, but it is intended for singing, thus making it more difficult to create speech using the software. Vocaloid was first announced by Yamaha in 2003 and the first commercial products featuring the software went on sale in 2004. The first Vocaloid products were Leon and Lola, and they were created by a United Kingdom company, Zero-G.

The Vocaloid software requires a "voice bank" of phonemes (i.e., the "pieces" of our language such as vowel and consonants sounds and various complex compound sounds made up of vowels + consonants, inflections, elongations, etc.). A user can input a melody and lyrics into the software, as well as various vocal effects such as vibrato, tremolo, etc. The software's synthesis engine will accept the melody, lyrics, and effects from the user's input, access the voice bank, and sing the song for you.

Here is a video of Vocaloid Hatsune Miku (her actual GUI) singing "Hoshi no Kakera" ("Star Shard"). This song was originally entitled, "Ballade," but was later changed to "Hoshi no Kakera." As you can see, the GUI looks like a player piano paper roll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPuQMY6hZdw

The second version of the software, Vocaloid², was released in 2007. The third version, Vocaloid³, went on sale in September 2011. Although the first two versions were only offered in Japanese and English, Vocaloid³ features support for several additional languages. Here is a Yamah's official Vocaloid web site (English version), including a promotional video from Yamaha that was made for the launch of Vocaloid³.

http://vocaloid.com/en/

Crypton Future Media, Inc. in Sapporo, Japan was one of several companies, including the aforementioned Zero-G, that had been creating Vocaloid voice banks. Their first two Vocaloid products were Meiko and Kaito, and were created using the first version of the software. With Vocaloid², Crypton's CEO, Hiroyuki Itoh, decided to launch a "Character Vocal Series" line of products. His idea was to hire voice actors for the recordings rather than singers because the software could handle the singing as long as the voice bank of phonemes was recorded well. In addition, his intention with the "Character Vocal Series" was to create avatars for each voice bank so that the products were personified. He felt that this would help people relate to the music more easily.

The first product of Crypton's Character Vocal Series (CV01) was Hatsune Miku. She is actually a personification of Yamaha's DX-7 synthesizer, the first commercially successful synthesizer that was featured in various hit songs during the 1980s. Hatsune Miku went on sale on August 31, 2007, and the rest, as they say, is history, a history that continues to be created right now. She has reportedly sold 70,000 units (i.e., she has 70,000 song writers working to create her music).

Crypton supported the idea of bottom-up, user-created content by creating a content sharing web site called PiaPro ("Peer Production") and launching their own Vocaloid music label, KarenT, so that Vocaloid music producers could gain visibility for their works. The timing of Miku's release was serendipitous, too, because NicoNico Douga (Japan's version of YouTube) was just gaining popularity, just as YouTube was in America. Companies could see what content was most popular and license it for use in games, CDs, DVDs, figures, books, etc. without needing to do market research and reaching questionable conclusions about target market demographics. Consider a company such as YouTube where the content is created for free by the users, not by a company employee. Vocaloid, particularly Hatsune Miku, has exploded in popularity by supporting the same idea, empowering users to create and rate content. Just as Bethesda has acknowledged game mods and included various mod concepts in successive Elder Scrolls games, Hatsune Miku has proven to companies that the users and consumer audiences are the best judges of what the market wants.

Songs featuring Hatsune Miku began hitting the top ten on Japan's Oricon music charts in 2009 and continue to do so today. Her songs have also hit the top of the world charts for digital download services such as iTunes, and Billboard magazine's January, 2011 issue listed her as one of their select artists to watch during the upcoming year. They were right, too. Miku continued to win awards and popularity around the world during 2011 and 2012, and became the spokesperson for both Toyota's 2011 Corolla in America and Google Chrome in Japan. Her English voice bank is due out sometime in 2012.

Many of Miku's most popular songs are fast-paced, techno-pop types of music, but she and the other Vocaloids can actually sing almost anything. It all depends on the skill of the producer, after all. For example, she has sung opera songs, and she has even sung some songs in English using her Japanese voice bank! In fact, the English Vocaloids from Zero-G, Prima and Tonio, are specifically intended to be opera singers. There are accents for any language, after all, even within a specific country, so we can look at Vocaloids speaking or singing outside of their native language or their typical music genre(s) as simply being a different type of accent.

Here is one of Miku's early ballads, "Izumi no Megami" ("Goddess of Spring") (English subtitles in this version). This song and the accompanying promotional video for it seem to fit rather well with The Elder Scrolls game world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVYTpHV8y88

Originally, Yamaha did not offer their own Vocaloid products, and instead simply licensed the technology to various companies who wanted to create a product using it. They started offering some of their own Vocaloid voice banks after Hatsune Miku exploded into a global phenomenon and launched the "Vocaloid Movement" (aka the "Hatsune Miku Movement").

Credits:
All credit for the original art assets and for the original mod changes goes to LT@3DM. My mod simply greatly extends their usage in the game.

Bethesda Softworks for the creation of another great game world and toolset.

Official Web Sites:
(Please note that information on Crypton Future Media's English web page for Hatsune Miku is somewhat outdated now as her popularity and awards have continued to escalate since the page was first created).

http://www.crypton.co.jp/mp/pages/prod/vocaloid/cv01_us.jsp name and character image is copyright ? http://www.crypton.co.jp/ and cannot be used for commercial purposes without permission.

http://vocaloid.com/en/ is a trademark of http://www.yamaha.com/

So, um.... I'm a bit interested in your thesis rather than the mod itself. What... um... what exactly is your thesis' topic? I mean... creating a costume replacer mod is not exactly "scientific". It may be "hard", but not really "scientific", and isn't being scientific the goal of a thesis?

Is your thesis about um... about... IDK, about researching how far would a Japan icon gather interest from western gamers?

I want to clarify a couple things before trying to answer your question. Before I begin, let me say that I am not sure how much I should actually say publically at this point due to issues of intellectual property, concerns about research topics and approaches (i.e., there are times when an idea gets usurped by others so it's best to be a bit cautious) and other possible issues. That's why I am being a bit indirect and obscure. I am not trying to dodge your question(s).

The first thing I should clarify is that a dissertation is not a thesis (well, not in America, anyway, although there are differences in academic degrees in other countries and their curriculums). Doctoral work in America generally requires a dissertation, while masters work generally requires a thesis. In my case, I basically did a thesis for my honors work during my undergraduate studies, so my masters work was a visual project (my institution had that option, but some might not). As I said, all of this might be different in another country.

Just to be clear, I am pursuing a PhD in Technology with a concentration in technology studies, which intertwines nicely with my undergraduate and graduate work in Women's and Gender Studies. In case you don't know, technology studies is an interdisciplinary field that researches the interactions, interrelationships, and interdependencies between any type of technology and society. Scholars will focus on a certain approach (e.g., one scholar might study the interrelationship between certain technologies and the environment, and how these relationships create changes in each other, thus causing a certain path of evolution for both the technologies and society).

I am currently ABD (All But Dissertation) which means I have completed all required coursework and candidacy exams for my actual research project. Technically, I will complete the final course this Tuesday evening, but I have already passed my candidacy and have been approved as a doctoral candidate. This means that I will start my actual proposal writing (part of the total dissertation) this summer. Some of it is already written for the candidacy. Of course, each institution has a different process for doctoral students, and the process evolves with changes in societies over time even within one institution.

Vocaloids such as Hatsune Miku are being researched at universities such as MIT and USC, and probably elsewhere (including my own institution, assuming my proposal is approved after I submit it during the next several months). There are many different approaches one could take to research the topic. For example, a musicologist could research the topic based on music theory and music therapy. A linguist could research it based on linguistic theories. An artist might want to study the visual art and animation, or perhaps the collaborative creative process behind the works themselves. The latter might also be of interest to a business researcher. Etc.

Alex Leavitt is a doctoral student at USC who is planning to do an ethnographic study of the Vocaloid community. Like me, he has already done some academic conference presentations based on his research approach. He has posted this publically on his personal web page and, of course, public presentations at academic conferences are a matter of record. Actually, his approach was going to be my original approach, so we sort of came up with the same ideas at about the same time without even collaborating. However, I changed my mind after some discussions about my interests with some of my committee members and my adviser.

My approach will still be quantitative, but not ethnographic. Both of us are focused on the Vocaloid community and Hatsune Miku, but my approach may be broader because it may encompass people who are not currently part of the community. In contrast, Alex is specifically studying various community members. If you are looking to categorize my research area, it would probably fall into the areas of media studies and digital communications. However, note that I do not approve of categories. I feel that existence is too complex for categorization of elements.

The remarkable thing about Hatsune Miku is that she has become a global phenomenon without ever being officially offered outside of her native Japan. She has done official concerts in America and Singapore, but her Vocaloid voice bank has not been sold outside of Japan aside from people in other countries importing it. Her English voice bank has been in development since early 2011 and is scheduled for release sometime in 2012. In addition, as far as landmark achievements, she wasn't the "first" in pretty much any area for a Vocaloid voice bank. She wasn't the first Vocaloid, nor the first Japanese Vocaloid. She wasn't the first to use the second version of the software, Vocaloid². She wasn't even the first Vocaloid voice bank from Crypton Future Media. The only areas where she was the first are: she was the first Japanese Vocaloid voice bank using Vocaloid², she was the first of Crypton's "Character Vocal Series" and thus she was the launch of that concept, she was and is the first Vocaloid voice bank to have music in the top ten music charts alongside human performers, and she was and is the first Vocaloid to achieve not just national but international acclaim, garnering many awards in various areas (and continues to do so today). Of these areas, the first and second are really the same, or at least they were combined (i.e., she was created to launch the "Character Vocal Series" and inaugurate the Vocaloid² software in Japan). These aren't really landmarks as much as simply business decisions. The last two are what is most important when considering how to approach a research topic such as Vocaloid technology.

Hatsune Miku's acceptance around the world raises many questions, particularly if you review the millions of comments offered for her works (as I have) via sites such as YouTube and NicoNicoDouga. Why has she been accepted so widely rather than some other Vocaloid? What elements about her have led to such a broad acceptance by some many different types of people from different languages, cultures, ages, etc.? What are the ramifications of such technologies? This type of technology is already being used in certain areas. For example, a few airports such as Manchester introduced virtual assistants during 2011 and people adapted to them very quickly. I doubt that anyone in many societies around world considers an automated help desk assistant to be particularly odd or unnatural today (although it may bother them in other ways such as frustration, wishing to vent at a human assistant, etc.).

Another way of looking at the questions Hatsune Miku (and Vocaloid, in general) raise is the oft-mentioned idea that travel broadens one's horizons. Likewise, of course, interacting via online forums, chats, and even emails broadens one's horizons. People collaborating via game modding communities have their horizons broadened, and the process for creating many mods is the same as the process for creating Vocaloid works, particularly promotional videos (PVs).

One might ask about the potential applications of such technology. For example, Corning patented "Gorilla Glass" back in the 1960s when they developed it, but it is the recent increase in demand for portable devices and touch screens of all kinds that has allowed them to finally offer its use in various applications. No one saw the potential of the telephone when it was developed, either.


I have tried to answer your question(s) but have also tried not to get too specific because I am not quite ready to do that yet (almost, but not quite yet!). I plan to post more openly this spring and summer as I get more deeply into the formal proposal.

I'm a bit confused as to what it is you're attempting, are you trying to import new armour pieces into skyrim that make you look like "Miku"? Or are you actually trying to create a new race and expand upon the original mod? Either way, if you intend to only do these anime (or whatever it is) characters it's not in my taste, sorry.

The original mod uses armor/clothing pieces and is not a new race. It was released prior to the CK, for one thing, but the approach also allows for better compatibility. Like everything, it's a choice.


It's not only the appearance, though. The intent is to offer the equipment so that the character can be played from the beginning and developed just like any other character. That's also one of the advantages of using clothing/armor rather than a race: all other elements remain constant. This means that the various equipment has to have recipe and tempering available, too, so that vanilla content can be properly converted for the character.

Vocaloid isn't anime. Vocaloid is singing synthesis. People could make the same type of mod for English Vocaloids such as Leon, Lola, or Sonika. Different aesthetic and language for the avatars, but same concept. However, the avatars are visuals for us. The actual Vocaloid software is about singing synthesis, similar to speech synthesis. Would you like to create bard characters and have them sing? Vocaloid can do that, of course. More importantly, Vocaloid can replace the various battle cries, lockpicking, alchemy, etc, and even the Voice powers, with voices appropriate for your specific character.

The vanilla Bethesda games are unplayable for me, as are many of the mod offerings, so it's okay that you have different preferences. I'm sure many people do not like the Space Core mod that Bethesda included as official DLC. Based on the popularity of detailed mods such as the various hair mods, there seems to be a great lack of choice offered by Bethesda. You can see that many people would like to play as Miku (or other Vocaloids) based on news report comments when the original mod was discovered back in January. The creative process is the same between the two communities, so it would greatly benefit Bethesda's community if more colaboration started to occur. Some of the results would surely be to your personal preference while others would not, of course. Same for me. This is an attempt to create community from a shared creative effort.

I am not an artist, as I said. I am doing the mechanics so that people have a choice to actually play as Hatsune Miku. The original mod really didn't have that option and was made with more of a view of simply goofing around.

Yes, I know of Hatsune Miku (sort of). I thought she's another virtual character voiced by a seiyuu (that will eventually leave the character).

Well, I won't press much further. I just think that the act of creating armor replacers by itself is not "scientific", many a costume replacer do not go beyond being released and enjoyed by hundreds of people. But scientists have done crazier stuff before in the name of science, so yeah... if your teachers approve of your method, then it's not really insane.

Your armor replacer will be better received if you publish it to the eastern market, but it goes without saying somebody must have already done that during the first week of Skyrim

The foundation of Hatsune Miku's voice bank was recorded by a seiyuu, but that only means that the phonemes of our language were recorded by a seiyuu (Saki Fujita, to be precise). The same thing is true for speech synthesis, but this is singing synthesis. It's very different from the process of voicing a character for an animation or game (such as Skyrim, for example). Some people think that Saki Fujita recorded Miku's songs and her voice was then computer processed, but that isn't true at all.

Just fyi, I only said that this mod is related to my dissertation topic (i.e., it's a Vocaloid Hatsune Miku mod and my topic is focused on Hatsune Miku). My dissertation isn't about a clothing/armor replacer. The Vocaloid and game modding communities might be part of my research because there is a great deal of overlap between the two, but it's very likely that people who are not currently part of either community will be part of my study.

Believe it or not, there are still researchers who seem to think poorly of qualitative research and think that any "scientific" research must be quantitative despite the many failures of quantitative research and the fact of modern understanding of our existence via theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, chaos theory, etc. In fact, many people don't know that Einstein did not want to accept some of the consequences of his own theories because he was a determinist. He and Niels Bohr had many debates about certain consequences because Bohr was in the other camp who accepted the consequences. For example, Einstein did not want to accept the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and he and Bohr had many debates about it. Of course, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle was eventually accepted along with other consequences. However, even today, many people, including some researchers, like to cling to the idea of a "fundamental reality" even though there is no such thing, and cannot be.

In any case, there are many forms of media studies research. For example, music therapy is now a well accepted field. So is bibliotherapy. My research is similar to these types of fields and could be considered a form of media studies. Of course, it really depends on one's perspective. One scholar would look at it one way based on prior expertise, and another would look at it differently based on different expertise.

Regarding markets, Miku is a global success. She isn't necessarily more popular in East Asian countries than elsewhere. You can see this by checking comments on her works or the location of various fan groups and their members. That's why her concerts have been streamed live around the world, including the fall 2011 video release of her August concert. It's also why major companies like Toyota and Google have adopted her as a spokesperson, and why Billboard magazine listed her as an artist to watch during 2011. In general, Vocaloids are not a Japanese product and there are Vocaloids from various cultures and languages, including English (and of course Miku's English voice bank is due out later this year).

The same type of thing happens when human stars become internationally famous, so I don't think it's too surprising. Bethesda is one of the relatively few Western game companies that has managed to become successful in East Asian markets, particularly Japan. They didn't decide to restrict their games to the Western markets because they felt there are people in other markets who like their products. It's the same type of thing with Miku, or with game modding, for that matter. Sharing and collaboration to meet diverse preferences, right?

As I said, I'll post more details when I am ready.

I learned about "Miku" like 2 days before i replied to your comment in YouTube, it was some sort of Funny video animation DBZ where Goku mentioned she got kidnapped or something, then saw your video on youtube and i was like "where have i seen this character?", so basically youre trying to mix TES with Miku to see the reaction and success of TES in Japan or the other way arround? i dont know much about anime, the only 3 anime i Really Really liked were 2 of them are "Clamp" Sailor Moon and Candy Candy and DBZ, anyway good luck!

Thanks for the encouragement!

A brief summary of my research which I will put in the description when I release the mod is that it will be a qualitative study using a grounded theory approach and content anolysis methodology. You can look up grounded theory to see how it differs from other approaches, but basically such a study does not start with a particular theoretical concept that it is attempting to support or undermine. That's the traditional research model, especially in quantitative studies, but grounded theory arose because of the many failings of quantitative research in real life contexts. Grounded theory collects data and forms a possible theory based on the actual data that might offer an explanation of the observed phenomenon/phenomena. A more typical approach, especially quantitative, would gather data based on a particular theoretical approach. Content anolysis is actually a type of grounded theory where data are anolyzed in order to detect trends, commonalities, etc, and suggest possible reasons for these observations. Typically, content anolysis has been applied to text data because such media are easier to anolyze than audio or visual data (e.g., emails, forum posts, letters, etc.). However, I plan to use audio-visual data for my study and anolyze the content, specifically crowd reactions to Hatsune Miku and individual responses during interviews. As I said, I will be working on the proposal in the next few months, so details may change as it develops. I can't really say much else because the details have not been worked out yet.

Candy Candy is one of the great classics of shoujo storytelling, but it's almost unknown in the English market. Sailor Moon is a landmark, of course, although it took years of promotion by myself and others to get it recognized in the English market. When you say "Clamp" I assume you mean one of the many works by CLAMP, the four woman team of creative artists behind works such as X, RG Veda, Magic Knight Rayearth, Chobits, and many many others? I'm not sure which one of their works you saw, though. CLAMP is internationally famous now, and they are my favorite artists, but again it took years of promotion by myself and others to get people in the English market to notice them. Of course, like most Japanese artists, they are really mangaka (manga creators) but they are somewhat unusual in that they have also been strongly involved with many anime adaptations of their works (whereas many mangaka do not necessarily get involved with the anime adaptations). CLAMP did the artwork for a Hatsune Miku song and PV a couple years ago. It's a gothic, dark sort of work, but that's not unusual for them. They teamed up with a game music composer to do it.

By the way, everyone, one player has already done what I said was very possible (i.e., putting Miku or another Vocaloid character into Skyrim as a full fledged bard). The following video link shows what can be done by a player, so imagine what a company might do if they supported this approach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnJYj8LoMd0

Hehe i also remember Magic Knight Raye Earth and Ranma 1/2, i think Candy Candy was aired in 1078 or 1979 in Mexico, i was not born when it first aired but i remember seeing it when i was like 8 or maybe10, thats just my favorite anime along DBZ, i also remember watching Sailor Moon when i was like 13-14 was somewhat a big hit in Mexico, Ranma and Magic Knights Raye Earth along with Saint Seiya and "Dragon Quest" were aired in 1995 i think, Dragon Ball was also aired at that time (not dbz).

Oh i had the idea that clamp was some sort of anime only for girls, which i happend to like alot... most would laugh that i watched anime for girls hahaha i never mind, some anime girls were just way too cute, specially Candy... she was really sweet and cute i couldnt stop watching the series, i was in loved with her when i was like 13 and i think she shaped my view of what i wanted from a girl (physically and emocionally) hehe, i dont know much about Anime anymore i stopped watching all of them when i turned 15 and started getting into the Gothic Subculture, i now know i also dont watch anime anymore (except for Candy Candy which i still hold songs, pictures and ringtones in my cell hahaha) but i firmly think that everyone is free to mod and express their creativity, anyway sorry to get carried away from the main thread, ill follow closely... you got my curiosity, not for Miku (which i now know its not anime) but for the theoretical study you are claim to be doing, i want to know whats all about hehe.

Quick news update:
Now that my courses are finally over, I hope to get this mod released very soon (before I get swamped with doing my remaining fellowship work and the work on the formal proposal, plus academic conferences for the next year). I'm just finishing the ReadMe template fields as I write this (ugh... ReadMes are not my fave thing, but they're important!). I hope to release it by the end of the weekend if all goes well.

Oh, by the way, there's one more piece of news for everyone. A Japanese modder just posted a new Hatsune Miku mod on TES Nexus. The mod features assets that change the player's character into the Hatsune Miku - Append outfit, complete with the USB connection cord. It's very similar to the original mod that I am extending, but Append is one of the thousands of different portrayals of Miku so the look is different (although this portrayal was used for an official software add-on, of course). Now players can have their characters cosplay as Miku but with more versions!

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=16036

There's also a "big briast" version included for people who like that type, but the author's personal web site mentions it as more of a joke because it's the complete opposite of Miku's extremely petite build (this didn't come out too well in the automated translation offered on Nexus, unfortunately).



Yes, CLAMP is known for shoujo works and are generally considered shoujo mangaka. That doesn't really matter, though, because things are not so restricted. All it really means is the business decision of what market segment to target. Many guys follow shoujo works and many girls follow shounen works in Japan (e.g., there are plenty of female fans of stuff like Dragon Ball and Gundam but they are shounen works, and there are plenty of male fans of stuff like Mask of Glass and, of course, Candy Candy even though they are shoujo works). However, CLAMP has also been quite successful making works targeted for a male audience such as Miyuki-chan in Wonderland and Chobits. There are other very successful female artists with similar accomplishments (e.g., Rumiko Takahashi [Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura] and Peach Pit [DearS, Rozen Maiden]).

Actually, some Japanese artists have pointed out that the genres have become very blurred over the past two decades even though businesses continue to want to target specific markets and categorize people. This often backfires because people do not really fit into categories. Reality is far more complex. One of the young women at my institution is doing her master's capstone project on Ghost In The Shell because she really likes that story even though it is targeted for a male audience. Likewise, when Sony signed Supercell to a contract after Ryo (the group's composer) became a big hit with the song "Melt" that he wrote for Hatsune Miku, the thought that the preorders for the first album would be 10% female, but the actual preorders turned out to be 45% female.

This type of mistake is very expensive! This is one big reason why consumer generated media like Vocaloid music and game mods have become so successful. Companies do not need to rely on questionable market projections and predictions. They can simply empower users to create and rate the content, and then license what is actually shown to be most successful. There are other factors, of course, including cultural factors. For example, generally speaking, Japanese and other East Asian businesses tend to be a bit more risk-averse than their Western counterparts. Still, any business only survives if it is profitable, so it makes a lot of sense to allow the market to dictate what is desired rather than attempting to guess. Bethesda does something similar, of course.

Anyway, one way or the other, Hatsune Miku is the topic of my dissertation research. That's already been approved, as well as the fact of it being a qualitative study. Now it's just a matter of writing up the proposal to cover all the necessary details and the nitty-gritty required elements. There are many ways to do such a study, so it just depends on exactly what gets approved for the final proposal. I already know what I am proposing, but I might be asked to change certain elements for various reasons. The key reason for focusing on Miku is because she has managed to appeal to people all around the world without being "localized" somehow. Her success raises many questions, as I said, so I hope to start shedding some light on them.

Quick news update:

I've added the Light Armor equipment for Miku's outfits so that people can play her as a Light Armor character, too, if desired.

I have also finished the ReadMe (I think ... it's fairly extensive, as you can see from the details of the WIP, plus I have to be careful about the license wording).

It's been a long time since I posted a mod publically, so I hope to get this rolled out either tonight or tomorrow as long as I don't have any hiccups with TES Nexus.

commented on your Leek wielding skills there Ai

If you ever get bored or want to You should make Rin with oranges (based off of throwing weapons mod) and Len with banana's (based off of daggers) and a Rodarolla mount I like the Mirror twins

Update:

FINALLY!

I finally got it ready for public use. I had some issues with the Nexus BBCode. Too bad BBCode doesn't just go away so everyone uses standard HTML. I have issues on the Bethesda forums, too, and different forums use somewhat different BBCode. (sigh)

But anyway, I just posted the http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1370784-relz-vocaloid-hatsune-miku/, so have fun!





Well, I never really play melee characters, so doing the testing and demo for the swords was not my normal playstyle.

Bored? Not a chance. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, I am not an artist (or scripter, sound designer, etc.). I'd love to work with some people who have those skills, though, as my skills are really in anolyzing works rather than creating them. Vocaloids have a lot of potential for game modders, so I really hope the communities can start working together.

I still have to order Miku's Japanese software packages, too. The 2012 concert discs were recently announced for August (very fast release!).