I Learned How People Are Making Bank With MMD

If it sounds like a drug, It’s because it should be considered one

Deidara & Sasori, Akatsuki members in Naruto — Image by Author in MMD

Looking for a super niche corner of the internet with fans that have some pocket money to play with? Then MMD might be the side hustle you didn’t know you wanted. It can even be done completely faceless, and it’s a topic I haven’t seen posted about here on Medium.

I’ve been using a Japanese animation program called MikuMikuDance (MMD) since I seen Minato Uzamaki and Kakashi Hatake dancing around to Womanizer, by Britney Spears in 2015. I told my brother it’d be funny to see the Akatsuki members dance to music, but at the time barely any videos existed. I determined I’d need to create it myself, and the quest began.

First, I started my journey trying to learn what [MMD] even meant. I found a blog called LearnMMD and it was amazing. I took what I could learn and found some communities that focused on my favourite anime to get models to start with on DeviantArt. I ended up with a channel that has about 160 video animations. I was hooked, I couldn’t stop hyper-focusing on projects every weekend.

Back then everything I wanted to learn about 3D modeling was all there for me to grab, in English and there weren’t any paywalls to be had. There was even had a whole code called Keep the Faith to live by that kept this freeware enjoyable to use as a community: No commercial use and credit where you downloaded materials.

Simple enough, right? Well, not for North America, like usual. But at the same time, I’m fascinated by this untapped model of business.

MMD when first opened, it looks spooky to see it so blank

Since the programmers intended MMD to be used with a creative commons license, I’ll put in a disclaimer that I don’t endorse this model of business. It goes against the terms of use. Still, it doesn’t stop the market from existing, and it didn’t…