Guide

First start

1. Download the zip from the latest release on GitHub and extract it anywhere.
2. Run UmaStudio.exe. It opens its own window.
3. The first start reads the game's file list, which takes a few seconds. A progress bar shows while it loads.

UmaStudio finds the game through Steam by itself. If it says Game files not found, start the game once so it downloads its data. UmaStudio keeps checking and continues on its own.

Characters

Click Choose an Uma at the top left and pick a character. Type to search by name. The menu next to her name switches the outfit: her own outfits first, then the shared ones (uniforms, tracksuits and so on).

The first time you open a character she is converted from the game files. After that she loads from the cache.

The picker has three tabs. Umas are the main characters. Chibi has their small versions: they pose from the Chibi motions and their faces use the game's chibi expressions. Background Umas are the 800+ characters from races and events, coloured the way the game colours them.

Poses

The list on the left. Pick a category at the top:

Her poses

The loaded character's own motions.

Everyday

Standing, sitting, phones, food, reactions and lots more.

Characters

Motions made for one specific character.

Victory, Cut-ins

Race wins and special scenes.

Dance

Live concert choreography.

Home, Training, Story

Motions from those parts of the game.

Search in plain English: arms crossed, waving, phone. Mirror also lists the flipped versions. Similar poses are grouped, click a group to open it.

A pose with several parts shows buttons for them: Start, Loop, End, Still, and sometimes reactions or cut-in shots. The timeline under the view plays, pauses and scrubs. Wherever you pause is your pose. The speed menu goes from 0.25× to 2×.

Face

On the Face tab:

Expression

Neutral, smile, happy, laugh, wink, surprised, angry, sad, smug, shy, troubled, eyes closed. More expressions lists every one in the game.

Look at camera

Eyes or Eyes and head. Her eyes stay within what her face allows, the head turns up to 30° from the pose.

Face parts

Eyebrows, eyes and mouth one by one, the iris style, and how strong the eye shine is.

Pose by hand

On the Pose tab, turn on Show joints. Click a joint in the view and drag its rings to turn it. Finger joints adds the fingers. Changes sit on top of the motion that is playing, so they stay when you play, record a video or export.

Reset joint, Reset all

Back to what the motion does.

Ctrl+Z

Undo the last change.

Saved poses

Name and save your changes, load them later on top of any motion.

Props

On the Props tab, add one of three kinds:

Game prop

Opens the game's hand props. Most come with their own grip, so her fingers close around them (Close her hand around it).

Picture card

Your picture as a flat card.

Picture box

Your picture on every side of a box, as wide as her hands are apart.

Select a prop in the list or click it in the view. Then:

Hold in

Right hand, left hand, both hands, head, chest or floor.

Picture

Put your picture on a game prop. Every side puts the whole picture on each side, Like texture wraps it the way the prop's own texture does. The ✕ goes back to the prop's own look.

Turn picture 90°

For pictures that come out sideways.

Size

Scales the prop. Cards have a height, boxes a width, height and depth.

Toon shading

Shades the prop like the characters. Turn it off for a flat look.

Drag the handles in the view to place it. Move, Rotate and Stretch switch the handles (W E R), Reset puts it back. Delete removes the selected prop, Esc lets go of it.

Your pictures

Drop a picture anywhere on the window, or paste one with Ctrl+V. With a prop selected it goes on that prop, otherwise it becomes a card she holds.

Pictures are kept in Pictures\UmaStudio\images. Open folder in the picture picker takes you there. PNG, JPG, WebP and GIF work.

Backgrounds

On the Render tab under Background: Transparent, White, Green, any Color, or a Picture.

Picture opens the game's story backgrounds (wide and vertical) or your own pictures. Zoom, Left / right, Up / down and Blur fit it to the frame.

Camera

Full body, Upper body and Close-up above the view frame her. Left drag turns the camera, right drag moves it, the wheel zooms.

Follow keeps the camera on her body, chest or head while she moves, keeping its angle and distance. Frame guide shows what ends up in the saved file. Lens angle on the Render tab goes from a long lens to a wide one, she stays the same size.

Light and style

On the Look tab:

Light

Direction and height, or Follows the camera.

Shadow size

How much of her is in toon shadow.

Brightness, Rim light

Overall brightness and the light edge around her.

Hair & cloth physics

The game's own spring physics for hair, ears, tail and clothes.

Outlines

On or off, and how thick.

Saving a picture

On the Render tab under Picture, pick a size: Thumbnail (1280×720), 1080p, 4K, Square (2048×2048), Vertical (1080×1920), or Custom for your own width and height. Then Save PNG.

Smoother edges

Renders bigger and scales down, for cleaner lines.

Crop to the character

Cuts the empty space around her. Only with a transparent background.

Recording a video

Under Video, pick the length (Full pose, 3, 5 or 10 seconds), a format and 30 or 60 fps, then Record video.

MP4

Plays everywhere. Uses your background, black if it is transparent.

WebM

Keeps transparency, for OBS and browsers.

MOV

ProRes 4444 with transparency, for Premiere, DaVinci Resolve and After Effects.

GIF

Up to 720 px and 30 fps, transparent if the background is.

PNG frames

Every frame as a numbered PNG in its own folder, with transparency. Needs no ffmpeg.

Every frame is posed and rendered on its own, physics included, so the video is smooth no matter how fast your PC is.

Video needs ffmpeg. Put ffmpeg.exe next to UmaStudio.exe, or have it on PATH.

Export for Blender

On the Render tab under Model, Export for Blender (.glb) saves her mesh, skeleton and textures and her props as one file. With With the motion on, everything that moves (the motion, face, physics, props and your joint changes) is baked into one animation.

In Blender: File, Import, glTF 2.0. The materials are plain textures; the toon look is UmaStudio's own.

Where files go

Saved PNGs and videos

Pictures\UmaStudio\renders (Open saved files on the Render tab)

Your pictures

Pictures\UmaStudio\images

Converted characters

Pictures\UmaStudio\viewer-cache. Safe to delete, it is rebuilt when needed.

File list and log

%LOCALAPPDATA%\UmaStudio

Controls

Left drag

Turn the camera

Right drag

Move the camera

Wheel

Zoom

Space

Play / pause

W E R

Move, rotate, stretch the selected prop

Delete

Remove the selected prop

Esc

Let go of the prop, close a picker