- Why Mii?
- Making a Mii
- Navigating Mii Plaza
- Managing Miis
- Editing Miis Outside the Wii
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Editing Miis Outside the Wii
Although the Wii's tools for managing Miis are handy, it's not surprising that several Mii editors have cropped up, both for the PC and for the Web. Why would you want to edit your Mii on the Web or on a home computer? The answer lies in the fact that these editors usually offer features that are not available on the Wii itself, but more important, these editors allow you to edit Miis that you didn't create yourself. This capability is a powerful one, because the Wii prevents you from touching any Mii that you didn't personally create.
Because getting your Miis off the Wii and onto your PC can be a difficult, cumbersome process that may require extra equipment, that method of editing Miis is discussed in Chapter 10. That said, the actual Mii-editing software is easy to use and readily available for both Web-based players and Windows software. In this section, I discuss both types of software.
Web-based editors
Several Web-based editors are available as I write this book; it's probably safe to assume that many more are in the works. By the time you read this chapter, a dozen new programs may be available, but most of them will probably work in similar ways.
The two most popular editors are Mii Editor and Wii-volution. Both of these editors are functional and fun to play around with.
Mii Editor
Mii Editor (www.miieditor.com), shown in Figure 4.30, is a full online editor. Still in beta form, it looks and functions exactly like the Mii Editor on the Wii. The only difference is that the online editor lets you import and export Mii files.
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Figure 4.30 The Web-based Mii Editor in action.
To save or load Mii files, click the File button to go to the Files screen (Figure 4.31). Here, you can save and load your creations for later transfer to a Wii Remote and ultimately to a foreign Wii.
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Figure 4.31 The Files screen in Mii Editor.
Mii Editor gives you control of all Mii properties, and you can load and save all Mii binary files for modification. As a bonus, you can export your Mii to a JPEG file for use as an avatar somewhere else.
One key difference between the Wii's built-in editor and the Web-based Mii Editor is the Randomize feature, which you access via a small die in the top-right corner of the Mii display window. If you click that die, a random set of facial features appears for the Mii under construction. Figure 4.32 shows just how bizarre a random Mii generation can be. That said, however, random generation can create interesting Miis.
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Figure 4.32 The Randomize feature is interesting, to say the least.
Wii-volution
The Wii-volution editor (Figure 4.33) is available at www.wii-volution.com/create-a-mii.html. It differs from the Web-based Mii Editor in that it's a close copy of what's available on the Wii. In other words, you can't create Miis in this editor and then move them to your Wii, and you can't do anything in this editor that you can't do in the Wii Editor. Wii-volution is simply a copycat editor that lets people experiment with the editing tools on the Wii.
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Figure 4.33 Wii-volution is a straight-up copy of the built-in Mii Editor on the Wii.
The only real exception is that the graphics in this editor are unique and more 3D than the Wii's built-in graphics. Still, Wii-volution is a fun little editor you can use to experiment when you're bored at work and don't have your Wii handy.
PC-based editors
Two popular PC-based editors are available at this writing. (Sorry, Macintosh fans; nothing's available for the Mac yet.) Wii - M!! Editor and AJ's Mii Editor are nongraphical, dialog-box-based programs, which means that you don't get to see your Mii being built—just the numerical parameters of the various shapes and colors. Still, these editors have some real power; if you're serious about editing Miis, you probably should gravitate to these programs.
Wii - M!! Editor
Currently up to version 1.2.1, Wii - M!! Editor (Figure 4.34) is the most powerful Mii editor available. The software (created by Jamie Magers in Visual Basic) breaks every aspect of a Mii's appearance into exact numeric values, enabling you to adjust the details of a Mii as finely as possible. You can adjust everything about the eyebrows, for example, from type, size, and color to rotation to vertical and horizontal positions. Wii - M!! Editor is a great piece of software for those who love minute detail.
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Figure 4.34 Wii - M!! Editor allows you to manage your Miis down to the last digit.
AJ's Mii Editor
AJ's Mii Editor (Figure 4.35) is another dialog-box-based editor that displays no graphics but allows you to alter a Mii in extreme ways. The software takes the physical features of your Mii to the far extremes of what's possible, letting you create some very interesting Miis. The one caveat is that you must have Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework installed on your computer before you can run the software.
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Figure 4.35 AJ's Mii Editor is a great editor, but you must have Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework to make it work on your PC.
AJ's Mii Editor was created by someone who prefers to be known only as AJ187. Despite his or her anonymity, the creator updates the software regularly with bug fixes and minor new features.