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Keef’s IMVU > Developing Tutorials > IMVUs Creator Education Center

Develop

A Shortcut Guide
to IMVU's Creator Education Center

 

IMVU has some great tutorials and source materials but they are usually really hard to find without already knowing what it is that you are looking for.

This is my attempt at an organized listing of IMVU’s official tutorials as well as their source files, and for those subjects that aren’t self explanatory, a quick description of what information is and isn’t covered in them.

Hope it helps you navigate IMVU’s Education Center a bit better and maybe even show you some hidden gems you have missed.

Source Files

PSD Files

Texture Downloads A guide where to find IMVU's texture maps
(Ill save ya reading it, look on their product pages) ;)

I have links to IMVU’s skin zips listed on my Skinner Resource page.

JPG Files

Old Texture Link This one isn’t in the new CC center but its a must have link.

3D Studio Files

Chair Couch Bar Window Examples with furniture nodes in place and handy for scale reference. The Couch and the Chair also have the avatar seating nodes in place.

Example 3d room Basic room starter file with functional furniture skeleton. Includes furniture floor, wall, and ceiling nodes, one camera, one omni light, 2 avatars with all needed seat nodes, was well as some furniture items for scale and fitting needs. (You can use the same source file for locked rooms, just delete all the furniture nodes.)
Room Nodes

Rigged Avitar Advanced Avitar Animations, Simple Poses
Female Idle Standing Pose MASTER Basic Anmations, Detailed Poses, Face Morphs
Male Idle Standing Pose MASTER Basic Animations, Detailed Poses, Face Morphs

Female Weighting Pose MASTER Accessories, Clothing, Hair
Male Weighting Pose MASTER Accessories, Clothing, Hair

Head Female Female Heads
Head Male Male Heads

 

Marketing and Economy

Planning Product Line Finding your niche.
Make Catalog Snapshots Design concepts for Icon Making.
Create Your Own Ads Design Ideas for your product pages.
What are Shoutouts?
Gift Wrap
How to Hide Product
Creating IMVU Videos

Promotional Bundles The Bundles IMVU markets and promotes.

Economy Introduction Credits Promos and Tokens.

 

Getting Started

What is a Creator?
What Software to Use?
Is Developing Hard?
Getting Started Intro
What is Deriving

Virtual Goods Policy What is and what isn’t allowed to be on IMVU.

How to Create Stickers Explanation of what stickers are how they work and how to submit them. Does not actually explain how to create them.

How to Make Basic Derived Products

Intro to Previewer Very basic introduction to the Previewer.

(Ther following four tutorials are all basically the same info just using different product types as the examples)

Create an Accessory a basic how to derive from a accesory product , apply your new texture and submit.
Getting Started Tshirts a basic how to derive from a shirt product , apply your new texture and submit.
Create Furniture a basic how to derive from a furiture product , apply your new texture and submit.
Getting Started Rooms a basic how to derive from a room product , apply your new texture and submit.

 

Previewer Details

Materials TAB Where the textures are.
Geometry TAB Where the meshes are.
Previewer - Actions tab Were you add and edit animations and effects.
Special TAB Where the room settings and body parts used are.
CFL TAB & Save Lists the contents of your CFL.

Submitting Introduction How to submit an item once you created it in the Previewer.
Re-Submitting How to submit an edit to an existing product and clearing your cache.

Previewer: Mesh Scale This only works for heads. How to change the size of a head.
Previewer: Idle Anims (meshers only) Naming convention for Idle animations. Non triggered animations that run continually .

 

Texture Making

2D Application Discuss An overview of texturing applications that can be used for texture creation.

Intro to Textures A basic overview on what textures are for IMVU products.
Opacity Maps A basic explanation of how opacity maps work.
Creating Fabric Textures A basic example on making drapery textures.
Creating Highlights A cool and easy trick to add highlights to textures. Some 3D studio stuff mixed in here too, ignore that part if you are just texturing.

Particle Effects How the whole particle thing works. Warning particles are still in ALPHA.

 

Mesh Making (3D Studio Max)

Meshing Basics

3D Applications

Basics of Good Design An overview on Poly counts texture and uv mapping choices, as well as a bit on Advertising Shots.
From Concept to Catalog A discussion on going from a rough sketched idea to final product.

Intro to Mesh Building A basic overview on the process of meshing, texturing, uv mapping, weighting and exporting a mesh.

Intro to Skeletons Overview of the bone structure all products are built on.

Mapping Materials Does not cover UV mapping but explains 3D studios Material editor.
Smoothing groups Explains 3D Studios Smoothing Groups settings needed for IMVU.

Vertex Paint in Max How to pre tint your meshes in 3D Studio.

Weight a Mesh (Skin) A basic overview on the skin modifiers settings. Does not explain how to actually weight a mesh.
Weighting in Physique Overview on using Physique.

Intro to Exporting Basic overview on exporting you mesh from 3D Studio and what the various Cal3D file types are.

Export Skeleton .XSF A mesh's bone structure information.
Export Mesh .XMF A mesh's 3D structural information.
Exporting Materials .XRF A mesh's texture settigs information.
Export Animations .XAF A skeleton’s animation information.
Exporting Morph - .xpf A mesh's morph animation information.


Meshing Furniture and Rooms

Intro to Furniture Basic overview on furniture making in 3D Studio. The Furniture Source files are found here.

Furniture ProductionPath A down and dirty workflow of furniture making. Good as a checklist guide if you already know the basics.

Seat Naming Convention how to label your seat nodes in 3D studio.

Room Nodes Basic anatomy of a room's node bone structure.
Furniture Nodes Basic anatomy of furnture's bone structure.
Catcher & Pitcher Nodes
Handle Nodes Further expiation of the handle node, the thing that tells he client where to render the seat’s clickable icon.

Bone Parenting How to parent your nodes.

Working with the Camera How to set up the camera for your room mesh.

See-Through Nodes How to make mesh parts that vanish as the camera moves to give clear views .

Texture Small Building While it seems this should be in the texturing category this actually covers 3D studio meshing technique to add life to your mesh with a focus on using low poly meshing, using texturing for your details instead of polygons.
Super Furniture Product An Overview on how to design an advanced furniture item that uses many of the features furniture can have, including custom avatar animations, particles and texture animations.
Creating the Crossroads An Overview of the design process of creating a room.

 

Meshing Avatars Clothing and Accessories

Avatar Body Parts Intro Overview on the body parts that make up the clothing of the IMVU avatar, including Previewer settings.

Avatar Materials Overview on avatar material assignments.

Avatar Composite Skin How to make those skin tight composite meshes.

Avatar Hair Basic information and tips on making hair in 3D studio, as well as how to apply your hair mesh in the Previewer. Does not cover actual mesh construction.

Avatar Heads Basic overview on making custom avatar heads.

Weighting Female Heads Physique assignments for a Female head.
Weighting Male Heads Physique assignments for a Male head.
Previewer: Mesh Scale How to change the size of a head in the Previewer.

Accessories Intro How to weight your meshes as accessorys

Pets Putting pets here because they are worn as accessories. Basic deign concepts to use when creating pets.

 

Animations (3D Studio Max)

Intro to Animation Overview of the types of animations on IMVU.

Previewer: Idle Anims The naming convention for Idle animations. Non triggered animations that run continually.

Animating in 3DS MAX How to make Keyframe Animations.
Animation Looping
Animating Nodes How to set up animation nodes for simple mesh animations and export them. Does not actually explain the animation process.

Avatar Animations

Avatar Animation Files An overview on what the various avatar source models can do. This is also where the animation source files are.

Avatar Bone Hierarchy *sings* The hip bones connected to the leg bone!

Avatar Actions An explanation of the various avatar animation types on IMVU.

Avatar Skeletal Anims A basic overview on creating avatar animations in 3D Studio.

Rigged Avatar How to use the Rigged Avatar for making poses or animations.

Locking Pos Ori How to freeze a part of the avatar when making an animation.

Export Avatar Animation how to export an avatar animation.

Avatar Morph Animations How to do Face Animations.

Room and Furniture Animations

Furniture Room Animation Overview of the types of animations one can have in a room (also applies to furn too)

Av Anims > Furni & Rooms Overview on adding avatar animations to room and furniture meshes.

Avatar Statue How to make a statue of your pose for fitting its node to your furniture or room mesh.

Prop Action How to sync a avatar animation with a mesh animation.

Furniture Morph Anims Basic guide on how to apply and use morph animations on a mesh.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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