Avatar Body Parts

Contents

Creating Clothing for Avatars

Making clothing products for avatars in IMVU is rather unique. Instead of creating just a shirt or pair of pants that cover an underlying avatar body, you are actually making something that will replace one or more pieces of the avatar. These pieces are called Body Parts. Therefore, when creating mesh clothing for avatars in IMVU you are creating the parts of the avatar body that go with the clothing product including the avatar’s skin if it is revealed by the clothing. Examples of this would be a short sleeve shirt and bare arms or a dress and bare legs. Because of this you are free to create the look of the body type that is underlying the clothing. Many creators who make clothing actually make XXS, XS, S M, L, XL, XXL size versions of there clothing products to suit different avatar body looks.

The only exceptions to this approach are Avatar Attachments and Layerable Products. Avatar Attachments are a completely different type of product which has its own skeleton and are designed to be “attached” to any one of the avatar’s bones. Layerable Products are an advanced approach to creating clothing and other products such as hair which can be worn at the same time as the body part products described above without replacing them.

Body Parts

Each IMVU avatar has 10 base body parts, and each one has a corresponding “body part ID” that goes from 0 through 9.

When you create products that modify the way the avatar looks, it is necessary to specify which body part ID or IDs the product will replace. An IMVU avatar cannot wear two products with the same body part ID. For example, if an avatar is wearing a shirt product with body part ID 2 (the Upper Body) and then puts on a jacket product with body part ID 2, the shirt product will disappear and be replaced by the jacket.

The base body part IDs correspond to the following body parts:

0 – Head

1 – Hair

2 – Upper Body

3 – Right Hand

4 – Left Hand

5 – Abdomen and Hips

6 – Left Leg

7 – Right Leg

8 – Left Foot

9 – Right Foot

Because of the limitation the 10 base body part IDs, there is a standardized list of IDs created by the creator community to help prevent the issue of products unexpectedly disappearing.

Extended body part IDs standardization reference guide:

11 = Left earlobe products
12 = Right earlobe products
13 = Both earlobe products
14 = Forehead products (tiara, ring of flowers, hair clip)
15 = Top of head products (hats) w/o hair
16 = Hair extensions
17 to 19 = More head attachments (bows, pins, etc. )
20 = Left shoulder products (shoulder armor, armbands)
21 = Right shoulder products
22 = Both shoulder products
23 = Left hand non-held products (gloves)
24 = Right hand non-held products
25 = Both hand non-held products
26 = Left hand held products (sword, ball, etc.)
27 = Right hand held products
28 = Both hands, held-held products
29 = Left pinky finger
30 = Left ring finger
31 = Left middling finger
32-39 = Other rings
40-49 = Unused
50-59 = Skirts, belts, bows, etc
60-69 = Leg decorations, Knee Pads, Garters etc
70-79 = Unused
80-89 = Heels, Hoves, Anklets
90-94 = Unused Neck Stuff
95- Choker necklaces
96 = Short necklaces
97 = Medium length necklaces
98 = Longer necklaces (cleavage)
90-99 = Unused

ID’s over 100 should follow the same standard. For example IDs 115, 215, 315, .. should use the same definition as ID 15.

How to Access the Body Part ID Overrides

STEP 1: Go to the right side-panel and select Info .

STEP 2: Click three dots next to body parts.

STEP 3: Click Override Body Parts.

STEP 4: The Override Body Parts pop-up will appear.

To override a body part, simply tick the check box beside its corresponding ID. To remove the override, just untick the same box.

Click the Preview button on the upper-right to see the changes.

Remember that you can override as many body parts as you need in the same product. This is useful in resolving visual issues such as clipping. However, be careful as overriding too many body part IDs can result in your product conflicting with other items the avatar may be wearing.