IMVU Studio is our next generation creator tool, currently in development. It serves as the foundation for new features and optimizations on IMVU Desktop and Mobile, allowing Creators to take their products to a whole new level.
What You’ll Learn
In this session we’ll show you two amazing IMVU Studio effects, glow and iridescence. We’ll also get into some other updates including Material Highlighter, Particle Debug lines, Hiding Actor Labels, and Material ID visibility. In addition, we’ve got some cool tools for beginner Creators.
- Part 1: @TaunTaunTonic will demonstrate our new Glow and Iridescence features
- Part 2: Demos of additional updates: Material Highlighter, Particle Debug lines, Hiding Actor Labels, and Material ID visibility
- Part 3: Two new features to help beginning Creators get up to speed more quickly
- Part 4: @TaunTaunTonic and IMVU’s Digital Artist, @Drosselmeyer, will answer questions from Creators attending the Learning Session.
Watch Now!
Questions & Answers
(Verbal answers are recorded in the video)
Q: I used White toned Shininess with Plastic Wrap and added Transparency. Is that still going to work?
A: Yes. You can use shininess with transparency, but you may have to turn on ‘Prevent Reflection’ in the ‘Transparency’ ‘Advanced’ section if you have areas that you want completely transparent.
Q: Does glow work with self illumination maps?
A: Yes, but self-illumination is actually a bit misleading. What it really does is have the Diffuse map render at 100% and not affected by lights and fog. It is really “fullbright”
Q: When I save screenshots in IMVU Studio, I cant find the image file
A: Screenshots will be in your ‘IMVU Studio Projects’ folder under the directory of your CID (Creator ID) and in a folder call ‘snapshots.’
Q: Are Glow and Iridescence performance heavy?
A: No. Our engineering team working on the engine made sure to add only performant features.
Q: Can you create an animated video for a texture map?
A: We do not support video for mapping, but you can create textures that use “flip book” animations. A single texture with multiple “cells” that will get cycled through.
Q: Do Emissions cause other separate products to reflect back light with Shininess? Do they conflict with the transparency of other products?
A: If I understand the question, no. It does not cause other products to reflect back light. It is just a post-process effect that is more like “glow. The only conflict we are aware of is particles. We are working on a fix for this.
Q: Are these effects going to show on the IMVU Classic Client? Or will it only work via Desktop/Mobile ?
A: These effects will not be visible in Classic Client.
Q: Will Glow show on other products?
A: Glow is only going show on the material that it is applied too.
Q: Does the IMVU Studio particle system show on Classic Client?
A: The particle system in Studio is visible on all of the newer platforms, but it is not on Classic Client. It is a completely new particle system.
Q: I see the diffuse and shine texture sizes are different sizes. That works with no problem I take it?
A: Yes! This is completely okay on Studio, and can be used to optimize your texture usage!
Q: Will we be able to adjust the transparency also?
A: Yes, Emission works with opacity and all Transparency Modes.
Q: What is the diffuse texture exactly?
A: This is the main color texture map. It acts as the color map. Also sometimes referred to as “color” or “albedo.”
Q: When creating via IMVU Studio, do the products show the same in Classic Client?
A: Not always. All of the new features we are demoing are only going to show up on the newer platforms.
Q: When will IMVU Studio be available for Mac users with the new M1 chip/Monterey?
A: Studio works on Mac M1 machines!
Q: Where do you find tutorials for getting started on IMVU Studio?
A: IMVU Studio can be downloaded here create.imvu.com/imvu-studio-download. Tutorials on getting Started with IMVU Studio can be found here create.imvu.com/article-topics/getting-started
Q: Does the vertex need to be always on for example (statue)
A: Use Vertex Color does not always need to be on. If it is on then the vertex color will influence of the color of the material on a per vertex level. It will also influence the color of the emission.
Q: I have a new 64 bit MacBook Pro and it only allows me to download next, not even the old client. Is studio 32 bit?
A: Studio, or more specifically the engine that renders the 3d scene is 64 bit.
Q: Can I create on my phone?
A: IMVU Studio is only available on Windows and Mac PC
Q: If a product has only 1 slot for material (for example a plain t-shirt) is it possible to add an extra texture on it, like animated logo, that wouldn’t show on the entire shirt?
A: Unfortunately, it is not currently possible to animate one map and not another, such as animate the diffuse map and not the opacity map. It is also not currently possible to “stack” materials and composite them, but we are looking into this. In the T-Shirt logo demo, the logo and the shirt textures are actually combined to make a new diffuse texture.
Q: Is there a way to delete unnecessary textures directly from the file? When I try it all the files are still there.
A: You can see the unused assets in the ‘Assets’ panel. Drag the right edge of the panel to expand the panel and you will see a ‘Usage’ column. To delete an asset you can hover over the asset and click on the ‘…’ and select ‘Delete’
Q: Can you edit old products so they look more modern without having to make a new product ? Or do you just write off the old one and start over?
A: You can edit and re-submit old products if there have been no derivations on them.
*This Learning Session took place February 24, 2022, and the information shared is specific to this time period.