This tutorial is your starting point for dressing avatars with your own creations, selling them in the IMVU Catalog, and making money!
Let’s dive in and make your first shirt.
We will take you through each step of customizing a shirt. At the end of this guide, you will be able to add your personal touch to adapt any existing IMVU product to your style.
1. Getting the required Textures
For this tutorial, you will be deriving from the Bella Crop Top product which contains 3 texture maps and 3 UV maps. You will only need the 3 texture maps (front, back, and sleeves).
Go ahead and download only the textures to your computer.
- STEP 1. Click on each of the yellow buttons that say CLICK HERE FOR TEXTURE. Each will take you to a different texture image.
- STEP 2. Save the textures to your computer by right-clicking on each image. Then click on Save Image As… to download them.
The textures should now be downloaded to your Downloads folder or to any other folder you selected.
If you are not familiar with textures, please read “Introduction to Textures“.
2. Customizing your Textures
Make the product your own by customizing your textures!
This can be done by using Photoshop, GIMP, or your preferred image-editing software.
If you are not familiar with Photoshop 
or GIMP 
, do not panic. Just follow the steps and you will see that there is no need to be an expert to make amazing products. All you need is a basic understanding of using a Painting (texture-creation) application.
To customize your textures in Photoshop proceed to:
 |
Making a Shirt – Customizing in Photoshop |
To customize your textures in GIMP proceed to:
 |
Making a Shirt – Customizing in GIMP |
To learn more about the apps you can use to make your assets, read the article “What software should I use?”.
3. Creating your Product
Once you have completed customizing your textures, it’s time to import them to IMVU Studio! Fire up IMVU Studio and create your product by deriving from the Bella Crop Top product.
• Choosing a Base Product
Let’s start a new project.
- STEP 1. Click on the CREATE button in the top right corner of the screen.
You can also open a new project by clicking on the 
Tab in the top left corner of the screen.
Or go to the main menu and click on 
➞ File ➞ New.
Choose as a base product the Bella Crop Top product. So, let’s specify the product by searching for its name or PID.
- STEP 2. Use the Search Bar to find the Bella Crop Top item.
Click on the PRODUCT button, type the product’s name, and click on the magnifying glass 
.
Or click on the PID button, type the product’s ID (PID), and click on the magnifying glass .
PIDs can be found at the bottom of product pages if you access from the IMVU Classic Website or at the end of a product page’s URL if you access from the IMVU Classic Website or IMVU Website.
- STEP 3. Click on the Bella Crop Top item in case you searched by the product’s name. Otherwise, if you searched by PID, the item with the PID that you typed is the only one displayed.
Once a product is selected, a 3D Preview will load in the upper right corner of the screen and the full Derivation Chain of the chosen product is displayed below the 3D Preview.
When deriving from Products with a long Derivation Chain, it’s a good idea to derive from the furthest back version of the Product. This way, you start with the lowest starting price and smallest file size.
- STEP 4. Go to the Derivation Chain and make sure to select the right Bella Crop Top item ([MESH] Bella Crop Top).
Click on the DERIVE button.
• Adding your own Textures
It is time to add the textures you have created. To do so, you have to select the Materials you want to edit.
- STEP 5. Click on the COMPONENT Panel and then click on the MATERIAL tab.
The Materials of a product are displayed under the MATERIAL tab. When selecting one of them, its properties are displayed on the right panel on the right side of the screen. The MATERIAL Panel allows you to select the front, back, and sleeves of the product.
Let’s import the textures you customized.
- STEP 6. Let’s start with the front texture. Select the front texture under the MATERIAL tab.
Click on the INSPECTOR Panel.
Hover over the thumbnail beside Diffuse and click the 
button.
The TEXTURE Panel pops up on the screen allowing you to import the front texture you customized.
- STEP 7. Click on the ADD IMAGE button. Browse the folder where you saved the texture and select the front texture. The updated asset will appear in the TEXTURE Panel.
You can preview the changes you have made at any time by clicking on the PREVIEW button.
- STEP 8. Repeat the same steps for the back and sleeves textures.
• Submit your Product to the Shop
Uploading a Product costs Credits and requires a thorough knowledge of the Virtual Goods Policy.
Please, take a look at our “Your Responsibilities as a Creator” article to understand and learn about the importance of following Creator Guidelines.
Once you have done customizing your tee, make sure that your product meets IMVU’s Terms of Service.
In order to upload your product, you need to edit your product information by filling out the details under the INFO Panel.
The INFO Panel is where you can edit your product details that will show up in the Shop, such as your product’s name, rating, keywords, product’s image, your profit margin, and more.
Things to take into account while filling out your product information:
- Product Image Size for the Classic Shop: 100 x 80 pixels.
- Have a look at the article “Creating Catalog Snapshots” for more information about how to create a product image (thumbnail) for your product.
- Choosing a clear name will help users to find your product.
- Rate your product appropriately according to IMVU’s Terms of Service. In this case, your product is GA (General Audience) because it meets MCG (Minimum Coverage Guidelines) and comply with the GA definitions stated on the Virtual Goods Rating Policy.
- The category chosen will depend on your product’s type (clothes, accessories, shoes, etc.).
- The compatibility selected depends on which avatar (male, female, or both) will work with your product. In this case, your tee is designed to fit a female avatar. The female avatar is designed as 80.
- Your Profit margin means the credits you will earn when someone purchases it.
- Adding keywords will help users to find your product when they are searching products in the Shop. You can add up to 12 words separated by a comma.
- Control toggles define if your product can be derived from, if it can be visible in the Shop, if users can buy it, and if it can be part of another Creator’s product bundle.
To learn more about the fields under the INFO Panel and how to upload a product to the Shop, please read the article “Uploading Your Project”.
- STEP 10. Fill out all your product information in order to submit your product to the Shop. See an example below.
- STEP 11. Once you’re done filling out your product information, click the SAVE button to save your project.
Next, submit your product to the IMVU Catalog by clicking on the SUBMIT button.
A confirmation message pops up.
- STEP 12. Click on the SUBMIT button.
By clicking on the OK button, the Product Page opens in your browser.
• Publish your Product
When you submit a product to the Shop, you are the only one who can wear and use it. You need to publish your product if you want others to see/buy it.
Learn more about how to publish a product by reading the article “Publishing a product”.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have derived your first T-shirt!
We encourage you to keep creating your own products. Learn how to make some basic products by following the tutorials you will find here.
What are you waiting for to show off your tee among your friends? Wearing and gifting your own items is a great way to advertise your Shop. Find out how to wear and gift your own products!