Using IMVU Studio Toolkit for Blender

Creating a Room

1. Open the Room Tool.
2. Adjust the initial size of the room with the X Y Z Sliders.
   • This can be adjusted at any point!
3. Click ‘Create Room‘.
   • Note: The meshes generated are for reference and will not be exported
4. Select which type of furniture seat you would like to add.
5. Click ‘+ Furniture‘.
   • If you want to quickly make a grid of furniture nodes, use the direction arrows below ‘+ Furniture‘.
   • Set the distance with the number in the middle.
6. Add any seat of your choosing.
   • The Custom seat is used to trigger animations of the same name.
   • If you would like to add or remove either Catcher/Pitcher nodes or Handle nodes, Use the Add Link Catcher or Break Link Catcher and Add Link Handle or Break Link Handle buttons to do so.
7. If you would like to have a see through mesh, click ‘Create See Through Node‘.
   • Move the cone such that the point aims in the direction the mesh will be seen from. Whenever the camera moves behind the cone, the linked meshes will disappear.
   • To link an object, select the SeeThroughArmature Cone, along with any meshes you would like to link to it.
   • Click ‘Link To SeeThrough‘.
   • To unlink a SeeThrough node, select the mesh or meshes, and click Unlink SeeThrough.
8. Export.

Creating Furniture

1. Click ‘Create Furniture‘.
   • This will give you all of the nodes you need and a reference block for a sitting position.
   • Note: The meshes generated are for reference and will not be exported
2. Add any seat of your choosing.
   • The Custom seat is used to trigger animations of the same name.
   • If you would like to add or remove either Catcher/Pitcher nodes or Handle nodes, Use the Add Link Catcher or Break Link Catcher and Add Link Handle or Break Link Handle buttons to do so.
3. If you would like to have a see through mesh, click ‘Create See Through Node‘.
   • Move the cone such that the point aims in the direction the mesh will be seen from. Whenever the camera moves behind the cone, the linked meshes will disappear.
   • To link an object, select the SeeThroughArmature Cone, along with any meshes you would like to link to it.
   • Click ‘Link To SeeThrough‘.
   • To unlink a SeeThrough node, select the mesh or meshes, and click Unlink SeeThrough.
4. Export.

Creating an Avatar Attachment

1. Click ‘Append Attachment File‘.
   • This sets up your scene with a base avatar for you to work from.
   • Make sure you only append from a fresh blender scene.
2. Use the Male/Female toggle to change the reference mesh.
3. Create or import your accessory object/mesh.
   1. Make sure it is positioned at 0,0,0 world space.
4. Select the bone you want to parent it to with the eyedropper tool.
5. Select your accessory mesh (mesh only) or armature/skeleton root node (mesh weighted to skeleton) and click ‘Setup Mesh‘.
   1. This will move your mesh or armature/skeleton into the export folder and hook it up to the AttachmentNode bone for you.
6. Position your accessory object/mesh where you would like it to go on the avatar.

7. Export.

Creating Avatar Clothing (or Body Part)

1. Click ‘Append Clothing File‘.
   • This sets up your scene with a base avatar for you to work from.
   • Make sure you only append from a fresh blender scene.
2. Use the Male/Female dropdown to change the reference mesh.
   • Male 1.5 and Female 1.5 are newer body meshes, made by IMVU to be a bit more realistic, while still working with all of the products that work with the original male and female models
3. Create or import your clothing object.
   • If you want to use part of the body mesh, for example, the arms from the Male 1.5 mesh when making a T-Shirt. Simply select it, and click ‘Bind to Armature’.
4. Position it where you would like it to go.
5. Click ‘Bind to Armature‘.
   • This will automatically weight the piece of clothing to nearby bones and move it to the ‘CLOTHING_EXPORT’ Collection.
6. Enter weight paint mode by clicking ‘Paint Weights‘.
7. Enter pose mode by clicking ‘Pose‘.
   • In pose mode you can test the weighting by rotating the bones you wish to affect your mesh.
8. Reset the Avatars pose by clicking ‘Reset Pose’.
9. Use the ‘Limit Bones‘ button to limit the number of bones weighted to every vertex to 6.
   • We recommend you do this periodically as you work and test your weighting.
   • This is essential to do before exporting, as IMVU studio does not accept more than 6 bones weighted per vertex and will adjust it in Studio if needed.
10. Export.

Creating an Avatar Animation

 

1. Click ‘Append Animation File‘.
   • This sets up your scene with a base avatar for you to work from.
     
2. Enable ‘Make Pose’ To export one frame to be used as a static pose
   • Be sure to not move the timeline after clicking this button, it handles that for you and may not work correctly if modified after
3. Enable ‘Export All Bones’ To export every bone, regardless of whether or not it has keyframes applied to it
4. Enable ‘Export Clothing’ To export any clothing objects you have included
5. Enable ‘Morph Controls’ To see the facial morph controls, as well as exporting the facial morph
6. Click ‘Zero Pose’ To reset every bone to its original position
7. Click ‘Zero Bone’ To reset every selected bone to its original position
8. Set the animation name from within the Action Editor while the rig is selected.
   • This is the name that you will see in IMVU Studio.
9. Select the rig handles and move them to set a starting pose for the avatar.
10. Set keyframes by clicking the ‘Add Key‘ button.
    • Alternatively, activate the ‘Auto Key‘ Button and a keyframe will be added every time you adjust the skeleton.
11. Move the time slider, set your next pose and add a key.
12. When you are done setting all of your keyframes and your animation is done, set the Animation Length in the tool panel.
13. Export.

 

Creating a Morph Animation

1. Open the animation tool, there is a toggle to enable and disable the facial controls
   • If the toggle is off, no facial animations will be exported
2. Animate the face in the same manner as the body. All the controls are the same
3. Export!

 

Creating a Prop Animation

1. Open both the furniture tool and the animation tool
2. Click Create furniture, then click append animation file
   • You should now have a reference box and a rigged avatar
3. Build up your furniture with everything it needs, while you can always go back and make changes, it is good to start with as complete of a furniture that you can
   • It may be helpful to hide the “Animation_Scene” collection while you work on the furniture
   • Remember to put all your meshes under Attachment.Root!
4. Add a custom seat to your furniture, this will trigger the animation based on what you name it
5. Attach an armature to any furniture products you would like to animate
6. Position the avatar where you would like it, and animate it like you would with the normal animation tool
   • Note: The animation tool Add Key and Auto Key buttons will work while animating the furniture too
7. Animate the furniture object to line up with the avatars animation
   • Make sure all animations are exactly the same length or they will not line up. Note the avatar starts at frame 0 always
   • Remember to name your animations so they are easy to find in studio!
8. Export!

 

Exporting Clothing With Your Animation

1. Check the ‘Export Clothing’ checkbox in the animation tool
2. Create or import a clothing mesh
3. Click the ‘Prep Cloth’ button to put the avatar in a T-Pose
4. Click the ‘Bind Cloth’ button to attach the clothing to the avatar
5. Use the ‘Paint Weights’ button to modify the skin weighting if you would like to
6. Click the ‘Limit Bones’ button to limit how many bones each vertex is bound to. IMVU has a max of 6, so this button sets it to 6 in blender

Creating an Avatar Head

1. Open the head tool and click Append Head File
2. Create a head mesh, using the reference neck as where the neck vertices should be placed
   • IMPORTANT: Double check that the head is exactly how you want it, there is no modifying the mesh after the next step (UVs can be changed at any time)
3. Select your head mesh, and click the Create Grid Button
   • This populates a grid of heads above your mesh, go head to head, using edit mode to modify the necessary vertices to match the head in the same box. The name of the box should also help to know what needs to be changed
   • Left and Right is relative to the avatar, not the user. So the left eye is on the creators right side
   • Be sure to weight your avatar to the skeleton correctly
     • Every vertex other than the neck edge should be 100% bound to the Head Bone
     • The vertices on the very edge of the neck should be 100% bound to Neck03 for male, or Neck04 for female
4. Export!

 

 

Exporting

Open the Export tool

• • Make sure your scene is saved, it will use the same name as your scene for saving.
  • The FBX file will also be saved to the same location as your scene.

Open Export Directory

Click the Open Export Directory Button to automatically open the file explorer to the location of your .Blend file

Help

Click the Help Button to return to this page at any time!

Updating

If an update is available, click ! UPDATE AVAILABLE under the Export Tool Tab and download the latest version from this page.