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Using IMVU Studio Toolkit for 3DS Max

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IMVU Studio Toolkit for 3ds Max is Beta

IMVU Studio Toolkit is still in a beta state. It has been missing the ability to export avatar animations, but this is coming soon. Stay tuned!

This is a sub-article of IMVU Studio Toolkit.

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‘.
  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.

In IMVU Studio derive ‘Example 3D Scene‘ and import your FBX. file

IMPORTANT

Be sure any meshes you add to the room are inside the “skeleton.Room” Node or it will not be exported! This can be done by selecting your mesh, clicking the “Select and Link” button, then click&drag from your mesh, to the large cube node in the center of the scene.

Creating Furniture

  1. Click ‘Create Furniture‘.
    • This will give you all of the nodes you need and a reference block for a sitting position.
  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.

In IMVU Studio derive ‘Empty Furniture‘ and import your FBX .file

IMPORTANT

Be sure any meshes you add to the room are inside the “Mesh” Node or it will not be exported! This can be done by selecting your mesh, clicking the “Select and Link” button, then click&drag from your mesh, to the large cube node in the center of the scene.

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 3ds Max scene.
    2. Use the Male/Female toggle to change the reference mesh.
    3. Select the bone you want to parent it to by clicking the [ Click Me ] Button then selecting the bone from the viewport
    4. Create or import your accessory object
    5. Position it where you would like it to go
    6. Select your mesh
    7. Click [ Setup Mesh ]
    8. This will move your mesh into the export folder and hook it up to the AttachmentNode bone for you
    9.  Export.
IMPORTANT

Be sure all meshes you wish to export are inside the “ATTACHMENT_EXPORT” Group or it will not be exported! Step 7 ‘Setup Mesh‘ should have done this, but it is a good idea to double check.

In IMVU Studio

  • Derive ‘Empty Female Accessory‘ or ‘Empty Male Accessory‘
  • Import your FBX file
  • Select the bone in skeleton you wish to attach to
  • Click ‘Preview‘

 

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 3ds Max scene.
  2. Use the Male/Female toggle to change the reference mesh.
  3. Create or import your clothing object.
  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.
  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. 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.
  9. Export.
IMPORTANT

Be sure all meshes you wish to export are inside the “CLOTHING_EXPORT” Group or it will not be exported! Step 5 ‘Bind to Armature‘ should have done this, but it is a good idea to double check.

In IMVU Studio derive from the appropriate ‘Empty Female‘ or ‘Empty Male‘ clothing or body part based on what you are making and import your FBX file.

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.
IMPORTANT

  • The Export Button is universal and will export whichever type of product you created. Each scene can only be used for creation of one type of product (ex: Room, Furniture, Accessory)
  • Make sure you save your file first. The tool will complain if you have never saved when starting from a new file.
  • The FBX saved will be in the same location as the source file and named the same but with an FBX extension.

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.

 

Questions?
If you have questions about using the IMVU Studio toolkit, feel free to ask in our Creator Community Discussions HERE.

Updated on May 15, 2024

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