1. Introduction
The IMVU Catalog offers designs for every taste, but if you want to add a personal touch to your room, this is your starting point for creating furniture with your own custom look.
Let’s dive in and make your first piece of furniture. We are going to start with something easy, customizing a sofa. After you have learned how to customize an existing furniture item, we will show you how to start from scratch.
You can watch the video below that explains the process of how to make a sofa, or read on!
After watching the video, check out the article below, so you can choose even more colors for your sofa!
This tutorial is part of the Creator Program. To learn more about the Creator Program, please click here.
2. Download the materials to make your sofa
Many products in the IMVU Catalog can be derived. This means that if a product is set as derivable, other creators can make a newly edited version of the item and sell it as their own. When a derived product is sold, both the previous people who created the product and the ones who derived the product, make money.
To customize your own sofa, you are going to derive from the Tutorial Sofa product. We have supplied you with 3 texture options.
Go ahead and download the textures to your computer.
The links to download the textures are here:
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Click on a texture link
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Right click on the texture
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Save the texture to your computer by selecting Save Image As…
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Repeat steps 1 – 3 for the other textures
After downloading the textures, you will see the following files in your computer’s “Downloads” folder.
If you are not familiar with textures, please read Introduction to Textures.
The textures supplied in this tutorial have been downloaded from the website www.textures.com.
3. Customize your sofa
You are going to customize your sofa using Photoshop 
or Gimp 
software.
Both, Photoshop and Gimp, have great tools that will help you to edit textures. If you are not familiar with Photoshop or Gimp, no worries. Just follow the instructions and you will see how easy is to make great products.
Photoshop requires a paid license and Gimp is free.
Click on one of the links below to get started. Completing this step is required before moving on to “4. Choose a base product.”
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Customize Sofa using Photoshop |
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Customize Sofa using Gimp |
To download Photoshop or Gimp, please click Download Photoshop or Download Gimp.
4. Choose a base product
Our next step is customizing your couch by deriving it in Create Mode.
Before jumping into Create Mode, if you are not familiar with IMVU’s Editor Mode and Creators Guidelines, please read these articles:
For those who have not downloaded and installed the IMVU Desktop App yet, please read Download and Install IMVU Desktop App.
Open the IMVU Desktop App and Log In. Click on the Create button.
When you click on the Derive New Product button, the Derive a new 3D product window pops up.
Let’s specify the product you will base your sofa on.
Enter Product ID 1802481 in the Specify Product ID field. Click Go and the Editor Mode will open.
For future reference, Product IDs can be found at the bottom of product pages if you access from the IMVU Classic Website and it is also the number at the end of a product page’s URL if you access from the IMVU Classic Website or the IMVU Next.
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From IMVU Classic Website
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From IMVU Next
You can also Derive your Furniture from the Product Page. Click Derive from product at the bottom of the page.
A window will pop up asking you to open IMVU. Click Open IMVU (you may be asked to log in as well).
5. Product creation
A default avatar is displayed on your screen.
If you want to see your own avatar, go to the Bottom Toolbar and click Outfits 
.
Click on the avatar with the outfit that you want.
The one on the screen will be substituted with the one you have chosen.
It allows you full access to your clothing inventory. You can add any product or outfit to the avatar you’re using, as long as it does not conflict with the product you’re creating.
Just a few more steps and you will have achieved your goal.
Select the “replace this texture” asset and click Edit.
- Browse the folder where you saved the texture you have created.
- Click Open.
The texture you selected will appear in your Materials Column and in the Texture slot.
Click the Apply Changes button to see the changes on your sofa.
After applying changes, you’ll see your customized sofa.
You can save the changes by clicking on the Save button.
- You have two ways to save your work. You can use either Save (by clicking the Save button) or Save As (by clicking the small arrow to the right
). - Save will save your file in your IMVU Projects folder with an automatically generated file name.
- Save As allows to use a unique file name of your choice, making your file much easier to find if you decide you want to work on it later. You can also Save As by pressing Shift + Ctrl + s.
Once you have saved your product, you can upload it to the IMVU Catalog and make money.
To learn how to Upload a Product, please read Upload a Product.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have derived your first piece of furniture!
You can market your products by taking photos of your creations and sharing them with the IMVU Community. Click on the following links to learn how to take photographs and how to post pictures in the IMVU Feed.