You can watch the video below that explains the process of how to create sunglasses, or read on!
1. Download the Materials to Make your Sunglasses
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 create your own sunglasses, you are going to derive from the Glasses M product. We have supplied you with 3 texture options (glasses frame, lenses, and opacity map).
Go ahead and download the textures to your computer.
Download these three textures only:
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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 and 2 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.
2. Customize your Sunglasses
You are going to customize your sunglasses using Photoshop 
or Gimp 
software.
If you are not familiar with Photoshop or Gimp, no worries. Just follow the instructions and you will see how easy is to make awesome 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 “3. Final Materials.”
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Customize Male Sunglasses using Photoshop |
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Customize Male Sunglasses using Gimp |
To download Photoshop or Gimp, please click Download Photoshop or Download Gimp.
3. Final Materials
Your sunglasses textures are ready!
4. Choose a Base Product
Let’s customize your sunglasses!
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 sunglasses on.
Enter Product ID 46130380 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 Sunglasses 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
When the Editor opens, a default avatar is displayed on your screen.
In order to see your own avatar on the screen, go to the Bottom Toolbar and click Outfits 
.
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.
Click on the avatar you want to display.
The one on the screen will be substituted with the one you have chosen.
Just a few more steps and you will see how cool your avatar looks!
Select the “Sunglasses Frame Texture” asset in the Materials Column and click Edit.
- Browse the folder where you saved your textures and select the “Sunglasses Frame” texture.
- Click Open.
Now, the “Sunglasses Frame” texture is the one you created.
The texture you selected will appear in your Materials column.
Make sure that the Opacity Map in the Texture Assets Panel is empty.
Assure that the Two Sided parameter in the Material Parameters Panel is checked as well.
An Opacity Map is a grayscale image that determines what areas of your texture are opaque, transparent, or translucent.
Opacity Maps are loaded separately from the Texture Map, and can be added to or removed from any Material.
To learn more about this topic, please read the article Opacity Maps.
Let’s repeat the same process with the lenses texture.
Select the lenses texture asset in the Materials Column and click Edit.
- Browse the folder where you saved your textures and select the lenses texture.
- Click Open.
Now, the Lenses texture is the one you created.
The next step consists of loading the Opacity Map.
The Opacity Map is going to define which areas of the lenses texture (the black one) are opaque, transparent, or translucent.
Click Delete on the Opacity Map.
Now the Opacity Map is empty.
- Click Add.
- Browse the folder where you saved your textures and select the Opacity Map.
- Click Open.
Now, the Opacity Map is the one you created.
Make sure that the Two Sided and Use Blending parameters in the Material Parameters Panel are checked.
All textures are loaded, so let’s see how your avatar looks with the sunglasses that you have designed.
Click the Apply Changes button.
Let’s save the changes done.
Click 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 accessory!
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.