IMVU kind of sucks.

< My friend Sqeeezable once posted this on the Off Topic forum for some new developers.
It's helped me a lot, and I know a lot of people could use it.

_________________________________________________________

Squeeezable's Developer Tutorial.

~BASIC OPACITY TUTORIAL~

Aww shut it, I was a complete n00b when I started, asking things like 'erm, why does my avi end up nekkid'.

Anyways, here we go, I'll try to explain as easy as possible. You have to know that I love deriving from Kittenkat, because all of her templates are the same. So If I make some shoes, I can reuse that texture (or the opacitymap) if I ever want to use those shoes with one of her other things.

PLEASE NOTE: These are PNGS, but you HAVE to use JPEGS.


1. These are the soles of the shoes. Just make em one color. You don't have to be precise with that, anything outside the lines won't show up anyway.

2. These are the bases of the shoes. This is quite tricky. I still haven't seen a dev (pro or non pro) that was able to keep this from blurring a little bit. If you make them one color, you won't notice, but mary janes will always be a bit weird. The better the dev, the less weird it is I suppose.

a. This is the front of the shoe, even though you would assume otherwise. It took me forever to figure that out -_- This is basically the tip of the shoe.

b. This is the heel.

3. This is the bootey ^_^ If you're making low jeans or a low cut dress, check the previewer to make sure you don't see any buildersbum (=a$$crack)

a. Front of the leg.

b. Back of the leg.

4. Well, I don't assume I have to explain this. Do note that if you don't have an accesspass, there are leaves on the private parts. If you're making underwear, make sure these leaves are covered, so people without a pass won't complain of green things sticking out.

5. The tummy. Note that the tummy moves with the avatar. Something can look awesome on your texture, but when she wears it, it will move and look weird. You'll have to experiment with that somewhat.

6. Boobehs obviously. Also have leaves on them so take that into consideration when you make something with deep cleavage or something.

7. The back. The tricky thing about the back is, that if you have something that you want in the middle of the back, you will have to cut it in two, paste one half on one side of your texture, and the other half on the other side. If you are even one pixel off, it will look uneven. I suggest mirroring and checking it again and again, until you've got it right.

8. Inside of hands.

9. Back of hands.

10. Arms.

11. And finally, the shittiest thing: the collar. You have to imagine the collar on top of the neck, with the curved part down. It's really tricky, especially when making something like a tanktop. It's all trial and error. I hate this part, and please don't ask me why it's all the way over there -_-

So. Try loading this image above into the previewer, and you will see exactly where everything is.

Now for the opacitymap. It's basically very very simple, and once you get the hang of it, you will be able to create anything you want. I don't know if you know this already, but Imma tell you anyways.

Visible = White
Invisible = Black
See Through = Depends on the color grey you use, dark grey will be very see through, light grey will be less see through.

So what I always do, is paint in black and white on the template. Doing the opacitymap is half the work. Just make everything you want visible white, and everything you don't want, black.

I will show you an example of one of my opacity maps. I never used this one, so feel free to expiriment with it. It is also from a kittenkat Full Bodysuit Mesh:




If you would load this in the previewer (in the opacity slot obviously), everything that is white will be solid (and the color of whatever you have on your texturemap), and everything black is invisible. So basically this is a really skimpy outfit ^_^

So if you, for example, want to remove the collar, just make the collar part black, the rest white, and you will remove the collar, but nothing else.

In this gothic dress, you have seperate sleeves, collar and skirt right? Well, go to the collar part. Make a white square and load in the opacity slot. This will make the collar invisible. Never remove anything from a mesh, it will screw it up.

Oh, and two final things: if you remove something from this dress, like the collar, the sleeves, or anything like that, make sure you uncheck the USE BLENDING box, to prevent conflict with other items and surroundings.

And...always make sure your texturemap and opacitymap are EXACTLY the same size. If you're one pixel off, she will show up nekkid.

Kittenkat has all her templates and such on the product pages. It's up to you to make your own opacitymap, which is basically what defines a product, so most devs will not give out their opacitymaps, for fear someone will copy them.

I hope this made it all clear. I was in a tutorial mood, and I know how frustrated I was when I first started.

You've done good starting out with stuff from KittenKat. I personally think the has the most diverse items for derivers to play with, along with Cassiopeia.

Good luck, and if I can answer any more questions, feel free to PM me or something. Can't wait to see what you made!