 |
 |
||||
 |
 What You Need To Know About Copyrights By signing up as a developer you are agreeing to a few rules... one of which includes that you will not, under any circumstances, violate copyright laws. What Breaks Copyright Law? -You cannot use any logo, character, name, or image on your products (this includes both stickers and inventory items) that does not belong to you. The only exception is if you contact the owner of the copyrighted material and they tell you it's ok to use, or if the material is noted as "for public use". -Names of people can be used because anyone on earth can name their kid "Kasumi" "Chi" or "Namine." However, names such as "Kryptonite" "Spiderman" and "Nike" are not O.K. as they are brand names and trademarked. To avoid breaking copyright on names you can change letters in the name to make it no longer the same.. such as: "Kriptoquartz" "Arachnidman" or "Nikie" -Logos, like names, can be changed to be useable... instead of the Nike swish, you can double or triple the swish or add a little cross through the end to make it different. -Images you just Google up on the internet are NOT acceptable additions to products as most of these are copyrighted as well... as stated above, these are only useable if they are marked as "for public use" -Under no circumstances is it ok to do the
following to another IMVU developer's texture: -the bottom line.. ONLY USE YOUR OWN WORK! unless you have permission from the owner of the material you wish to use that isn't yours. All textures should be made 100% by you unless your given permission to use other content. What Do I Need To Do In Order To Become A Developer? 1. Go to this link: Developers Section , and sign up to become a developer. You must have bought your name in order to do this. (after you buy your name it may take up to 24 hours to work its way completely through the system, so have patience)
2. Once you have your name and have signed up as a developer you must download the Developer Tools, and install them. 3. After you have done step 1 and 2, you will need to log out of your account on IMVU, and then log back in. This forces your cookies to refresh so that the developer links can show for you. 4. READ THIS TUTORIAL! Note: When developing its best if you start with at least a general understanding of how your paint program works. There are many online tutorials available for beginners who would like to learn how to use their program correctly, just use Google or any other search engine to look some up. Some recommended paint programs: Photoshop (trial), Paint Shop Pro (Trial) GIMP (100% Free and very similar to Photoshop). I do NOT recommend using Windows Paint for developing as it is very limited. For the purposes of this tutorial I am using Adobe Photoshop CS (8.0) Understanding Derivability In order to create a new product for IMVU you will need to "Derive" off another item. It doesn't matter if your just retexturing an item, making a sticker, or making a completely new mesh from scratch... ALL products must be derived off something.
If you try to derive off a product that is non-derivable your Developer Tools program will tell you that you can't. If however, you are able to get past this and somehow do derive off a non-derivable product, the owner of that product you derived from can send in a DMCA Takedown Notice, and have IMVU remove your product, and possibly revoke your right to develop. If somehow you do this on accident, you can HIDE your product in the catalogue so that it is not available for purchase. There is no way to DELETE products from the catalogue at this time. Deriving And Textures For further clarification, Derivation does NOT give you the right to use any of the textures attached to the product you are deriving from. Derivation DOES give you the right to use the mesh included in the product to base your own product off of, and allows you to use the textures included in the product to "structure" your own texture.. such as using the texture included to help you figure out where the back of the item is, or the front, or the sleeves.. the best place for text.. etc. You still may not use the texture itself or the included opacity map in any way on your derived product. Some developers allow certain textures or opacity maps that they own to be used by the public, this is usually clearly stated in the derivable product's description, or you can always telegram the owner of the product to ask if you may use them. In summary: "Derivable" doesn't mean "I wave all my copyrights". Getting Started: What Should I Make? Because the meshes available at IMVU, you can make just about anything you want.. .hair, eyes, skin, clothes, pets, scenes.. you name it! But sometimes getting started and deciding what you want to make first can be a daunting task. The following are some simple steps you can use to help you decide what to make, and how your going to make it. Get Inspiration: Look through clothing catalogue's, online stores, go to the mall, or draw sketches, and look for things that interest your sense of style. All of these are great ways to get inspiration on what you want to start making, or, check the forums! Requests are posted daily for new items people want to be made.. so why not pick one and work on your developing skills? A word of advice for beginning developers: Eyes, Tops, Makeup, and Stickers always sell well, so if you're just beginning and you're looking for a "starter item" to get your revenue going... try one of those! The best selling colors are Black, Red, White, and Pink. Also, IMVU caters to the "Goth" and "Punk" crowd, these items almost always sell. Finding A Mesh To Work With Find A Mesh!: The next step is to find what meshes you are going to use for your product(s)... look closely at the shape of the product you want to make and then look in the catalogue for a product with a similar shape. If you want to make a short skirt that comes up under the belly button, look for products that have that similar shape and find the mesh they are derived from.. you can use the "Derived From:" link in the right hand corner of the product description page to trace back a derivation chain to an appropriate derivable mesh.
If you know how to make meshes in a 3D program such as 3D Studio Max, Milkshape, or Blender, you can make your own meshes to base your items off. Meshing is an extremely complicated and somewhat difficult process, so if you are a beginning developer I wouldn't recommend it.. it can take weeks to years to fully learn a meshing program and though some are free, the upper end programs can cost you as much as $3,000 to buy. Sometimes you may have to change the idea of your product a little to match the meshes available (such as you may have to make two products that can be worn together to make it look like your wearing one.... like a long sleeved t-shirt and a high-rise skirt to make a dress)... play around with your options and decide what will work best for your outfit. Many meshes now come with Opacity Maps, these allow you to make certain parts of the texture transparent so that you can customize the neckline, sleeves, etc and allow the avatar's skin to show through, so if your having trouble finding a complete mesh to fit your idea, look into opacity mapped products.. they often allow more versatility to your design!
Once you've found a mesh you want to use for your product, use that Derived From link (see the above image) to trace back to a derivable version of the product... not all products have a derivable copy to work with, so keep that in mind while you look for a mesh. You can always as the owner of a mesh if they would be willing to make it derivable.. it doesn't hurt to ask! Opening Your Product In The Developer Tools/Previewer There are two ways you can open a derivable product in the Developer Tools (Previewer) to derive correctly. 1. Click the "Derive From Product" link in the product's description, this will automatically start your Developer Tools and start to load the product. 1. Either double click the Developer Tools shortcut on your desktop, or go to your Start Menu>All Programs> IMVU Tools>Previewer and start the program. You can then go to the File>Create A Derived Product menu... clicking this will bring up a small dialogue box that looks like this:
Check the description page of the product you are trying to derive from, in the lower left hand corner is a number in large red numbers... this is the product ID. You will need to type this number (as shown above) into the dialogue box, and hit OK.
Once you've hit OK the product will begin to load into the Previewer. Your First Time Loading The Developer Tools/Previewer If this is your very first time loading the developer tools a dialogue box may first pop up asking for your username and password. Fill in your IMVU username and password and hit OK... this is registering your name with this program so that your items will be properly labeled as being owned by you in the catalogue. If you have more than one developer account that uses your computer you can add more registered names. Simply go to the Help>Manage Developer Accounts menu, a new window will appear where you can add more developers onto your Previewer and set the default account. You can change the account that is signing your products at any time by going to this window and changing the default.
The Download Files Window Quite often you will not have a copy of the CFL (this is what all products are saved as.. the CFL file type) you need on your computer, in this case a window will pop up after you try deriving from the product asking if you want to download the missing files. Click Yes.
The download files window should then appear.
Notice in the above image that several of the files are missing, these are labeled as "file not found" to download these missing files you simply need to hit the "Download Product Files" button. a small progress marker box will appear while the products download, and when it finishes a warning window shall pop up saying that you have successfully downloaded the missing files. You can then hit the "Close Dialog" button in the lower right hand corner of the download products window. Warning: Sometimes during the download process the Previewer will stall or freeze up, to avoid this just minimize the other Previewer windows, usually this will prevent the problem. Any time you need to download missing files you can come back to the Download Product window by going to the File>Download/Update Product(s) menu. Once you have closed the Download Product(s) window a progress bar will show for a very brief moment (while it loads the files) and then a small window will pop up saying that the product has been signed by your account name.. DON'T PANIC! When they first changed the Previewer to show this little box a lot of people panicked thinking that this meant you were signing your name to the product you were deriving from.. aka.. stealing it from the developer who owns it. This isn't the case! This box simply is telling you that the NEW product you are creating has been signed to your name (they do this at the very beginning of the development process instead of at the end). The Code Window This is a completely useless window unless you are going to sending in a bug report. It is simply a window showing the processes of the Previewer as they happen, and is not at all needed for development, so go ahead and minimize it. Warning!: Do NOT close this window as closing it will cause the entire Previewer to shut down.
The Preview Window You will be using this window a lot. When you first start the program, if you haven't already loaded a product this window will be completely blank. After you load a product into the Previewer you will see either a male or female avatar wearing the item you are developing (the gender of the item influences which avatar you will see). You can change what the avatar is wearing (for comparison purposes or making icons/preview pictures) by going to the File>Load Body Pattern menu and picking a CFL to load. If you do not have the CFL you are looking for you can use the Download Product(s) option (as shown in the section above) to download the missing files. During the entire developing process this window will update to show the changes you have made to the product you are working on.. this is very important and useful while trying to texture your item properly because it shows you where everything is laid out as you paint the texture.
The Working Window This is by far the most important window, and the one you will use the most. Unfortunately, it is also the most confusing. This is where you will find various tabs and options you will need to create your new product. If your Previewer is showing with only a few tabs, go to the Edit>Advanced Mode menu... this will turn on the missing tabs that are shown in the image below. Unless you are going to make a mesh from scratch, the "Product Info" and "Edit Textures" tabs are the only ones you will be using. Once you've loaded the product you want to derive from into the Previewer the boxes on the "Product Info" Tab will be filled out with various information including your Developer ID, Username, the ID of the product you've derived from, and the Product Type. All of this information is filled out automatically. You will also see on this tab the "Submit Product To IMVU Catalogue" , "Resubmit modified product CFL", and "Transfer ownership to current Developer" buttons. Each does exactly what it appear to do.. the Submit Product To IMVU Catalog button submits your finished and saved product to the catalogue, the Resubmit modified product CFL resubmits a CFL you have edited to replace an already uploaded product.. and Transfer ownership to current Developer allows you to transfer the ownership of a product from one developer account on your Previewer to another.
The Advanced Tabs Below is an image of the "Edit Textures" Tab. This tab is where you will switch out the textures for your new product and replace the old textures. The only thing you really want to mess around with on this tab is the texture boxes (see the eye and the white box next to it?) and the "Self Illuminated" check box. (this is one of those nifty features that makes your products glow in scenes).
I could take the time to explain the other tabs, but because you won't use them at all, there's no point in wasting your time trying to explain what all the little features do, so completely ignore them. How Do I Start Texturing My Product? This is THE most difficult part of developing.. the actual texturing. Once upon a time we used to be able to open textures straight out of the Previewer to be edited and used for templates, but too many people were using this option to STEAL textures from other developers and break copyrights, so IMVU did away with this ability and now a lot of the time we're left wondering... how am I supposed to know how to texture this? The answer isn't simple. A lot of products have what is called a "Texture Template" or "Wireframe" these are 2D images of the product that show you were you need to paint in order to have your texture appear in the right places (aka so the front of your shirt doesn't end up on the arm). An even greater number, don't have these. Each product is mapped differently, so you'll need a different template for each new mesh. A good way to find templates is to ask the developer of the mesh if they have one available. These are often linked to in the product description itself or off the developer's Home Page, it never hurts to ask and when in doubt, post on the forums! A lot of people have made home-made templates and are willing to share. If you can't find a template for the product your working on, you may have to make one.. It isn't a simple task, and it often takes a lot of time, but it can be done. I'll be making a tutorial on how to make a template later on, so check back on my page when you have time. Once you have a template it's all pretty much trial and error.. you paint/color your texture, try it on in the Previewer.. go back and make adjustments etc until you're happy with it. How Do I Load My Product? Look at the image posted above. on the Edit Textures tab once you have loaded your product you will find a list of textures here. Most products have more than one texture to them, but some only have one (like this eye). Warning: If you don't have to mess with a texture.. DON'T! A lot of CFLs will have extra textures in them (such as a shirt CFL may contain both head and body skin textures along with the shirt texture itself), messing with these textures (especially skin textures on non-skin products) will cause errors (such as a shirt that when worn, shows up with 000 toned skin even though it's on a 050 toned avatar) messing with these extra textures causes them to "stick" to a product so that they may not be wearable with other products, or may not show correctly. To avoid this, only mess with the textures you HAVE TO. As long as these un-used textures are un-touched, they will be invisible in regards to your product. To change the default product texture to your own texture, simply click the thumbnail of the texture you want to change (in our example above, the eye) and a browse dialogue will come up asking you to specify which file you would like to replace it with... find the texture you made and click OK.. the window will update to show your new texture. At this point the preview window will also update to show the avatar now wearing your new texture. This is the time you'll want to use to adjust your texture if you need to. Opacity Maps It's time to take a time-out and talk about opacity maps. Opacity Maps are secondary textures that tell the CFL which areas on the product are invisible, which are semi-transparent, and which are completely opaque. Not all products come with an opacity map, and you can't add an opacity map to a product that doesn't already have one (ok you can but its very difficult for the average user and requires you to edit some mesh files). These Opacity Maps will help you to change the "look" or "appearance" of a mesh without changing it's "shape" by making the pre-existing edges invisible, or part of the product to be semi-transparent. Here is an example:
You'll notice in the picture above that the Opacity Map is always right next to the texture it corresponds with. On a product that does NOT have an opacity map, the opacity thumbnail will be grayed out and unable to be edited. Below is an example of a texture and it's opacity map. Please note that I have crapped a lot of the texture off because it was just plain black and not needed for this example:
As you can see, the "Colored Texture" and the "Opacity Map" are colored in the same places... the difference being the colors. The colored texture should be painted as normal, (as you would on any texture that didn't have an opacity map), the opacity map however has a different set of rules. BLACK: Anything painted black on an opacity map will be 100% Transparent. WHITE: Anything white on an opacity map will be 100% Opaque. (or solid) SHADES OF GRAY: Anything gray on an opacity map will be semi-transparent. The lightness/darkness of the gray will determine how transparent it is... the lighter the color, the less transparent it is.. the darker the color, the more transparent it is. So as you can see, we've set this particular halter top up so that the necklace, top, tie, and seams will be 100% opaque, and the "mesh stomach" of the halter is semi-transparent... below is the Preview Window again so you can see how this particular texture and opacity map would look on an avatar:
Opacity maps can take some getting used to but they really open up your options when creating new products. The particular opacity map for this mesh covers from just above the bellybutton , all the way up under the neck (high collar), and down to the wrists, but because we were able to use the opacity map, instead we can have a no-sleeved halter top with a low neckline! Saving Your Product Once you're all finished fiddling around with your textures and opacity maps and you're happy with what the Preview Window shows you, it is time to save your product. Go to: File>Save As... You can name the CFL anything you'd like, but remember to save it to your IMVU/Data folder. You can always move the CFL later to another folder (if you like to archive your products as I do), but to avoid a bunch of errors from popping up, save it to your IMVU/Data folder for now. A Note: A few people swear by saving their products to the Previewer/Examples folder. This is fine if it works for you, but for a large number of people it doesn't. Do whatever makes your Previewer work correctly. Another Note: If you are saving your product and don't want to immediately upload it, it is wise to save it as a file name such as : product9999999.cfl. The Previewer cannot open locally saved files unless it is using this convention. You can name it any product number you want, but it is smart to save it to a very high product number so you don't accidentally replace a product file you may use or that may get written over when you wear clothes with the client. Catalog Thumbnails I'm going to cut in and tell you about thumbnails now because before you upload your new product you will have to have a thumbnail to upload along with it. All products need a thumbnail picture to show for them in the catalogue.. this is a mini-image of your product used to entice customers into buying your products. You can change a product thumbnail at anytime you want by re-uploading a new thumbnail over the older thumbnail, but I always recommend that you make one during the "editing process" so that you have something to submit along with your CFL that doesn't just state "Temporary Thumbnail". You can do this at any time during the editing process (it doesn't have to be at the end) but I find it's best to do it either right before you save your CFL, or right after.. simply because it's more convenient. Open your preview window and make sure a nice (and clear!) view of your product is showing. Choosing a flattering angle is always helpful, specially if you have a certain part of the product you would like to show off. Next, hit the "prnt scrn" key on your keyboard. All standard keyboards have this key (often labeled "prnt scrn" or "Print Screen") it is usually located next to your Home/Delete/Page Up/Page Down/ and End keys, but if you are working on a laptop it may be somewhere entirely different. When you push the button a screen capture will be immediately taken of your entire screen.... don't worry if the button appears to do nothing.. no dialogue box or warning window should pop up.. your cursor may or may not show a busy cursor, the button has still worked. If for some reason your print screen key really doesn't work, or you do not have one, there are programs available to do this for you (such as ScreenPrint32.. available HERE 100% Free) Although some screen print programs may save a copy of the screen capture to a file for you, the print screen key does not.. you will need to paste the capture you just took into a new image in your paint program. (in Adobe Photoshop: File>New... OK... Edit>Paste) You can then use the various tools in your paint program to "Crop" the image as close to your product as you can get and "Erase" the background if you wish. Example:
Next, make a new blank image that is 100 pixels wide by 80 pixels tall. This is your Thumbnail. Now, before we combine the two you'll need to figure out the best way to adjust the size of your screen capture. You can adjust set your paint program to "constrain proportions" when you adjust it's size so that when you make the image smaller it doesn't squish the image.. unfortunately this means you have you pick which direction to shrink your image to make it fit the thumbnail. Short and wide products should be shrunk to fit 100 pixels in width... Tall and thin products should be shrunk to fit 80 pixels in height.. this is so bits and pieces of the image aren't cut off.. I'll show you an example below of how my above product image changes depending on how I choose to shrink it.
As you can see, it looks really awful if you don't turn on Constrain Proportions to shrink the image universally. Sometimes you'll just have to play around and find out what size fits your image best.
Spiffying Up Your Thumbnails It always pays to spiffy up your thumbnails so that they are the best that they can be. Some key ingredients to this are: Make It Recognizable!: To really help your thumbnails stand out for the rest, make it bright and clear and do something to it that makes it YOURS. If your thumbnails look different than everyone else's people will remember them and then when they check through the catalogue for products to buy they'll see it and say "oh wow that's nice looking!" and stop to check it out.. or they'll say "Oh that's one of Mayu22's products!" Getting them to remember your name and recognize it as a brand can really help your sales. Anyone can make a pure white icon with their product featured on it... it takes the least amount of effort. Make your thumbnails unique and it will really help you in the long run. Logo?: A lot of developers choose to add a Logo or Name onto their thumbnails to help people remember that it's there's. It's even one of the requirements to become a Pro Developer! Be sure to make your logo unique so people remember that it's yours! You can build your own personalized thumbnails to look like anything you want.. and if your paint program allows layers, all the better! Layers are a great way to design a thumbnail that is easy to edit and reusable over and over again! Here are a few examples of different thumbnails I've made just using one PSD (layer able format image). By changing the background and colors I can make my thumbnail match any thing I want.. even my homepage!
You can add text, logos, backgrounds, borders.. you name it! They are totally customizable! (no you do not have permission to use -these- thumbnails for your own products..so don't do it.) Be Creative! A poorly done thumbnail can actually hurt your sales. People may see your thumbnail and think "omg that's awful.. look how pixilated it is! If they can't make a thumbnail look good, how on earth can they make decent products?" and they'll assume you can't and won't even bother to look at your products... so take the time to make your thumbnail up to par! Submitting: You're Almost Done! I Swear! After you've finished making your product and you've saved it, and you have a thumbnail ready to be uploaded, go back into the Previewer and click the giant red "Submit Product To IMVU Catalog" button (you'll find it on the Product Info Tab.. it's hard to miss).
This will pop up a new browser window (in Internet Explorer) where you can fill out the information on your product that is ready to be submitted. Below is an example of how to fill out your product's information (Read the red comments!)
(Sorry the text is so small) If you read the above image correctly and filled out all the required information as shown, click the "Create a new product" Button. It will take a moment, but then it will automatically transfer you to your product's new description page. DO NOT CLICK THE BUTTON TWICE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. This will cause the product to be submitted twice into the catalogue, and you cannot delete items from the catalogue. If it is taking a long time, simply wait... eventually it will either go through, or an error message will pop up. You may click the submit button again only after the error message appears. CONGRATULATIONS! You have successfully created your first product! If at any point you need to change information relating to your product you can click the "Edit Settings" link located under the product's description.
You can also use the "Edit Product" button to go back and edit your CFL (and then resubmit it using the "Resubmit modified product CFL" button on the Product Info tab of the Previewer. Hiding/UnHiding Look at the image above. See the little green and red dot on the right hand side? This is a quick way to hide and unhide your product should you need to do so. Clicking the RED dot will hide your product, clicking the GREEN dot will unhide your product. You can also use the "See Derivations" link to see which products have been derived off yours, or go to the "Developer Reports" link (not shown above.. it'll be where the "Resource Page" link is shown) to see a list of your sales or convert credits (you can do that now that you're a developer!) Your Product Preview Basic HTML Codes for your product descriptions: <a href="http://www.yourlinkhere.com">Link Text Here</a> (Adds a Link) <img src="http://www.yourimageurlhere.com"> (Adds an Image) <a href="http://www.yourlinkhere.com"><img src="http://www.yourimageurlhere.com"></a> (Adds a Linked Image) CSS Background Code: <style> Change the #ffffff listed after background to the color you want shown INSIDE the boxes (where your product name and price are listed, as well as reviews)... padding and border px can be also changed to be larger or smaller.... solid can be changed to "solid", "dotted", "dashed", "double", or a few other various ones... the last #000000 denotes the color of the border. Although you -can- change the color of the box behind your product's description I don't recommend it.. not only is it easier to read the text on the white background, but the white shown on preview pictures looks better against a white background (as compared to say, a pink one). So I'm not going to explain to you how to do otherwise. and for that matter, I'm not going to show you how to edit the font colors for the page using CSS code either.. because.. it looks yucky. I would recommend that you use a very light background or one that is not too busy as making it too dark or complicated makes it hard to see the links and text on the page. There are other more complicated codes available out there, but I prefer the simpler one myself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Preview pictures are fast becoming a standard on IMVU... because not everyone has the means to buy a "Try It Pass", a lot of users rely on large preview pictures to show them what the item looks like before they buy it. (Lets face it, those little tiny thumbnails don't cut it), some users even refuse to buy products that don't have a preview picture, so it's always a good idea to add one to your product's description. (HTML Codes to do so are listed above). To make a preview picture you use your print screen key (or program.. just like when we made our product thumbnails) to take a screen shot of your product. I recommend doing this after your product has already uploaded into the system as this allows you to dress up your avatar any way you want and make your pictures look really spiffy. Showing your product from multiple angles of course is always a better idea as it gives the buyer a better idea of what your product looks like. You can upload your product pictures onto any image hoster, I recommend www.imageshack.us as it doesn't resize large images like www.photobucket.com does. You can then use the URL they give you to put into your HTML code and add it into your product's description. And like thumbnails, you can customize your preview pictures to look any way you want! Stickers If you haven't already, read this entire tutorial. Once you've done that I won't have to repeat myself... First.. make the image you want to use as a sticker (they can be transparent .PNG files, or jpg's, or .gif's) once you have it how you want it, go to the sticker section in the catalogue.. pick any sticker.. and go to it's description page. Under the description it will say "Make Sticker" as a link option.. click it. This will take you to the sticker submission page (which not surprisingly looks very similar to the non-sticker submission page) fill out the appropriate image.. load your sticker and it's thumbnail.. hit submit. Ta Da! Stickers are by far the easiest thing to make on IMVU. In Closing... Thank you for reading my tutorial! I hope it helped you out! If you have any questions or comments feel free to telegram me anytime, I'm always willing to help out new developers! ~Mayu22~
|
 |
|
||
 |
 |
|
|||
 |
|
||||
 |
|
||||
 |
|
||||
| All content herein Copyright (c) Cary A. Morton / www.immortal-doll.com unless otherwise stated. All other content (c) its individual owner. |