Making simple IMVU furniture items using Blender (2.49a)

This tutorial takes the Viewer through the process of making a simple 'block' chair/couch for IMVU from start to finish.

Beginning with the template file prerequisite, first basic introductions to Blender are made before moving on to 'meshing', UVW mapping, export and finally on to putting the resulting XML file together in Create Mode. Along the way a number of essential hints and tips are provided.

Tutorial Prerequisites ^

There are two prerequisite for this tutorial;

• the IMVU seat-node sample file

• the Blender2CAL3D export script

Both files are essential. Without them meshes will be incorrectly sized and it won't be possible to export the results to CAL3D, the format IMVU uses for all it's content. Additionally, it's highly recommended the "Getting started with Blender for IMVU" be read through beforehand as it discusses in more comprehensive detail how to set everything up for use (not covered in the above to save over-burdening the Viewer).

What to do with the files ^

Once the above files have been downloaded, extract the contents of both to a project folder and then start Blender 2.49a; from the "File" menu, select "Open" and then browse to the location of the file, clicking "Open" once LMB selected. Alternatively, simply double-click the *.blend file sitting in the project folder to automatically start Blender 2.49a. Follow the remainder of the tutorial as described.