[Archived - mofaux] What materials would I need to start creating poses and actions?

Posted by “mofaux” on February 03, 2023.

@LestatDeLioncourt​ Thank you so much for all this additional information! I'll definitely be looking into some beginner videos for Blender. Right now, I'm just tinkering with it without knowing what gizmo or gadget each thing does, lol.

I really appreciate all the support you've given! Thank you so much! I'm excited to try building out some poses. :D

Posted by “LestatDeLioncourt” on February 03, 2023.

Hey? That is what I thought. This dumb old Vampire still has a bit of brain left. LOL

There are many programs that will generate the needed "Pose Files" for IMVU. These are in .XAF File Format. The only software that comes to mind that is cost-effective for use with IMVU is Blender.Currently, Blender version 2.9x is recommended and downloadable Here.

Blender is a free program. It will create Avatar Poses for IMVU. It will also create Animated Poses such as Dances, etc. The Starter Files are in the "Blender Tool Kit". Following some of the YouTube Videos by @jazzKat​ Will help greatly. Follow "KatBits" on YouTube for Tons of helpful information.

Jumping into Blender from scratch is a bit of a Task but well worth it in the end. You may need some of the Blender for Beginners videos available at YouTube. Getting familiar with the basic Interface is imperative.

I hope this helps...

Ps> Sorry for taking so long to get the information you need...

Posted by “mofaux” on February 02, 2023.

@LestatDeLioncourt​ Sorry if I wasn't clear! That's on me for not giving more context. My main goal (at this point) is to create avatar poses or possibly in the future a pose pack or just collections of poses. I was just trying to figure out how I could gain access to the files to build my own along with what programs to use.

Hopefully, that makes sense, lol. I just wanted to take a swing at making my own poses for pictures and what not.

Posted by “LestatDeLioncourt” on February 02, 2023.

@mofaux​ I am re-reading this thread and have questions. Maybe I am misunderstanding what product you want to make. Can you please give an example of what you are wanting to produce?

Posted by “Drosselmeyer” on February 02, 2023.

Our material on animation workflow using FBX and IMVU Studio is still a bit preliminary work-in-progress, but in a nut shell the process is to export your 3d project (either the whole scene or selected skeleton and mesh), make sure you have animation selected when exporting, import the FBX into Studio and you can select whether to bring in the mesh or not, you will bring in the skeleton and the animation, add an action in the actions component panel, add an ensemble to the action, in the ensemble select your imported animation, set the frame and loop parameters (loop 0 with loop forever), click preview. There is some naming convention required for seat and stance triggers which there is more info on here: https://create.imvu.com/article-topics/animation

I hope this helps.

Posted by “mofaux” on February 01, 2023.

Thank you​ @Drosselmeyer​ and @LestatDeLioncourt​ ! I was able to find some materials yesterday from the link here and have been exploring the materials. This is super helpful and made me really excited to try creating in this avenue! I did find some helpful videos adding the final the final export into create mode on client. I'm still figuring out studio right now, but would there be materials showing how to add in the final animation or avatar export into studio?

Posted by “Drosselmeyer” on February 01, 2023.

Hi @mofaux​, I am actually right in the process of improving the workflow for avatar animations and poses. This is my current task. I am working on making an updated starter avatar and skeleton compatible with the base 80 skeleton which will be available from our IVU Studio Toolkit which you can download here: https://create.imvu.com/articles/studio/toolkit The Toolkit is available for 3ds Max, Blender and Maya, but the Blender version is the most complete right now. I am working on the 3ds Max version and it should soon be feature complete and include all the tools needed to do avatar poses and animations.

Posted by “LestatDeLioncourt” on February 01, 2023.

Pick a Mesh Action Editor such as Blender or 3d Max. Once you decide, there are various tutorials and starter avatars, etc. for either of those. The software you decide for editing actions determines which "kits" to download, etc.,

Posted by “mofaux” on January 31, 2023.

Thank you! I’ll add that to my list to review. Is there a model template we need to use from VU in order to upload our poses? I was curious if there was an article or other resource that walks through this for Studio.

I have some materials for the client version but haven’t lucked out in finding it for Studio specifically.

Posted by “LestatDeLioncourt” on January 31, 2023.

You can look into making Poses & Actions with Blender and or Max 3d. These work best for couple actions. Many resources are located on YouTube. Even older videos will similarly reflect tot he newer version of the software.

Hope this hels