Deving Tips From Sinderella
——-
These tips were written sometime in fall 2009, so please note that some of the information might and most probably will become outdated…
——-
I’m often asked for some deving tips or questions like ‘I want to become a dev, what do i do?’
And I don’t really know what to say back, as basically, the truth is that you can’t explain it in a simple way. Besides, I don’t really see the point in doing it anyways, since the work has already been done for me. so here are the urls that you might find helpful…
‘New Devs Learn here! How to get started at IMVU‘ thread at imvu forum sounds like a good place to start out with:
http://www.imvu.com/catalog/modules…
I really recommend Keef’s site, learned alot from there. All the explanations are very clear and on the point. Imvu education center is quite useful as well, even tough it’s mostly theory based, you can still find some basic tutorials on creating textured products and much more.
Also tutorials by WaltzingMouse were really helpful to me, mostly for meshing though, but there are some great tips for texturers as well.
Now what I’ve got to say:
Starting out as IMVU developer is pretty tough. No one knows who you are, all the products you submit end up at the end of the catalog because no one buys them. So you just can’t help but think ‘is it because no one knows me or is it because my products suck’?
(perhaps both? j/k:P)
And as you area tier 0, the submission fees are quite high as well, making it even harder to make just any profit.
This ‘tutorial’(?) will have some very basic info a beginner could use and also some marketing tips/’food for thought’ for smaller devs who are trying to improve their sales.
Very, very basic things:
If you are a Guest_, then you need to register your name in order to start developing.
Then you need to decide what you want to do. you can be either a..
- Texturer
- Mesher
- Action maker
—-
- Sticker dev
And third, you will need some software.
And that would be Imvu Previewer (available in creator center)
and,
for texturing: Photoshop / gimp paintshop pro etc
for meshing: 3ds max
Hardware:
decent and properly calibrated monitor - so that you could see what you’re doing
graphics tablet - for texturers - sort of optional, but there are times you just can’t do without it, so highly recommend it
3d navigator -(for meshers/action makers) speeds up the working process considerably
How much does it cost to submit to the catalog?
when you start out, the submission costs are quite high as it depends on your tier level. imvu base products are cheapest to derive from. so eyes, skintones are the most affordable to make.
on the average, you pay 750-1000cr for submission/derivation, could be more depending on the mesh
As your tier level goes up, you pay smaller and smaller submission costs.
how much do you earn off a sale?
you set your own price. Could be 1cr, could be 1000, it’s up to you. But on the average texturers earn 100-200cr off sale, although 300-400cr also is not uncommon
Texturing basics
Some texturers solely rely on painting by hand and using filters, some use photos and then enhance those to look more cgi-like [the approach is called photoskinning]
But it’s not as easy as it seems. Slapping a photograph over your texture will not make your product look photorealistic.
And unless you really know how to paint, you won’t be able to create a perfect texture from a scratch.
The best textures are always time consuming, you can spend many hours on just one piece of clothing, but the more time you invest into the product, the better it will turn out.
How to make an outfit?
I remember the time when i wanted to start making clothing for sims, I tried asking some friends for guidance, but i couldn’t get a straight answer about how you approach the workflow, everyone was like ‘idk you just do it’..
so well, here’s how i do it:
The very first thing you need to do is get the mesh templates and while using those as a guidance, you create opacity first… or at least create a basic one, then you copy your opacity to the new layer, set to multiply and start on the actual texture.
your first outfit might give you a headache if it’s too complicated when it comes to textures/opacity(double layer tops for example), so be sure to make something simple for a start
the texture consists of many layers
highlights
shading
texture
color
+any other details.
Sometimes you’ve created something and the result is just ‘not right’. There are many things that could go wrong, but try looking at your creation and ask yourself…
Is the level of detail really the most this texture size could handle?
Does the texture have ‘depth’ or shadows and highlights?
if you want to make a red skirt, no matter how detailed the mesh is, you can’t just fill your texture with red color and expect it to look real. whether your product is black or white, it always has highlights and shadows, fabric details (wrinkles, seams and so on)
For a start you can just use the skintone files that imvu provides and work from there. They are not the best, but they can be a helpful reference for highlighting and shadows.
Is the color/tint really appropriate and realistic?
say you made a blond hair with some greenish tint, or eyes with whites that are actually white, not flesh toned or a skintone which has this ugly yellow undertone.. Always use adjustment layers in photoshop to fix levels, shadow and highlight colors and adding/substracting a bit of certain tint
Meshing
(I will cover it just very briefly, don’t want to make this tutorial even longer)
Meshing? well that’s where the real credits are.
It might take some time to see the profit, but if your mesh is good and unique, eventually it happens. and the nicest part is that the texturers do the work for you by promoting and selling the products and you can just concentrate on your work.
meshing can be very easy (say when you create a torus and put it into avatars ear, it takes just a few mintues and poof, you got a hoop earring mesh) or it can be difficult and time consuming (clothing, hair), but the greatest thing about it is that you have a creative freedom. you dont have to search the catalog for hours looking for a perfect mesh for one of your projects, you just go and make it yourself. you are also in full control of your prices and the derivation fees are always low, as you derive from imvu base products, while your profit is higher as you can charge for both mesh and texture.
not saying that a texturer cant make decent money on imvu by just texturing, but due to a pretty fierce competition, they have to possess a really top notch skill and unique designs in order to achieve that.
I guess it’s just the way it is. Meshing and actions have always been more profitable, textures, even though sometimes they might require even more work, not as much comparing to 3d products.
MARKETING:
1. The brand, the name
I can’t stress enough how important these things are. If you registered not too long ago, your name is probably something like XxX[yournamemisspelled]8923 This is not a good name for a dev. You want a name which is easy to remember. It should be a single word, starting with a capital letter, preferably no numbers, x’s, misspellings (but guess i shouldn’t be talking eh?lol)
and it shouldn’t be way too long, so stick with up to 10-13 characters length.
It can’t be a too common name. And it can’t be waay too unique to be too hard to remember or spell.
And yes, all good ones are taken and most often a worthy name will be a premium one and will cost you 100 000cr. If you are very confident about your capabilities as a dev, then that is a must. If you think it’s ‘too late’, perhaps it’s not. If you were saving up for a bling, I say the name is more important from the marketing perspective, but it’s only my opinion.
2. Catalog icons.
Please! just keep.it.simple.
The thing about product icons on imvu is how tiny they are. Only 100×80px, so obviously, it is really hard to show the product in all its glory within such a limited space, and yet, it has to be enough for a customer to decide whether they want it or not.
That means that you need to reduce all the fancy borders/glares and sparkles to the minimum. If you want to show off your graphic skills, let your products speak for those then.
Since the icons have their basic function.. to show off the product, this always should come first.
Also what is important to mention is the icon background. Do not use bright colors, don’t use plain white or plain black as black products will just blend with the background.
Here’s is a little bit of theory:
Our eyes are attracted to things which are
1. bright
2. sharp
and 3.colorful.
So make sure your icon background is none of those things, because if you have a bright eyecatchy background.. people will just look through your product because their eyes will just look at the background.
To animate or not to animate?
some people despise animated icons, I heard some folks wont even shop in the catalog if they see one animated icon.. so keep that in mind. but…
sometimes animated icons are the only option… pose products, rooms, sometimes even full outfits and long hairs. On most part, keep in mind that you’re not supposed to show ‘everything’. The icon just needs to grab attention. If someone gets interested, they will click and see the full size version of the product on the product page
If most icons in your catalog are animated, yes, they are most likely to give most ppl a headache.
so try to stay away from them if you can, but if noting works out and you have to make one or two..then don’t feel guilty and go or it.
3. Catalog pages and homepage.
Again, keep it simple.
No ‘fancy’ flash scripts, animated backgrounds, slideshows, and most importantly, NO MUSIC!
Dont forget that your customer might be either watching or listening to something in the background. Sometimes loud. So when they come to your page and the music starts to play on top of the music that’s already playing, its like the most annoying thing ever. so the next thing they do is leave. Congrats, you just lost a customer.
4. Screenshots:
Basically, same rules apply to screenshots as to icons. While taking screenshots you need to keep in mind the product you’re selling.. the preview image is supposed to be about the product, not the new hot hairstyle you just bought. Say if you’re selling a top, pick a modest hairstyle which wont conceal your top around the shoulders area, if youre selling pants, dont use long boots to go with them. your product has to be seen completely.
Always use shadowless room when taking screenshots. You want to show your customers exactly what they are getting. Yes, sometimes it will look pretty plain, but I guess it’s your job as a texturer to create shading on your products, so that they could look good even when there are no shadows in the room.
And don’t photoshop your product previews.. let the product be seen ‘as is’. You can make an eyecandy enhanced picture of your product if you wish, but make sure you also have an ‘actual’ picture available as well.
If you feel like using filters then it’s more likely that there is something wrong with your product…
5. Recolors
Sometimes when i look at my sales I can’t help but think ‘oh why did I make all those colors? I could as well just make one black version and it all would be almost the same’
How many recolors to make?
1-2 - it’s kinda little
3 is enough
4-6 is enough and gives your customers good selection
7 and more is way too many
don’t make too many. don’t forget that cat pages are 25 products per page and some people won’t bother clicking through many pages as they get bored too quickly if they see many colors of the thing they are not interested in. and who knows, maybe on page 6, there would be sth they’d buy, but they left your catalog before getting to that product
I say, don’t bother making 10 recolors of the same thing in order to keep your catalog more interesting.
6. The pricing. High or Low?
I don’t think you could answer that one easily
You shouldn’t price your product less than you think it’s worth.
When you should price your product high:
- When you know you’ve created something truly unique and it can’t be found in other dev’s catalogs
- When you know you’ve created something that is top notch quality. The texture, the colors - something that is Pro quality, the product has no flaws.
Advantages of high pricing:
When customers look at something high priced, it makes them think about its value. In real life products of higher quality are priced higher, so it’s already in the subconsciousness - ‘if it’s more expensive then it must be better, so maybe i should buy it instead of the cheap one’.
On the other hand, a low price could have an effect of ‘wow, it’s so cheap, i could just buy it, even if i won’t use it, no biggie, it didn’t cost much’. So following this way of thinking, ppl often end up buying even more than they were going to. (how many times have you walked away with stuff you didn’t even think of buying in big discount stores?)
The low price:
I say there is no point in pricing anything below 90 cr. If someone likes something, they’ll get it, 50cr from a customers point of view isn’t much of a difference
Too-good-to-be-true-price approach aka undercutting:
Very low price could get you more sales, and more sales would give you an advantage in the catalog placement which would bring even more sales.
I personally don’t think it’s a good approach. Your buyers won’t value your products too much since they got them for peanuts. Fellow devs also won’t be too pleased looking your way if you undercut everyone like that…
also one more piece of theory: the cheaper you products are, the more predits you will get..
personal opinion:
i think you should rather try to create a product so good, that it can make it to the top of catalog regardless of the price, so don’t be cheap!
7. Crosspromotion:
Is a great way to increase sales, so always make sure you put additional colors icons and urls in the product description (but don’t use imvu as icon host! reupload them to your own photobucket, hosting account etc). Also it is a good idea to put another bunch of products ‘you might also like…or ’similar products’ or ‘more hair/skins etc by me’ under the screenshot and description as well.
But don’t overdo it!
I had a set of poses I wanted to use but i forgot the trigger, so i had to open the catalog page to see what it was. Except the graphics showing off the poses, the page contained like 50 or even more linked icons to another poses made by the dev. All of them were animated gifs, so they took even longer to load. The thing about imvu product pages is that it wont open until everything on the page is completely loaded. So it took forever and all I wanted to see is a little piece of the text. i was really frustrated. if I was shopping I guess I would have just left.
So don’t link more than 15-20 products off your pages. Dont forget that even though most ppl have speedy internet these days, they might be also visiting other flash/script heavy sites, watching streaming video/audio, be in the middle of downloading some files, so don’t count that everything on your page will load as fast for them as the precached versions load for you..
8. Advertisement
Banners are a conventional means of advertising here on imvu, perhaps not as effective as blings, but hey, at least they are free.. Be sure to thank people who support your products as well.
The Bling:
Ideally, it should be something that people can relate to and would want to put on their panels. So unless you have alot of fans, it better not be just your initials, so try to be creative. Don’t make a bling just for the sake of making one.
When to get a bling?
When people start requesting it.
I think there is no point in getting a bling if you only have like 25 products in your catalog, it wont pay off too quickly.
How many tiles?
If you’re on the budget, 1 is enough, you can always get a bigger badge if things go well in the future.
bigger badges (3 and more tiles), get seen better, but their downside is that they are taking up more space and therefore, less likely to be used(on the main panel at least), so i guess you just should decide what works best for you
Shoutouts
the truth is that most probably they wont boost your sales up to the stratosphere, so don’t expect too much if you buy one.
the amount of shoutouts that might have at least some impact is like 500-1000/10 days. I wouldn’t recommend buying shoutouts with credits. What they do really help with is getting your name out there, so if you got some spare devtokens, not like you can do anything better with those, then sure, get some shouts.
The shoutout text should be interesting as well, be very specific. Don’t say ‘I’ve got some nice skins, eyes and clothing, check my catty out’ every 2nd dev has that in their catalog, so try to point out something special about your products, or just be creative and spontaneous ‘do NOT click here for more information, do NOT click here for more information, do NOT click here for more information’:P lol i gotta run this
Networking
well, self explanatory, be social, make friends.. wear you own stuff in chatrooms, be active on the forums, you know all that stuff..moving on
Unconventional advertisement
well, if none of that helps, just be creative…there are other sites.
you could create some avatar art wearing your products and post it on flickr. Post notes on pieces that you made and include a link where you can get them.
You could make a video/commercial and post it on youtube. All of us have seen how most pointless videos sometimes get millions of views out there, so you could try your luck as well.
but if really nothing helps, then I guess there’s nothing left, but to improve your skill and wait till you get noticed. There are plenty of photoshop tutorials out there, not just within imvu site. or you could just buy a reference book. yes it sounds uncool, but they do have tons of useful information.
The conclusion:
if you are able find you niche, create unique and top quality products, have a good intuition about what is ‘in’, work very hard until achieving perfection, have the ability and desire to constantly improve and of course, can take anything that imvu throws at ya, I’m sure you’ll be an amazing success. Sure, these things require hard work, alot of patience and determination, so be prepared for that. Thanks for reading and be sure to use the knowledge presented here at your own risk!
Love,
Sinderella