This lesson walks through the whole path we use for every file in our shop: from a 3D model in Blender to a furniture product you can sit on in IMVU. You need Blender (free), an IMVU account with Create Mode and a 3D model you are allowed to use.
1. Start with a model you can use
Model it yourself, or use a model with a license that allows commercial use and changes, such as CC0 or CC BY. With CC BY you must credit the author in your product description. Models marked as “licensed for use only”, ripped game assets and other creators’ IMVU products are off limits: they get products removed and accounts banned.
2. Clean it up in Blender
- Apply transforms (Ctrl+A, All Transforms) so rotation and scale are clean.
- Put the origin at floor level, in the middle of the piece, and make the piece stand on the floor.
- Check the scale against a furniture base product or an avatar-sized reference, so a seat ends up at sitting height.
- Reduce the polygon count. Remove hidden faces and use the Decimate modifier on heavy parts. Most of our chairs and sofas land between 5,000 and 20,000 triangles; a whole room set can go higher.
- Join parts by material, so each texture is one material slot.
3. UVs and textures
IMVU furniture uses simple diffuse textures, so bake the look of your Blender materials (color, ambient occlusion and soft shading) into one image per material. 1024 px PNGs are a good balance between quality and download size. Name each texture with its material number first, like 00_frame.png and 01_cushion.png, so you always know which slot it goes in. For color variants, keep the same UVs and file name and only change the image.
4. The skeleton and sit nodes
Furniture needs a skeleton (.xsf) with a Root bone, and for each seat a SeatNN.Sitting bone plus a matching HandleNN bone above it. The seat bone’s position and rotation decide where the avatar sits and which way it faces. An idle action (.xaf) holds the same positions, so if you move a seat, update the idle too.
5. Export to Cal3D
Export with a Cal3D exporter for Blender that writes IMVU’s XML formats: the mesh as .xmf, the skeleton as .xsf, the idle as .xaf and one .xrf material file per slot. Every vertex should be weighted to the Root bone.
6. Check it before you upload
Drop your files into the free IMVU Creator Studio. You will see the mesh with its textures, the triangle count and every sit node with an arrow showing where the avatar faces. Move a seat there and download the edited .xsf and .xaf if something is off.
7. Upload in Create Mode
- In IMVU Create Mode, choose Furniture and derive from a furniture base product (for example product 12908).
- In Config, load your skeleton (.xsf). In Mesh, load the .xmf on Mesh 0.
- In Materials, load each texture on the material with the same number and untick vertex colors.
- In Actions, add the idle (.xaf) as
stance.Idle. - Sit on every seat in Preview, then submit.
8. Make the catalog icon and sell
Render the piece in Blender or take a clean screenshot, then turn it into a 100×80 icon with the Catalog Image Maker. Add your credit line to the product description if the model is CC BY, set your markup and publish.
Want to skip the modeling? Every file in our IMVU creator files shop is already converted, rigged and tested, from $3.
IMVU Only is an independent fan site and is not affiliated with IMVU Inc.