Meshing Design

Open the Example Couch in Max. If you havn't already downloaded it click here to download it now.



Using the Move tool Select the Example couch, Guys sitting and the nodes and slide everything off to one side.
Now create your furniture mesh and center it over the grid.



Select only the Example Couch mesh and delete it.



Now select the two guys sitting and all the nodes. With the Move tool slide them over onto your mesh centering the root node over the grid. You may have to select and adjust the height of the two guys and their nodes, do not change the position of the root node, keep it centered over the grid.



IF you want or need more sitting nodes for you project select one of the guys sitting and his handle, sitting, catcher and pitcher nodes with the Move tool still selected as your tool. Now right click on the screen to bring up the quad menu and scroll down to Clone. When you click clone the Clone Options box will pop up, change the selection from Instance to Copy and click OK. You now have a clone that you can work with, slide him off to the side so we can work with him easier.



Now individually select the Sitting, Catcher and Pitcher nodes and rename them as follows under the Modifier Tab (Capitalization is important here!):

 From Rename To
 Seat01.Sitting01 Seat03.Sitting
 Catcher01.Standing01 Catcher03.Standing
 Pitcher01.Standing01 Pitcher03.Standing

Using the Move tool move your clone and his associated nodes into position by selecting him and all of his nodes and moving them as a unit.



Now that we have the seating set up lets move back to your mesh! Select your mesh and and click the Element icon, you may have to drag a selection box around your mesh to get it to highlight. Once all the faces are highlighted scroll down to Polygon Properties and assign it a material ID as shown in step 2. Once the material ID is set scroll back up and unclick the Element Icon.

Set the Smoothing Group to 1
Set the mesh ID to 1
If you have multiple meshes repeat this step with each mesh assigning the mesh ID number sequential, keep the Smoothing Group set to 1 for the next mesh. Second mesh will be material ID 2, third mesh ID 3 and so on.



Click the Material Editor icon and select a new material ball. Next click the Standard button and when the Material/Map Browser pops up select Multi/Sub Object. When the Replace Material box pops up select Discard Old Material and click OK.



Next click Set Number to set the number of materials, change the Number of Materials from 10 to 1 and click OK.



Now that we have 1 material click the small gray box next to "Material #0 (Standard)" and the On/Off check box. The Color Selector box will pop up, slide the Whiteness slider from gray to solid white then click Close. Now click the Material #0 (Standard) button and the screen will change to the one on the next page.



Now name your material, because its material ID 1 you have to number it one less so in my case the name is Tutorial Couch [0]. The brackets are important as is the space between the name and the brackets. Material 2 becomes material [1] and so on.
Next click the small un-nammed material button I have circled and the Material/Map Browser will pop up again. This time double click Bitmap and browse for your texture.



The next screen that will come up allows you to apply your material to your mesh, you can also effect its tiling here and offset the material using the settings. I always name my material here as well.

Clicking the Show Material in Viewport icon will allow your material to be visable in the main viewport, I have it labeled below as number 1.

Next click the Apply Materials icon to apply your materials to the mesh, its labeled as number 2 below.



Next close the material editor and right click the word in the upper left hand corner of your viewport. In the drop down menu select Smooth + Highlights and you'll now see your mesh with the texture applied. UGHH! The materials look terrible! Don't worry we'll fix that in the next steps.



Next under the Modifiers tab drop down menu select the UVW Map modifier, next we'll correct the application of the texture. YAY!



With UVW Map applied choose the mapping option that works best for your mesh, in my case Box mapping applied the texture nicely. Feel free to experiment with the various mapping types to see which one works best.



Next switch back to wireframe and in the drop down modifier menu select the Skin modifier.



With the Skin modifier open click Add and in the pop up box select your root node and click select.



Next click Edit Envelopes. Uncheck Envelopes and Cross Sections. Check the Vertices box.

Now drag a selection box around your mesh and the vertices will now show as white boxes.



In the Skin modifier, scroll down to Weight Properties, uncheck Rigid Handles and Normalize. Check Rigid as shown below and in the Abs Effects field type in the value of 1.0.

Now hit the enter key on the keyboard twice and the mesh vertices will show up as red boxes indicating they are weighted to the root node.



Now close the Skin modifier. Select only the root node for export.
File
Export
Choose the .xsf option and export your root, be sure to type .xsf at the end of the file name. I exported the root node as Tutorial Couch.xsf

Once the root is exported select your mesh and export it as a .xmf file. I exported mine as Tutorial Couch.xmf

Now with nothing selected export your material file(s) as .xrf file(s). In my case it was exported as Tutorial Couch.xrf

In ALL cases it is imperative that you type the file extension at the end of your file name or the Cal3D exporter will default to the Cal3D format.

In the next exciting episode: The IMVU Previewer!


Open the IMVU Previewer, click File, Create a Derived Product. When the pop up box opens type in the product number 12909, the IMVU Bar Light Brown.

Once it is loaded open the Special tab and under Skeleton-.xsf browse for your xsf skeleton file.



Next open the Geometry tab and browse for your .xmf mesh file.



Next, under the Material tab browse for your .xrf material file.
Apply your texture next as if you were deriving a product.
Uncheck the Vertex Colors box or your mesh will be solid black.



Click the big Apply Changes button, I am going to guess you probably knew that, and be amazed at your lovely creation!
Test the sitting or standing nodes as the case may be and if everything looks good, save your project and submit it to the catalog.
Easy wasn't it?