(This version is for MEN ONLY! Women's Sold Separately!)
Do you ever get the desire to hollow out your head with a plastic scrapper and replace your brain with a little candle? Well for god-sakes DON'T! Instead try on the Pumpkin Head. This fun little head replacement turns your avie's favorite hat-rack into a Joyful, if somewhat evil looking, Jack-o-lantern. It smiles, laughs, blinks, and does enough Avie-like things that it thoroughly crosses the uncanny valley into creepy-ville. Given, it might seen very Halloween-specific, but can you really restrict the replacement of one's head with a vegetable to just one Holiday? I say "MERRY FREAK'N CHRISTMAS and a Happy New Year!"
PLEASE NOTE: This item will only correctly fit the Male Avie Torso, and won't properly fit Female avies. There is a separate version for the Female avies available in the catalog. The head may or may not work with other avie torsos. It also replaces the Head avie and won't work with any other Avie heads. It removes the avie's hair and most likely won't work with any Head-related items like hats or glasses, due to it's unusual size and shape. In all cases, please use TRY IT before you BUY IT! There will be NO REFUNDS if it doesn't work with your existing outfit or body type.
Not fond of that Evil Smile? Prefer Bigger/Smaller head size? Or how about some SOUND EFFECTS?? Well then, get to work and DERIVE it! Make your own version, and even sell it the catalog for a small markup over my original, and keep the extra profits for yourself! You can express yourself AND earn credits at the same time. How's that for a sweet deal? You'll need a full account on IMVU, as well as a copy of Previewer. You can find out more about Deriving on the IMVU's Education Center. Here are the templates you'll need below:
This is the Texture map for the Pumpkin's Face. Use this to make simple changes, like color:
This seemingly empty image is the Opacity map. It's actually a large image with just a small part painted black. An Opacity image is a Black and White Silhouette, matching the same size and shape of the Texture map. It controls which parts of the model are visible or invisible. Black is Invisible, White is Solid. In this case the Black parts mark the holes cut in the face that allow you to see the interior. If you wish to change the shape of the Pumpkin's holes, you should look over the Wireframe template below this one, to help guide your Eye/Mouth placement so your new shapes line up with the Eye and Mouth animations. Failure to keep within my guidelines will result in Pumpkin heads that are unable to Blink or animate properly. The effect will look VERY unsightly:
This is the Wireframe template for the Pumpkin's Face. This shows you exactly how the Texture map attaches to the model. You'll need this if you wish to change the shape of the Eyes and Mouth for the Pumpkin, or to make a completely new Texture map from scratch. As you can see in the image, the Yellow Zone is the area you should have the Left Eye in, and the Green Zone is the Right Eye. The Mouth needs to stay within the Blue Zone. If you fail to keep inside of these Zones, the Eye and Mouth animations won't function correctly and your resulting head will look very messy. Use this template as a Guide, along with the Blank Pumpkin Face below, to easily create new Pumpkin faces in a matter of minutes:
This is a Blank template for the Pumpkin's Face. Use this, with the Guidance of the Wireframe template, to easily make any new face shape you desire. Just remember to keep the Eyes and Mouth inside of the locations I have set to ensure your new head animations correctly and looks it's best:
This tiny image is the Texture map for the Pumpkin's Stem:
This is the Wireframe layout for the Stem. It's large to allow you the best initial image to work with. If you decide to create a completely new Texture map for the Stem, please resize it back down to the same small size I used for the Stem, as larger image sizes will be wasted on such a small item:
This strange looking image is the animated Texture map for the Inside of the Pumpkin Head. It's actually 4 images, each with slightly different in brightness from the other. Think of it like a Film strip, with 4 images that IMVU switches rapidly between. When animated, it creates the flickering lighting effect of a candle illuminating the Pumpkin from within. Any changes you make to one part must be copied exactly onto each of the 4 stacked frames of animation. It's best to use this image to make simple changes, like altering the color of the Pumpkin's interior:
If you wish to modify the detail to the Pumpkin's Interior, you'll need this single animation frame to work with. It's just one image and won't work as a replacement for the Interior unless you turn off animations. Make your alteration to this one frame, then create a new image, large enough to stack 4 copies of your new animation frame within, just like my Texture map example above. Then modify the brightness of each image just a little (Plus or Minus 5% or less), and shrink the whole image down to 256x256. You're new image will flicker just like mine, but your alterations will remain in place, instead of jumping around, like they would if you just edited the Texture map example without redoing the animation frames:
If you wish to make more serious alterations to the Pumpkin's Interior, or a completely new Texture from scratch, you'll need this Wireframe template. Remember again that this is just for 1 frame of the animation. After you create your new Interior, you'll need to make an image consisting of 4 stacked copies, each with very tiny changes to brightness to complete the Flickering animation for the Interior:
This is the animated Texture map for the Candle's Flame, burning inside the Pumpkin Head. It's 4 animation frames, just like the Interior, but these animation frames are stacked side to side, instead of top to bottom. Use this to make simple changes, like altering the color of the Flame:
This is the Opacity layer for the Candle's Flame. Unless you have something drastic in mind, it's probably best not to alter this image. If you do feel the need to make some killer new Flame shape, use the square wick as your guide and line up each of your Flame animations on that guide. A Candle's Flame needs to have very simple, subtle motion to look realistic, so only change this if you are an experienced animator:
To add sound, I highly recommend you download and use Audacity. It's a free sound editing tool that can export out OGG sound files. OGG sound files compress down to less then 1/10th the file size of WAV files. SO USE OGG FILES!!! You can download it here:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Please keep your sound volume levels within acceptable limits. DON'T MAKE YOUR SOUND AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE!!! Loud sounds will annoy other users, and reduce your sales. Also avoid using Looping sounds, as IMVU has no controls to stop Looping sounds once they start playing.