This item is a demonstration version made for developers, and not really designed for general use. The Covered Tail is an Anyskin tail with an added masking layer for special effects (Ligntning, Fire), decals (Blood, Slime), or even clothing. Well this version is animated, you can use it for non-animated effects, and best of all, no matter what you add, it will seamlessly float above whatever skin the player chooses to use.

PLEASE NOTE: The Covered Tail attach to the "Root" Node of the avie's skeleton. There's a limit to the number of things you can attach to any Node, so it might conflict with other items which attach to the other root node, like Pets. If you add too many items to your "Root" node, the Tail might vanish, or cause one of your other items to disappear. This item is setup to use only the male avie skins, so it will appear white if used with a female avie. There is a female version available. As always, to ensure your full satisfaction with this product, please use TRY IT before you BUY IT! There will be NO REFUNDS if it doesn't fit your needs.

Ready to make your own Covered Tail? Well then 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 Additive texture for the Lightning Effect. An Additive texture is an image that is glowing, and is brighter, and more solid, the lighter each pixel is. If you wish to change shape of the Lightning Effect, just make sure some part of your new image is sufficiently close to white or your new Lightning Effect will be very dull, or even nearly invisible. You can not, for instance, have a black Lightning Effect using an Additive texture. To make a black Lightning Effect, you'd have to create a new Texture map and matching Opacity layer for your new black Lightning Effect texture:

Of course you don't have to have a glowing effect on the surface of the tail! If you wish to use the covered layer for something that doesn't glow, you'll need to make a new Texture Map and matching Opacity Map. An Opacity layer is like a Black and White Silhouette that controls the visibility of the model. The whiter this image, the more solid the model it's attached to becomes. Solid black is invisible, and gray is transparent. You'll mostly want to stick to solid Black and White. The Opacity layer image needs to match the exact layout and size of your Texture map. Check out the Body's Wireframe template to understand the model's structure.

This is the Wireframe Template of Body. This shows you exactly how the Texture map adheres to the structure of the model. You'll need this if you want to create a completely new Texture map and Opacity layer from scratch. Keep in mind that the your created Texture will progressively converge towards the tip, becoming very crushed at the bottom. For best results, plan on the detail of your new image to be reduced drastically the closer you get towards the bottom:

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 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.