You know why Wizards are better then Fighters? They don't need no stink'n steel! Cut the air, and your foes, with the burning power of the Flaming Sword. This magically summoned blade is pulled from elemental fire itself. It won't burn it's wielder but it'll flambe and cleave anything and anyone you who stands in your way. The only thing it won't vanquish is a boring conversation.... (unless you aim for their throat!)
Commands are:
"FireSword" - Draws the Fire Sword
"Slash" - Cuts whatever is in front of the player (use FireSword first, or no sword will be seen)
"Dispel" - Banishes the Sword
PLEASE NOTE: The Flaming Sword work with both Male and Female avies, but is listed under Male Armour Gloves. It replaces avie body channel 53. Extremely few items use that body channel, but if they do, they will either remove this item or force this item to removed. Please use "Try It" before then "Buy It", to ensure it works with your wardrobe.
Prefer Lightning Swords over Fire? Or maybe Dark Energy? Razor Blades? And 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 actual Texture map used for the Flaming Sword. Use this to make simple changes, like Color. As you can see, this is a sequence of 4 images, all in a row, each slightly different then the last. The animation is played from Left to Right:
This is the Opacity layer for the Flaming Sword. An Opacity layer is a black and white image, acting like a silhouette. Everything that is black is invisible, and everything that is white is solid. Anything gray becomes transparent and glass-like. The darker the gray, the less you see it. I would personally avoid using anything but solid black and white, as IMVU has issues handling translucent transparencies, such as causing hair and clothing to disappear:
This is the Wireframe for the Flaming Sword. 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 from scratch. The second handle, shown on the blade's surface, is there to show where the real handle, shown above the blade, sits on the blade. There is no actual polygons in the middle/back of the blade. If you choose to mask off the Handle entirely, and use only the blade itself, there is no second handle to get rid of:
This is the sequence used for the Fire Bits that pop out of the blade as it burns. Although it's hard to see, this is actually 4 frames of animation, just like the blade:
This is the Opacity for the Fire Bits:
I haven't included a Wireframe for the Fire Bits as it's just an image on a sheet.
I know frame animation like this might be scary for some of you, so I've put together a little tutorial. It's really not that hard...
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1. First make your basic sword blade and it's first frame of animation in an photo editing program, like Photoshop or GIMP (it's FREE).
2. In a second window, make an image that's 4x the width of your first image, but the same height.
3. Copy the sword blade image from the first window and paste it into the second. Carefully move it all the way to the left side, but not a pixel over. It helps to zoom in tight.
4. Make a second layer in your first window and put it under the first layer you made the sword blade in. Then turn your sword blade image down to around %25 Opacity, so it's ghost like. You'll need to see it in order to make the second layer image.
5. In the second layer, draw the same sword blade, but slightly more advanced in time. If it's fire, make the fire move up and out. If it's lightning, make the tendrils dance. Whatever you do, just make it advance a little bit, not alot.
6. Make the 1st layer completely invisible, and copy all of the 2nd layer.
7. Paste this image, the second frame of your animation, as close to the right side of the first frame you made as you can. You have to move it right up to the very pixel, but not over. Leave no space! It has to be clean.
8. Repeat steps 3 to 7 for each frame.
This model is setup for 4 frames of animation, which is a good trade off for fluid animation verses image quality. You can experiment with the image settings and try for more or less frames, but you'll have to also adjust the Cell Width, Cell Height, and Num Cell settings as well. "Frame/Cell" controls the speed of the animation being played.
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.