Keef's
Total Noob’s (and old farts) Guide
to Deriving
What
is a Deriving Chain?
Before
you start submitting products you will need to get an understanding
on how products on IMVU work.
All products (sans
stickers) on IMVU follow a family tree structure, everything
ultimately being a decendent of an IMVUinc ‘base’
or ‘root’ product and every product inherits the
assets of its parents.
-In this example
of a female garment it all starts with the IMVU base avatar.
This is the bone structure all avatar products are built on.
(rooms and furniture follow a different hierarchy.)
-Next is an IMVU
base product, in this case the ‘Baby Yellow Tee’
that you met in IMVU’s beginning product making tutorial.
This is used to tell the product it will be worn as a replacement
body part.
-Next in line is
the Content Creator’s mesh. This is a new 3D structure
and new textures that were made by a 3D Content Creator.
-And lastly is the
2D Artist’s retexture of the new mesh, they are the ones
who retexture the mesh into art.
This
one started out clean but the Content Creator with the red icon
in the middle had set their item to derivable. In and of itself
setting an item to derivable is not bad thing or against the
rules. The problem arises when someone derives from it.
In the example above
several other Content Creators have derived from that sub product
(the first red zone). Each of those Content Creators has to
pay and sell at an inflated price not only paying the original
mesh fee but they are also are paying the Content Creator in
the middle his full price.
Drop down another
rung in the chain and another layer of fees and complexity is
added on.
In real numbers,
supposing each Content Creator along the way has marked up their
product 100cr. That means if I don’t look at where I am
deriving and my product ends up in one of the question mark
slots my breakeven cost and deriving fee will be 550- 650 credits!
This is for a mesh that should only cost you 350 credits!!!
It is ALWAYS best
to keep this deriving tree as compact as possible. Long gangly
tress make for overpriced and slow loading products.
What does this mean as
a Content Creator?
At each new rung of
the chain that product has most likely added on a fee, this could
be anywhere from a few credits to thousands of credits. Those
fees are not only needed to be paid at submission but are also
paid each and every time the mesh is sold!
Therefore it is in the best interest of the Content Creator to
seek out the oldest, and therefore lowest cost product in the
chain to derive from for maximum profit potential.
It
is impossible to price competitively and earn a profit if you
chain derive of off a marked up child product.
*IMPORTANT*
If you set an item to Derivable and it is derived from you can
never change that items pricing. This means if you make a mistake
on pricing, want to change your fee structure, or if you even
just want to have a sale, you will not be able to change the price.
What
does this mean for the consumer?
When a user loads a
product in IMVU it will load all the products in that chain from
parent to child before the final version loads. If a product has
been derived several times this means several products have to
download before the final item.
Needlessly chain
derived product make for a more expensive catalog as there are
many middle men all getting a cut. Higher prices means less
items for your money. Would you rather buy two tops for the
same price as one? So do your customers.
What
does this mean as a Mesher?
Many mesh makers
provide deriving information on the parent product, if a product
is improperly chain derived that means the deriver has missed
out on seeing this valuable information.
When a mesh is chain
derived it becomes impossible for the mesh artist to track how
a mesh is doing. While they will still see overall derived sales
they cannot easily see the derived products themselves in order
to see what the texture artist are doing with their products.
If they cannot see what the texturers are doing it is impossible
for them to gain an idea of where textures are wanting in further
product making.
It also makes it
impossible for a mesh maker to alert all those who have derived
to any issues with the product.
Also may Meshers
like to add a “Items derived from this mesh” search
on their products to make it easer for shopper to find its retextures.
If you have not directly derived form them your product will
not be in this search and you will miss out on this marketing
opportunity.
How
to Efficiently Derive.
When you find a derivable
product you want to retexture you should always check to see
if the one you found is at the base of the chain. To do this
look under the product description on the right had side you
should see a ‘Derived from’ and a link.
If the IMVUinc product
is the same mesh you are waiting to recolor that is the product
you want to derive from.
If the IMVUinc product
is entirely different then hit the back button to get to the
developer’s mesh and that is the product you want to derive
from.
There will be times
when a product will link to a hidden product. In those cases
you may want to ask the dev, search around the catalog or ask
in the texturing forums to see if that is truly the base product.
If the original source
it is not available for you to use then you should then derive
from the next available product in line from the hidden one.
This is common when a mesher is working with a second dev in
a collaborative work.
Do note: there are
some meshes on IMVU that are not available for deriving. It
is the mesh maker’s prerogative whether to make their
work derivable. If an item is not to be derived from that wish
should be respected. Please do not harass mesh makers if they
do not wish to release their work, it is their work and their
choice how to sell it.
When you should Chain
Derive.
Yes, there are times
when chain deriving is the proper thing to do. If a developer
has added a new asset to the product that you
also want to use and if you...
A: don’t want
to or don’t have the skills to make yourself and
B: don’t mind paying the developer for use of it, you
should derive off of that developer’s product.
New Assets
of value include.
-A new or replaced mesh
-A new pose, animation or effect
-A complex opacity map or elaborate texture work that they are
allowing to be reused.
In
Conclusion
Bottom line, deriving
from the wrong product costs you and your customer’s needless
extra money.
Derivability is a
useful tool when used properly, but it can also be greatly abused
and many a new developer who does not understand the process
gets trapped into having overpriced products.
Chain Deriving is
a common ethical debate in the IMVU Content Creator community.
Is it ethical to leave re-textures derivable so that this mis
derviving can even happen? Only you as an individual can decide
what deriving practice is best of you.
There are indeed
valid reasons to leave a retexture derivable. The problem has
always been not that the item is left derivable, it is that
it is derived from.
Being educated on
the deriving process will greatly lessen your frustrations in
developing.
Happy Deriving!
