Greetings all: I'm a fairly new Vue d'esprit user, with Poser 4/Pro. I'd like to know how others scale inside Vue so that everything conforms. That is, I set up a terrain, etc, then I have props to be imported as obj's from other modelling programs, then of course a pz3 file from Poser. There are several ways to go when one wants everything to coform to a desired scale, but I feel it should be based on Vue itself, in order to keep textures, etc., looking correct. Pleae correct me if I am wrong. What do you all do (or use) inside Vue to keep scaling for all these objects correct? Thanks! Norm

I'll scale objects to fit a terrain, otherwise, I just eyeball an object's scale. I like to place my terrains early, because they don't scale up very well without having to increase their polygon count.

As far as scaling materials goes, the process seems to me to be very dynamic. So the need is to adjust the material scale on a case by case basis.

My 2

Charles

Greetings to you Norm and welcome here :-). It is not easy to answer your questions, because all depends of the size of the terrain you create and the distance from the cam you place it. I think we are all working in trying, as Vue has no scaling tool apart the grid. We control in rendering a preview to get a first impression and then scale our imported objects or figures. You also can scale any material as you like, directly in the small material preview window or inside the material editor, depending if you use a procedural or a bitmap. Whenever you have a specific scaling problem, just post a small sample image here and ask for help. We will then be able to help out better. Also tell us your Vue version and if you use a PC or a MAC. :-)Guitta tutorials for beginners

I mostly use the numeric input. I test it via looking (in the three basic views) first and then see (i.g.) numerically how much i scaled something down. This is an indication for all the other objects i am loading in (example: i import something with a size of 12. Then i scale it down via looking to 4. That gives me the indication that i have to scale down things to 30%) Sometimes this works - if the objects come from a similar source (Poser for example), sometimes it is not so good. Hope that helps a little.

Because we are really specific people (Mike and I) we use the coordinate system at your right in the explorer area. I sometimes go by my eye and scale it down by selecting the whole object but really prefer coordinates. Sharen

I know just what you mean........ I use the numeric scaling and positioning tool on the right-hand top panel, in conjunction with a little 3D ruler I made for myself. Vue's scaling and coordinate tool is on one of the tabs behind the Material Editor. It works pretty well, and it is necessary when importing many objects. (Although many artists here do it by eye alone.) Vue's import function is not locked to the "world view scale", as in most 3d programs. So the input size of an object depends upon the number of polygons and vertices in the object. This means that each object comes in at a different in apparent scale(size) upon import. So, if you are working with many imported objects, you need to first establish a scale size for one of them, for a terrain (usually your biggest object), or, in my case, for my ruler, and then re-scale everything proportionally to that. This lets me coordinate the measurements of the "world" with the scaling tool in the upper right panel. Would you like a copy of this ruler? You can easily make one for yourself, you know. If you'd like a copy of my simple little ruler, send me an IM, or drop a line to sprucefir@earthlink.net

Here's a pic of my "story stick." (Old carpenter term). I just stick it in the scene, scale its size to 9 x 9 x 9, and then I have a known world scale. After that, I can scale all my imported objects immediately after they come into the scene by using the Vue scaling tool. Simple. It's clear glass and has a green centroid at the bottom, to make for easy checking of proportions. Norm1153, most people coming from other programs to Vue, or who are used to 3d modelling tools, are used to scale positioning. But most people who've learned Vue first find they can use the four viewports to scale objects relative to each other, and to position them, relative to each other. They just look at the scene in all the viewports, and tweak until the objects appear to fit together. This takes some practice if you come from an engineering background, or another 3d modelling package, but doing it by "eyeball" comes fairly quickly. For many artists, its a more natural way of building scenery, which probably is why Vue is built the way it is.

I could use your 'story stick'. Maybe through the Vue free stuff - I can't be the only one who wants it. Thank you! BillyGoat

OK, that's a good suggestion. I'll post it there tomorrow morning (GST-5) before I leave on a job.

Scale is relative in Vue. Nothing is fixed, not even the scale of vegetation. In fact, for the most part, the size of an object or terrain is irrelevant as long as its in scale with every other object and terrain in the scene.

There is one big exception in the whole matter of scale:

An objects size affects how it is rendered within the atmosphere!

Read that again. Its really important. If the scale of your scene is too small, then all objects and terrains will be seen with too much clarity, making the scene look. toy-ish. If the scale of the scene is too large, then at least some of the objects and/or terrains will be too washed out (faded and obscured by the atmosphere) giving the whole scene the appearance of Land of the Giants. Also, scale really affects the way Vues volumetrics work.

Your only choices are to change the scale of your scene, or to change the atmospheres settings. Of the two, I would think changing the scale of your scene is easier. Heres how I do it:

1. I put the scene together, scaling all objects properly in relationship to each other, ignoring the atmosphere. (you might want to even try no atmosphere to start with just for clarity)

1. Once the scene is put together the way I want, I switch all display views to, bounding box. This allows me to rescale everything very quickly.

1. I load or create an atmosphere and perform a test render.

1. If I find a need to rescale my scene, I select all relevant elements in the scene using the mouse and the shift key on the browser bar. Because Im in bounding box mode, all I should see is one large box representing all the elements of the scene.

1. I rescale the scene larger or smaller depending on what the test render showed me. If smaller, I usually need to perform a drop function to get the scene back to the ground. If larger, I usually need to lift the scene out of the ground and then perform a drop.

1. I perform the test another test render, and repeat steps 4 and 5 as necessary.

Please note: Some objects or terrains may have materials that are set to world scale rather than object scale. Those materials must also be rescaled when the rest of the scene is rescaled.

-SMT

I find that whatever you have as your focus of the scene is the starting point of how you scale everything around it. Much like a artist sketch or focal point. That's my 3 cents.. thanks.

Thanks all, for the suggestions!