Here is my image as is now.

What I want to do next is expiriment with background like this Bryce 5 image!

My problem is when I delete my Vue4 ground plane this is what I get!

Otherwise tell me and I will send you by e-mail the sample scene looking like this one (you can add clouds to it).

gebe would it be to much trouble to explain how to make a ground same color as sky for us that don't know how. :o) I would like to know and maybe some other newbies also. :o)

Attached Link: http://www.guitta.net/beginners/sample.zip

You can download this little scene (for Vue 4.12, Vue 4.2 or Vue 4 Pro) at the link above and study especially the atmosphere editor. Everything is in there. You can add clouds if needed, cut or add more stars. Guitta Tutorials for beginners

1. Select a uniform color for your sky in the atmosphere editor (only for standard atmospheres) and cut off all the clouds, bring fog and haze to "0". 2. Right-click the color window and select EDIT COLOR MAP 3. Double-click in the small window COURRENT COLOR, this will open the SELECT COLOR WINDOW (see image above). 4. Write down HUE, LUM, SAT and RED, GREEN, BLUE. Quit all the windows. 5. Select the ground with its default color. 6. Double-click in the samm color window at top right of your screen, this opens the material editor. 7. Right-click the small window that shows the default color and select edit Color map. 8. Past all the numbers you have written down into the respective fields. Now you have sky and ground the same color. You have to play around with the lights and the light colors. Hope this helps.

sorry: "samm" means "small" :-)

all id av done is give the floor a mirrow mat and then move the figure and camera up so not to get his reflection in the floor seeklight

Thanks a lot gebe, Very helpful. Don't know about others but I like when questions are answered so I can save and put into a little notebook and save for future reference. Makes for very fast reference when needed. :o)

Thanks all, for so much help! I'm taking gebe's sample with me today! As close as I've come is with another Bryce trick I know. In Bryce5 you can add the Mirror material to the ground plane, and then move it down just a bit, and the whole sky gets mirrored. But with Vue I could only come as close as the polished silver material, have a look at the image above. Is there a mirror material, for Vue 4.12, anywhere?

Thanks, gebe! Have we sand? I just went to the backroom, but did'nt see an area to good materials archives, what do you recommend? = )

Can anyone tell me something about the materials that did'nt transfer from my poser file? His loin is usually white and with gold trim. With Bryce you can Ungroup the objects in a Poser character with the U button that pops up when you select the object.

Sand? Just sand? There is sand as a material in Vue. To create real gold, select the material inside Vue by the material summary (not by the details in the world browser!!) and apply Vue's REAL gold from the Metals. The material summary shows ALL the materials used in your scene. You can open it in clicking at the small icon from the top menu that shows something like 3 decreasing spheres:-)

gebe - You have been so very very helpful, your last post came in very handy last night! I've been toying with V4 for a couple days now and have a small list of things I ca'nt figure out how to do, would you care to help? 1.) I figured out how to replicate my Bryce5 scene. It is the same as Bryce, you can just apply the "Mirror" material to the ground! My trouble now is that my figure casts a shadow on the plane. How is this prevented? Is this technique similar to how I'd stop the figure from reflecting on the ground plane, now that I've applyed the mirror material? 2.) Rotating...I know this has something in regard with a Pivot Point, but I know not; how to change this, or how this effects any particular rotating control. 3.) What are those monsterous .bak files? 4.) Where is keyframing controled from? 5.) How is a camera.objects exact location found and changed numerically? 6.) Can Vue4 perform a Render Mask? 7.) What is a good 3rd party text to suppliment the manual? I usually recommend either vtc.com, or peachpit press, but it seems neither has much to do with Vue. I would sit down and read the manual cover to cover, but I find using a Forum this way is much more user friendly, and time saving because questions can be answered for more specific scenerios!

Personally I would not use this technic, but would use to incline the cam to the sky and work the entire image this way.

1. The pivot point (if necessary) can be changed the way the image shows above.

2. bak files: you can disable it, but if you are clever you will not, at least not if your computer space is large. I tell you why: Imagine that you have a problem while saving a Vue scene. Maybe a power cut or any thing else. If you have no *.bak file of your scene, you will loose all your work from 1 or 2 or 3 days or 1 weeks:-(. So keep bak files until you really have finished a scene completely. Then save your final scene forever and delete the bak files:-). In case of a problem, you always will be able to rename the latest bak file into a vue file (sample: scene.bak rename it into scene.vue) and you have not loosed EVERY thing :-)

3. Keyframing is for animation (Yes, you can create animations with Vue 3, Vue 4, Vue Pro :-)

4. If you really like to move your camera numerically, select the camera and click the numerics tab (see for pivot above).

5. Yes, of coures, you can render a scene as a color image, a deepth mask and an alpha mask. When you have finshed to render an image (even in the main camera vie'w, just look at all the icons you can click at top of the render window:-)

6. I'm really sorry, but I don't understand your question.

Now, to finish this: please understand that I have all my family for Christmas here, sons, grand children, wifes of my sons, ants, oncles and I'm terribly busy until 2th of January. So, my answers are a little short. But I would be very happy to help you better after these dates, if you don't mind.

Have a great Christmas, be happy, live your holydays. :-)
Regards,
Guitta

gebe - Thanks, I do'nt even have time to read this now, just to say thanks again, and post this WIP of all this thread has helped me! My YMCA is closing for the holiday(In like 2 minutes...) So, I had to save this to floppy to bring home. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope you enjoy this latest WIP! I'm having a few new problems. 1. How can we assign a specific color value to the son? 2. How do we get previews to save? 3. How are render masks made? 4. when i goto Render Options>Picture Size and Resolution>Aspect Ration>Free (user defined) nothing is available, why?

1. What kind of a mask exactly please?

= )

Thanks for the screenshot of the Atmosphere Editor! I was using the dropdown in what I think is known as the Materials Pallette, that goes up in the top right of the GUI(Next to where you note objects location. No I mean the file browser that comes up when you want to open a Vue4 file. Sometimes you can see previews of the file that is selected before you need to open them... I mean an Alpha Mask for compositing from within Photoshop. Thanks for the Render to Screen tip! Keyframes are another area I'm a bit lost at. I'm used to Poser and Bryce, they are so easy, I should expect Vue to not be to far behind, but I've not a grip on it. Another thing I'm stuck with is turning shadows off. I hope I do'nt need a new install, but I'll turn them off, click OK, open the dialog back up immediately, and find them turned back on! I found toggling down to 2% gets sticky enough to keep them off after about a half dozen tries, but there must be a simple explanation for this! I'm having trouble removing the shadows on his hips, from the belt. Though this scene actually has shadows turned off these still show? I've also found a flaw in the last WIP I ca'nt qiute think of how to fix. What is the horizon thickness known as. In Bryce it is your haze, but when I adjust this in this Vue4 scene only the lower(That wich is Mirrored by the ground plane) half of the horizon grows! And finally, gebe, where is that sand mat., I hav'nt found it yet.

I've also found a flaw in the last WIP I ca'nt qiute think of how to fix. What is the horizon thickness known as. In Bryce it is your haze, but when I adjust this in this Vue4 scene only the lower(That wich is Mirrored by the ground plane) half of the horizon grows! Mirror is not a good idea, IMHO. I would aim the cam to the sky and place my figure there. Then add, if necessaryn a ground plane (Wanted a ground plane, that's not clear in your question.?)

No I mean the file browser that comes up when you want to open a Vue4 file. Sometimes you can see previews of the file that is selected before you need to open them... Vue always shows a thumbnail of a Vue scene IF the scene has be rendered before saving it.

Keyframes are easy to use. You have several tutorials for animation in the Vue 4 User guide.

Ladies and Gentelmen...I give you "gebe!" The Fastest Screen-Shot In The West! Thanks man I really appreciate a person that can take the time to drop another such High Screen Real Estate! I know right where to look for so many things now, thanks again! I know right where you are refering when you say calm the sky, gebe, but just applying the mirror material to the ground plane is just such a quick fix to a sky with no infinite plane! Testify, gebe, I had to toggle at the shadows for like a whole day! That is all I need to do on my second PC, but my main PC wo'nt show previews even if I render before a save. OK good, you got to my Render Mask question again. I think this is very important, and that it will definatly increase my workload once we connect here. I should be able to select an item, or a group of items, and then a Render Option like Sketch to get the selected objects to render as plain white shapes on a plain black background! This render could then be; exported, imported into photoshop, selected of its entirity, and pasted onto a blank Alpha Channel, of the same scene rendered at Ultra. This way you have a very precise way of selecting only a certain object from a rendered image, you can then render the final image one object at a time, in order to more elaborately light a scene. This should especially handy removing the shadow from the ground plane, getting light to the wings, removing the hip shadows I mentioned, as well switching backgrounds! gebe - Thanks again for all you've put inot this thread so far! I have a really nice White and Blue Mirrored Angel Rendering right now, tomorrow I'll have a small pic as well as a link to an angelfire page with a much larger size, others, and some of the poser files I've been using! I'm not sure how game you may feel about my asking this, but I want you to keep returning to this thread, wich is why I've been cleaning out old WIPs, to keep your DL time low. If you need to do any of this for yourself, please feel free by me, I have all of them saved as archives on my HD and DVD-RAM. My grats. once more!

Attached Link: http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/meneration

Anyone know how to change the names of things in the world browser?

Click the name. Then click it again. Change the name and type enter on your keyboard. About the ground: Put your angel in the sky and aim the cam to it. Then you just will see the clouds and no more ground or whatever a ground was before (white)

gebe - I thought of a really important new idea yesturday! I've been thinking of how many images would beneifit from have a distinctive wetness of skin. How is this added to an object? Your the man! I know if anybody can answer this 1, 2, 3 it's you! Thanks again for all of your help! I think I understande what you mean by aiming the cam, but my angel is already 100 units in the air. Do you mean rotate at all?

And yes, I meaned rotate all to make the angel sit in the sky. I use this very often for my images:-)

Just like the rock gebe, how was this accomplished? I think it definately adds a point of interest to viewing the rendered object! This is the object I'd like to test this with!

If it works here I may try it with the warmer render I have above.

On the rocks, I have given 5% refectivity and 100% Global highlight intensity (in the material editor) I like the last one of your angels best:-)

gebe - Still hoping for some screenshots of how you added wetness to those green rocks! In fact I'm just here to get the URL for another thread I'm starting on just this subject!