I rarely involve myself in discussions of this subject in any of the forums but since it's been visited twice here in recent days, I think I will chime in with my 2 cents. It too is a subjective opinion but one offered not only from the 'art for fun's sake' point of view but from a professional 3d artist's perspective as well. Mind you, I'm not the best Vue artist out there, nor am I a beginner, but I do have my own lucrative art business wherein Vue and 3d figure prominently.

There are some trends that appear in the communities that continue to boggle my mind. Such as...

....The propensity for a lot of folks to become so empassioned about the tool they use that any art created with it becomes incidental...and they champion that tool to the death in much heated debates. Why, is beyond me. In the analog art world, you never see Grumbacher or Dick Blick users tearin' it up. Then there's that trend for application 'purism' that often rears it's ugly head along with many and sundry unwritten rules as to what is proper and what is not. I will never just use one tool in a picture. Unless, of course, they actually invent one that does everything and does it well.

Whatever application you've used as your staging and rendering environment regardless of what elements were used in or out of that environment for the final image qualifies it for entry into that app's gallery. Unless it specifically states in that gallery the percentage of this or that which is allowed, I think the staging app should rule. To me, that's just plain sense.

Even hobbyists and just for funners are always trying to get better at what they do (as well as some that don't care), to improve, to become more 'professional'. Then why not follow the example of the professionals..the big boys that we admire and want to do art like? Whatever it takes to get that final image..that primo shot is the rule of thumb with them. Prework, midwork, postwork, compositing, one tool, three tools, half a dozen or more. It doesn't matter. The final image is all that matters.

And besides, to quote one of 'Rosity's own, Mighty Pete.."It's all fake!!" All of it...there is no 'real' 3d.

In my opinion, it's not what you use in an image but how well you use it. Using alpha planes, pict objects, billboards, whatever you want to call 'em is neither dubious nor kitschy, but a well established and standard professional technique. It has been for many years.

But if you're going to use them, use them well that's all. In Vue, make sure all your lighting is coming from the same direction in all your elements. Disable shadows where appropriate and tweak your luminosity and material settings. If you're going to make alphas of Vue trees, don't use the white background. Either do it in Outer Space atmosphere with no stars and the color set to 000, or render and use the object mask. You can move the sun to match and get full depth. The white background makes your alphas flat and washed out. Apply shadows in post if necessary and remove any unwanted lines and halos.

The secret, once again imho, is to have someone look at your work and not be able to tell how you did it at all. That's one of my goals when I work. And it is a secret. It's no one's business how I did anything and I don't tell anyone unless it's community colleagues who sincerely want to know. I never tell clients my processes. They have no need to know and wouldn't understand half of it anyway.

Well, that concludes my spewing forth. I appreciate the opportunity. No offense was given anyone...so don't take it.

Yours,

Monsoon

Message edited on: 08/14/2004 13:55