Like most good 3D programs, Vue recognizes the difference between global coordinates and object-oriented coordinates. For example, a human "body" can be moved on the set using "global" x/y/z coordinates that tell us the locations and relationships between the set objects. If I want to rotate the body in "global" space, I can.

Now say I want to move a limb on the body. Using IK with Poser, the x/z/z coordinates are in reference to the orientation of the BODY (i.e., NOT the set). So I know, for example, that moving a foot in the "z" axis moves it forward or aft with respect to the direction in which the body points. This is a nice feature.

As a pilot, I KNOW roll, pitch, and yaw... at least from a global coordinate perspective (my own rolling, pitching, or yawing while seated is something else).

Now I want to roll a character I imported from Poser into Vue. What is the roll axis? One would think that yaw is rotation about the axis along the length of the body (say, for argument, a line between the center of the hip and the center of the head in a human); pitch uses an axis parallel to a line between the hips, so roll is like a sailor's walk.. rotation about an axis perpendicular to the yaw and pitch axes.

Well... I spent a bit of frustrated time trying to figure out how to position my Poser character in a Vue scene. It seems (I'm NOT sure of this) that using the little windows at the upper right of the screen MIGHT be relative to the model, somehow (OH HOW I WISH I COULD CONFIRM THIS AND USE IT WITH PRECISION!), whereas I KNOW that using the four view panel object orientation controls refers to global coordinates.

Either way, everything in the windows disappears when I try to rotate an object. So I can't see what I'm doing. Trial and error, with more error than patience.

Vue 5 SEEMS to address this issue. Can anybody vouch for the fact that it does? Because right now, I LOVE the render engine in VUE, and am learning to use its materials and foliage, but actually building a total scene is a pain in the nether parts. I've attached a thumbnail image of one result I was able to FINALLY get.

After I get myself a bit educated on VUE, I will consider upgrading to Vue 5 (alot of it's features seem rather excellent). Can't decide on 5PRO because have no specs. As for mover... well Vue basic's internal animation is simple, but it can't easily do things like make tires rotate when autos move (see, however, the EXCELLENT video on Vue 5 on the e-on website). Do I do my final animation in Lightwave? Will I be able to import my scenes (including foilage... but without the fractal procedural textures of Vue 5)? I think not... but I keep hoping and waiting.

The ideal would be an e-on product that worked hand-in-glove BIDIRECTIONALLY with other 3D products. POSER excels in animating creatures; Vue excells in fly-through animation and procedural terrain textures, and has an excellent renderer. And lightwave (modeler) is the way models can be built and textured, and it's animation capabilities (except for fractal and scale-based procedural textures)are better, IMHO, than the others.

NO product I know of (include that I can afford) does it all. How can we get the manufacturers of 3D software to make interoperability a priority?

Thanks for listening to this diatribe. I'm still stumbling around in the dark looking for an answer that allows be to be ARTISTICALLY (not programatically) productive.