Hi all, I decided to go with the sky theme for this, our first Vue Challenge, and boy is it a doozy! maybe I shouldn't have picked something so seemingly difficult, though. What do you think? I guess we don't have any official rules yet, so I'm open for suggestions. The ONE rule (so far) is, all submitted images MUST have no post processing. I love to post process as much as many of you do, but the idea here is to get us all concentrating on the strengths/weakneses of Vue d'Esprit, and to push our knowledge and our abilities at "faking it" to the extreme. Also, this is not a contest, and I don't want to put out the impression that it is. as such, there are no prizes other than the inevitable "congratulations" and of course, the knowledge you will gain as a participant while trying to bend Vue to your will. Not to mention what we will all learn when we ask whoever pulls it off "HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!" :) I guess we *should* have a time limit, so I propose 2 weeks, but in reality that's only the time limit until the next new challenge is proposed and initiated. There will be no limits as to how much time goes by before you can reply to this with a picture. Noite that this picture *may* disappear from my website after a certain amount of time as I clear space, but the image is so small (20KB) that that's not likely anytime soon. It will always be here though. Also, in consideration of Varian, and Tesign, who can't view Renderosity site images for whatever reason, and for anyone/everyone else who might have that problem, PLEASE, in addition to posting your submissions here, please also post them on your website, tucked away into some remote corner, if you will, along with the URL to it, OR, and tthis is perfectly acceptable to me, OR don't do that, but allow me to place your submission on my site, again, for their benefit. Any pictures I make available that way will have FULL CREDIT given to you, right there along with the picture, and that is a PROMISE!!! I just don't want to see anyone excluded, particularly those who still hang out here with us and share their knowledge and humor, even though they can't see images here. It must be terribly frustrating, and they deserve a big round of applause for sticking around! :) Allright, having sid that, get to it! The pic is also here, by the way: http://www.jacksonville.net/~mowenj/VueChallenge/Sunset001.jpg Cheers, Mike PS Check out my post in the Community News section here!

okay, so what precisely is this challenge? Duplicate this sky? do a sunset with a sun in it? I'm confused...waaah! MaryCanary

I guess I coulda mentioned that. Doh! :P Yes, mary, that is the idea...to try to duplicate it. I'm trying to do so right now, but I've already run into certain problems, and I suspect that getting those rays right won't be particularly easy either. :) Lotsa fun! Mike

Mary, BTW, your idea of trying to create a picture using some of that otherwise "useless" stuff that Vue has will be the next "challenge", so since it was your idea, if you have a suggestion for the first object/material/whatever, by all means, bring it up! :) Mike

It is a doozy! It's a beautiful sky but I'm totally intimidated by it :-) I won't be participating, as I'm in the midst of moving (good excuse!), but I'll be keeping an eye out for the pictures that are done. I'm looking forward to seeing what all you talented Vue artists are going to do. Claire

Thanks again, Mike, for keeping us otherwise sightless in the loop! Of course now that I've seen this image, would it be okay if I pretend I hadn't? Hehe...it's a doozy, alright. I totally relate to Claire's feeling of intimidation! However, there are ways to entice Vue to give you what you want, so I will see what kind of bribes Vue might accept for this. :)

Well, maybe I did go overboard with this one just a tad...but it was so durn gorgeous, I couldn't resist. It might create a problem for rendering though, because I suspect it needs a good deal of that "fake volumetric" stuff the manual speaks of. hmmm...maybe we need to try something easier? Well, maybe, but for now, I would like to see all who are interested give it a shot, even if that means faithfully reproducing a portion of it. I'm trying...not yet succeeding, but trying..LOL :) Mike

You're trying, all right, very trying -- LOL! Just joking! :) Don't change the horse in mid-stream now. Even if ten or thirty people pass on this one, there still might be two or three that try it. Just give us a chance to even get started with it. In two weeks, present something new. That is soon enough to change it. :)

I'm not sure my skill level or my computer is up to this challenge. Manual did you say? Oh no! now where is that darned thing..I know I saw it here, under one of these piles, sometime in the last few months.....help!!!!! LOL As long as we get recognition for trying, and the inside info from the master who succeeds, it could be fun. No Chopsticks!!!! Looking forward to seeing the results from you all - don't laugh at mine, my bribery techniques are desperately in need of brushing up ;-)

Oh my God! You mean there's a manual with Vue?! LOL I think I read about five pages and then started having so much fun with the program that I never went back to it. I think that'll be my New Year's resolution - RTFM . I expect to see some wonderful skies from you people. If I can find any time I might just give a stab at it. Claire

Hey Claire, Thanks for providing me with my new years resolution! I have to find mine first....I have never opened it. I don't think I can even remember what it looks like LOL Care to post a pic of it, so that I can find it sooner? ;-) Sacred

I'd really like to be in this challenge. It looks very interesting. I've been spending a lot of time with Terragen the last month and I have to say my "sky eye" and "weather look" seems to have sharpened considerably. I have in fact been fooling with the Vue atmospheres somewhat. The time limit of "about two weeks" is somewhat of a constraint though. In a few days my wife and I are going to visit her folks in Norway and won't be back until the 29th. So, this will probably be over by then but I guess it would be all right if I submit mine a few days afterwrds, ikke sant? I could probably do it before going but being self employed one must jump through the hoops one's clients present so even the last few days I've been lucky to pop in on the forums now and again. And, hey Mike, you done good on this one, fella! It ought to be just that, a challenge. Larry F

Hi all, I'm glad y'all like the idea. :) Larry, sure, you can submit yours at any time...even a year from now. :) I'd like to say more about this right now, but I'm having some MAJOR PC problems at the moment. I have no idea what's going wrong, but all that's working is Internet Exploder and my Eudora Mail and a few of my programs (including Vue :) ),but all kinds of other things are going screwy. I just did a reformat, and I don't think it "took" completely, for lack of a better way to explain it. I might have to take my PC in to have it looked over, but I'm trying to get someone to come to my house to take a look. This is AGGRAVATING! Oh well....

Sacred, I'd scan a pic of the manual but I seem to recall that I've been using it to prop something up - somewhere G. I do remember that when I first got the program, and gave the manual a once-over, I was most impressed with how well written it appeared to be and it had a lovely picture on the cover. I fully intended to work my way all through it. And that was the end of that :-) Claire

Rain, Sacred, THe Help file in Vue is more or less identical to the manual and IT has an index, so y'all can just keep on losing and using it to prop things up, etc..... My cat seems to especially like MY Vue manual. :)

Thanks for the info, Mike. I like an index and I know the manual didn't have one. First thing I did was flip to the back of the book and was startled by it's absence. Never thought about using the help file in Vue as I tend to like printed stuff better - and you can tell how often I use that :-) Claire

Claire, I especially like the way that every window within Vue has a "Help" button which will automatically take you to the help files for whatever it is you're working with at the time. :) Just to clarify, my cat sleeps on the thing, she doesn't read it. ;) :) Mike

Mike, I never knew that! I wonder what else I'm missing and would I have known all this if I had RTFM?! :-) I thought your cat ate the manual G. Claire

Well, I like this Vue Challenge idea. One of the next challenges I will have to give it a go. Although I'm still more at a Vue kindergarden level I think I would manage to learn something. But for now I'm really busy with a redesign for my personal site and a complete make over for another site. I can't wait to see what you all make of it though. :)