Hi all, I'm hoping to get an idea of how you all feel about taking a Vue picture into a post production program such as Painter, Photoshop, etc., and then calling it "finished" after having made some additions, fixes and all. Be honest! Personally, I have no problem with it, and for me, that's half the excitement-- the anticipation of what will come out of it. :) Cheers, Mike PS This has nothing to do with the pending Vue challenges I and others have proposed, because they MUST have no post production, since they are more an exercise in technique, and not meant to be some sort of art contest

I post prod stuff all the time, unless I want to submit it for pic of the day. I think it's a good challenge to try to do everything local to vue -- I know Guitta's wonderful images are never post produced--and I do try to do that. But I also don't believe in reinventing the wheel, and if I know I can paint the hair I want in 2 seconds, or get rid of an artifact like the hard edges around lips and eyebrows, I'm not going to avoid post-ing that. I've been using photoshop since version 1, and I've been painting since high school (1984, yikes), so I want to continue to use those skills rather than trying to replace them with new ones. I guess to me it's all about the finished image. MaryCanary

I always use post production to get rid of things like the odd shadow or two where a wall part might not meet up exactly, etc. Nothing wrong with cleaning up an image. Mostly it's things that the eye can't see in the wireframe and only shows up in the renders.

heyas; i do whatever's fastest and best. that usually means a lot of touching up, painting in (or over), compositing... everything! mary's right; image is everything, thirst is nothing. ;)

Kewl :)

I was a painter long before I got my first computer. Though I've done Vue works without post, I find a great deal of satisfaction bringing a picture into Photopaint and using a lifetime of skills to make a picture that's truly my own. Even so, most of the time my touch-up is limited to making up for the main evils that 3D technology brings: lines that are too perfect and facetted edges. Most of the touch-up is done when there are objects that have been imported into Vue, such as Poser figures or 3DS files (buildings, cars, props and such) -SMT

I personally like it (post prod) mostly for doing the things I either can't do in Vue, or don't have the patience for, such as hair. I personally think that even the BEST transmapped hair still doesn't give me quite what I want. Of course, you run the risk of losing the 3D effect, if you're not paying close enough attention to shadows and light sources, but that's just like painting, and something you can get used to. My first love was drawing with regular graphite pencils and then later with charcoal and pastels and up to acrylics and oils...possibly the "standard" progression. I'm still pretty new to 3D CG art, and as such I find Painter 6 to be immensely useful. Were it not for that program, I would feel far less inclined to show off any pics I've made. I also love compositing and techniques such as painting one image into another. Like I said earlier, once my Vue render finishes, that's when the second half of the fun starts. :) Mike

"...that's when the second half of the fun starts..." You got that right! As for the "3D look", I'd much rather my stuff looked like 19th century oil paintings than photographs. -SMT

Well, I'll ditto everything that's already been said here. I've been making art long before I ever had a computer, and although I've enjoyed favorite brands among my art tools, I never limited myself to using only Berol Prismacolors nor anything else. I've always used whatever works best for the image I'm trying to create. I think the only time an image must be created solely in Vue is if you want to send it to E-on (whose interest is mainly on promoting their product, naturally), or for technical/personal challenges or contests where the rules require the restriction. Art is all illusion anyway. The bottom line is that it's your artwork, so how do you want it to appear and what steps do you want to take to get it there?

Vue is a very nice tool,Painter or Photoshop are nice tools also.Why not use the best tools you can for making graphics?Art is in your mind not in the tool

Hmmm...how could I missed such an interesting subject. Post production?....oh yeah!...its great. Nothing can ever be perfect without it. I have yet to see any image created by any 3D program by itself to be considered perfect or accurate...I consider nice with a few "buts". I do not understand some "purist" and they have to tell everyone "Vue, Bryce blah, blah...only". What does that really mean? I valid what Varian have said and yes, use what is available and the final image matters. As for E-on requirement, like what Varian said, its a requirement for them to tell how much Vue can do and post production is out. Too bad that the image displayed are so small that it is hard to fault. Looking at the images I find that comes with Vue tutorial from E-on, I can fault the errors but if that is all that is so good that Vue can produce, its excellent but does not mean its all accurate. There is a lot of things that post production can do to an image that Vue can't. I am using Vue as only a supporting tool, the main basis of it to my images but never the final. Most of my Vue render work qualifies for "Vue only" but it has never satisfied me. I have nothing against Vue purist but what I am say here is that, if the artist that does it with Vue only, as long as he/she is happy with it...its all art to them. But if it ever posted for comments and ever get a few "buts"...they have to understand and never be offended by those that uses post production. In summary, I always do post production and its an art by itself and not as easy as when its finished. One question to all...if you take a poser model and texture the template with a paint program....all ready to be imported into Vue and be "picture Mapped" renedered in Vue, is this "Vue Only"? I would if only the mest is imported and all elese is procedural mapped. I have upload an WIP image for example...and this is purely "Vue Only". All texture map you see on the Trex is procedural, so is the terrain and vegetation. Again, to each his own...post production or not, its the final image that sells! Btw, this image has a post production version which is much mor convincing. See next upload post. Bill Tesign

Here is the WIP image post producted....LOL!

Oh yeah, Bill...how very true.... Thank you for these pictures and your well spoken summary. I do like the second one better. Cool picture, by the way! :) Mike