Attached Link: http://www.newtek.com/buynow/

How about adding an additional renderer and modeler for a nominal additional fee? I know it's not for everyone so don't throw eggs at me, but I thought some might want to know. Lightwave 8.3 AND Vue Infinite for $995. This to me seems unbelievable as Lightwave normally lists at $1600 on it's own, and VueI is $600. Again, just trying to be helpful. krimpr.

I saw this too -- and as a registered LW 7.5 owner I could get this package for $495. Will be deciding today! (I missed the chance to get the straight LW upgrade for just $250 -- got postcard Monday, offer expired end of June. Go figure.) Then I saw this and was thinking of some of the really good Poser renders I've seen in Vue - as well as a chance to get LW up to speed.

what sort of things can you do with lightwave? Love esther

Attached Link: http://www.lightwave3d.com

LW is a full 3D modeling/rendering/animation program that has been used in a number of films/tv shows/commercials. "The GIRL" was modeled in LW. It has been around for quite some time in various forms - originally for the old Amiga system... you can check it out at www.newtek.com (the makers of the program) or the link above to the apps homepage.

thanks - will take a look. love esther

Cool deal..... if you can use it. Certainly is cheap. "Considering Vue for Poser renders?" No, just sold Vue 5 a couple of months ago and I'm glad I got rid of it, it just didn't deliver at all.

I have to agree with aeilkema on Vue, I bought Vue 4 Esprit to complement Poser but it just doesn't do it for me. I know there are great artists here that have done superb things with Vue though so it's probably me!!!! thefixer, poser coord.

I understand that "Jimmy Neutron", on Nickelodean, is created in Lightwave.

I personally have Vue5 Infinite and I have Poser 5 I use Vue to render as it is far superior to Posers render engine in my personal opinion. It's easy to import files from poser straight into view without converting them into .OBJ, I still use Poser render engine just to preview how the scene will look, then once I'm happy with everything it's off to Vue :)

I agree that the V5 renderer engine is far superior to the P5 one. But then P6 came and when it comes to character rendering, it's hard to get it so well in V5(I). After all V5 is made for landscape not character rendering. All of my projects are created with printing in mind. When it comes to character rendering, Vue 5 renders looks OK on the screen, but not in print. Poser 6 looks good in screen and good in print. And with all the great products like Terraformers and MicroCosm for Poser, the need for Vue has become much less. I'm really happy that I dumped V5 and switched to Poser 6 with MicroCosm 2 & Terraformers & some tree/flower packs. When I was still using V5 it took me about 2-3 months to create a new projects (anywhere between 25-50 scenes), which is OK. In Poser 6 it takes me 2-3 weeks to finish a project (also between 25-50 scenes). The end result really isn't less then V5, even when it comes to landscaping in Poser. I've created some cool landscapes in Poser (caves, shorelines, rivers) that took me 30mins up to 1 hour at the most to set up the scene. The same scene took hours and sometimes day to set up in Vue. Vue is great but very time consuming, even after using it for years. Poser 6 is awesome and very time saving once you get to know it.

Please note, this is just my opinion, and nothing against Eon or Vue users, but: I tried the Vue 5i demo, and I hated it. The rendering didnt' seem faster or better than my Poser 6 output, and I had a really hard time moving the camera around. The HDRI wasn't functional for me in the demo (at least I couldn't get it to work), but the GI and radiosity renders were very slow, and the results weren't all that great for me. There's no way to get realistic looking skin in Vue... nothing like Face_Off's scripts can produce at least. I have yet to see any realistic renders of human characters that surpass those I've seen done with Poser 6 so far. I also found Vue's material editor very very hard to grasp compared to the material room in Poser 6 also. Probably takes some getting used to, but in my case, I just never got used to it. I couldn't get the ecosystem to work either, no matter how hard I tried. I even followed a tutorial in the Vue forum about it, but maybe it's disabled in the demo? I also didn't see any way to get good toon renders out of it. I don't think it can do this. Anyway, the bottom line was that I just wasn't overly impressed with Vue 5i. I'm sure it can do some great things, especially for landscape scenes, but it's not my cup of tea. Lightwave, however, I know is a great application. Just the mention of it's name gives me the shivers. HAHA!

I have seen so many impressive things done in the galleries with Vue rendering Poser figures that I have thought off and on about getting Vue and taking the time (which I don't actually have) to learn it.

But justpatrick and aeilkema's comments about their experiences are very informative (thank you! More like those please!)

I note that dayjo extolls Vue5 Infinite but compares it to Poser 5, not 6, which seems capable of much improved rendering.

What is best for rendering outdoor scenes? Hope some more experienced users contribute to this thread.

I haven't used Vue but I just wanted to pipe in and say that things like GI are generally going to be slow no matter what application you render in. Even in Carrara (which I'm told is relatively speedy), a GI render will take some bit of time to complete, especially if it's a complex scene. Getting back to Vue however...I've seen enough to convince me that yes, it is possible to get some really great looking figure renders. It just works differently than Poser does I'd imagine.

It all depends on what you want to do. For closeups I prefer Poser 6. Better detail, and using those RealSkin scripts you can get amazingly realistic skins. By the way, dburdick has a Vue 5 skin material in freestuff here. It can be used without texture maps (for mid/long range) or with texture maps (closeups), and while it isn't as comprehensive as face_off's shaders for Poser 6 (yet), the results are very, very good. Just look at his gallery for an impression. For midrange and longrange images I switch to Vue5I. I can easily render a dozen Poser figures plus a complex environment, something that just isn't possible in Poser 6. When it comes to rendering dynamic hair, Vue just doesn't do the job. Poser 6 renders dynamic hair very, very well. I haven't tried IBL yet, neither in Poser nor in Vue. Ambient occlusion: P6 is definitely better. More control, on a material-by-material basis. I like the P6 material system better than the Vue5i system, except when it comes to metals and liquids. Ecosystems in Vue5I are FANTASTIC! They take some time getting used too, but by now almost all of my Vue renders have at least one ecosystem. A test render containing almost 3 BILLION polys using GI/Final quality at 3200x2300 px rendered in less than 6 hours on my secondary workstation, an AhtlonXP 2700 with I GB of RAM. I don't know of any other render engine that could handle such a scene. In the end, everything depends on the image you want to make. It's not about "which renderer is better", but about "which renderer is buetter suited to the task at hand."