Quote croxie - "I rarely know in beforehand what I want to create."

That alone can trigger very different ways of starting an image. In my case, the image is ready in my mind before I even open Vue. I know exactly what I want, I just have to translate it to Vue. Occasionally, Vue shows me a better way and I follow its advices... :-)

In the post before I wrote about my process after I open Vue. But in fact, I start working in an image before sitting in front of Vue. I start planning the image in those moments before falling asleep, in bed at night. I plan the sequence of the main things to do and I plan on how I will do them. There are some images where I need to work in Photoshop in advance (to prepare country trails, for example), or in GeoControl (to prepare terrains), or in Zbrush (to prepare some shapes), or Poser, and all that sequence I plan ahead, including the details of how I will achieve this or that effect. My average image takes 4 or 5 hours to complete (spread over several days, because my "real life" is very demanding...).