I'm  reasonably new to the whole 3d art thing, obsession, ok it's an addiction.  I started about Christmas time last year and haven't as yet got anything other than Bryce 5.5 free to do any sort of ground work.  It looks as if Vue is just about ideal and more likely to interface with Poser.

There's a sort of cut down Vue that Smith micro sells called Vue Easel, I believe.  Any thoughts on how useful and/or usable it is keeping in mind that I'd rather spend the money now than find out in two or three months that my $100 software purchase won't do what I want it to.

Basically I'm tired of having forests with no paths, streams with no rocks someone could sit on.  No driveway or flower gardens in front of a house (I can put in flowers but not the ground work).  That sort of thing is more important to me than massive mountain ranges although those are nice too. ;)

Any help will be appreciated.

What sort of budget are you looking at  ?
Easel is quite a cut down version of Vue which is missing a lot of the goodies you find in other versions.  I'd be inclined to go for Pro Studio {or Esprit if budgets are tight - Pro studio is Esprit with all the modules - you can buy them all separately if you want)
Or you can go for the daddy which is Infinite or Xstream (Xstream is only useful if you have one of the very expensive bits of software it can interface with)

Regards

Frank

Looks like Esprit is about where I can start looking at buying.  I still need a photo editing tool.  Someone on one of the other boards suggested Photoshop Elements for the ability to use photoshop brushes without the mega price tag.  The two of those will take care of my software budget for a bit and probably give me a lot to learn.
      Do I read their information correctly?  It will render Poser figures and objects using the Poser render engine while using its own engine for Vue created objects and terrains in the same render?

You can either render poser scenes using the poser shader tree (takes a lot of RAM to do that) or you can render the whole thing in Vue.  You are thinking of the way Xstream works - an Xstream scene in Maya for e.g will render the maya stuff using maya and the Vue stuff using Vue but Poser doesn't work that way.

I think there are demo versions available for download so you can play around with them
try http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/?page=try

If you need a photoshop like tool, you can use gimp or paint.net (Windows only). These are both free.

Get Pro Studio. I got it for half-off about a month ago on sale. Hopefull it will go on sale again. You will love the ecosystem and the Poser shader tree option works well. I have 4 gigs of RAM and notice no slowdown at all. It's faster than Poser.

My adivce.For Your budget, Since you have Bryce,get DAZStudio, it is free and I think it integrates with Bryce,then save your pennies and get a higher end version of Vue.you will not regret as it is leaps and bounds beyind Bryce.Just my oppinion of course(;

Have DAZ studio but for some odd reason on my Vista system it isn't picking up a lot of the content in the Poser 7/Downloads directory tree even though it's been given that as it's main directory.  Also there are a LOT of things that DAZ can't do, such as change materials.
     I actually like DAZ better as a Posing tool, although even that is changing as I get more used to Poser.  Besides I've already forked out the bucks for Poser.  I got started with DAZ and decided that I needed something that would do more after a few months..
On reading through the product descriptions for Vue I can already see that it does not just more than Bryce but a TOn more than Bryce does.

Yep,and for me..like everyone else that will eventually make the move:D When you use Infinite..you would never have anything else.I have been using it since its first inception and am just now getting int to the deep uses of the function editor and couldnt imagine using any other program other than Vue. I started with Bryce however...Vue does hav really good Poser support,but theres a few minor issues like reflection maps and such,but i am sure theres a work around somehow(;

That's what I'm finding with Poser.   Started out doing exactly what I'd been doing in DAZ and have gradually been adding in more of the things that it can do that DAZ can't.  I'll have to check.  At this time I can't seem to get to the site to look at the info for the various Vue packages but if the price difference isn't huge it IS probably best in the long run to get the fullest package.

My perosnal fave 2D editor is PaintShopPro, like $50 and has a lot more functionality than photoshop elements, and is photoshop compatible, fyi (except some brushes and shapes)

For best results in Vue, import Poser objects then fix the materials, when imported the materials SUCK, unlsss you tweak them (I'm a perfectionist :p)
my tutorial on this:

http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/tutorials/htm/18.html

Pro Studio is more fun to start with if you can afford it, having all the fancy bits n bobs is great ;)

But you can upgrade over time with Vue.

Yes, it is best to get the big package..NOT XSTREAM THOUGH. And also,I am not to sure but it is possible that Vue 7 is not to far off:P because there already up to 6.6x for Infinite. You wont regret it for sure.Andi do suggest checking out Steves site,he has some intersting tutorials on some  "less touched upon" aspects of vue that are really handy...like how to  use diffusive layers to dirty up stuff:D

Quote - Yes, it is best to get the big package..NOT XSTREAM THOUGH. And also,I am not to sure but it is possible that Vue 7 is not to far off:P because there already up to 6.6x for Infinite. You wont regret it for sure.Andi do suggest checking out Steves site,he has some intersting tutorials on some  "less touched upon" aspects of vue that are really handy...like how to  use diffusive layers to dirty up stuff:D

I didn't want to rant about how bad xStream was, but you kind of did it for me. ;)

No, not a rant..just a simple fact of e-on life:D VUE ROCKS!!! (;

I would suggest getting the free PLE (personal learning edition) version and see how you like Vue.  Just be careful - the PLE is Vue Infinite, so if you fall in love with the Infinite only aspects, you will alway be wanting to upgrade...  Vue is highly addictive!

Which is exactly why i think the PLE is a waste of time...i mean really..WHO DOESENT LIKE VUE:D

Quote - .Andi do suggest checking out Steves site,he has some intersting tutorials on some  "less touched upon" aspects of vue that are really handy...like how to  use diffusive layers to dirty up stuff:D

bows :)

Hope v7 has great add ons and stability...Siggraph is getting closer!

I agree, try the PLE of Vue, but yes it is addictive haha

Quote - Which is exactly why i think the PLE is a waste of time...i mean really..WHO DOESENT LIKE VUE:D

Crazy people?

I'm hoping for a 64 bit Mac version of Vue 7. One can dream right?

Oh one can dream about a great many things when it comes to Vue. I was super happy with the updates to 6, and hopefull 7 isnt just a rebuild of 6.I would like to see a rebuild then some...but alas...once can dream:D