This is an all purpose forum right? I cannot find a WIP section.

So besides fun Planets this is what I am really working on.

Image copyright LukasLang Building Technologies 2009

As I have 32bit XP with its memory limitations it was hard rendering the whole pic in one go at the resolutions required. But with the render pass functionality in Vue I was able to render all the different sections pass by pass and then postprocess it afterwards.

That way I only need to rerender certain parts which is much faster and I have more control over colors in post. For example I have a couple of cloud backdrops that I present and the user can choose which he likes best. Same with the color of the grass etc.

Now one thing missing here - the house being a kindergarden - are children and playground object. Still working on that ... if you have tips on "kids" let me know. Am interested in anything from 2D cutouts to (poseable) 3D Meshes. I tried it with adapted Metapeeps but my boss did not like them too much. He wants the pretty kids :)

You can use Poser kids, with low res textures, so the textures don't overkill your ram. For cutouts, I guess you'll need to buy them, maybe from Dosch or Marlin.

for poser kids do i have to own poser or can i buy them somewhere and just import them?

dosch and marlin i have already found but the useable kids are spread out over all the packaged that it's not really worth it to buy all them just to get a couple of kids cutouts :(

Well, You could buy them from Daz, and pose them in the free daz Studio, and import into Vue using the obj format for Vue6, or collada for Vue7. If you don't know Daz studio, I suppose those kids come with some premade poses, so it won't be too difficult.

 AXYZ Studio has low-poly, but good looking child figures - for MAX, basically. Doesn't require Poser - does require that you have MAX, Maya, Lightwave, Cinema4D  or some other program allowing you to "rig" and pose figures in "T-form." (at this link, and scroll down to the fourth item.)

http://www.axyz-design.com/axyz-design-3d-humans-characters-metropoly-tpose.php

They also have some that are already rigged,for just a little bit more money that are at the link shown below. These are well-worth the little bit of additional money if you have one of the 3d modelling programs (listed above) that will let you use a rigged figure. That is, rigging a figure usually requires several days to get it right. So, the difference in price between $94 USD and $118 USD is easily worth it.

AXYZ Studios also sells a very large array of "motion files" at nominal charge that can be used with their rigged figures. That is, if you have access to one of these higher end 3d modelling programs, you can take their rigged child figures, apply one of the motion files, and have a natural looking child in play in minutes. 

i also know axyz studio. we actually bought one set already but the kids dont look as kindergarden like (ie too old) for my boss ... the problem seems to be that the kindergarden aged kids are not the big market i guess ... women, men, all coloures, all attires ... its all out there but no nice cute young kids.

but the girl on Rutras pics looked good. but if i have to learn daz or poser it will take some time and i have to be done be end of next week.

i am already downloading poser demo and daz (is it really for free?) and i will see what i can do on the weekend.

 Well, there's also Quidam - for a very quick learning curve. Easier and faster than Poser, I believe.  At least one pre-made child there. Not sure how realistic looking these are - but they are very quick. You can download the free trial and see how quickly a figure can be made and posed with Quidamn.

http://www.n-sided.com/3D/quidam.php?rub=1

thanks for all the quick infos. i will check them all. always good to have some options :)

Attached Link: http://www.cornucopia3d.com/store.php?sel_dir=Objects/Characters&level=1&sel_type=Objects

that sounds promising!

from what i have seen so far quidam seems to be the easiest and quickest to use but the models dont look the best. still for far away shots maybe ... With Daz i tried the demo and it seems to lag every now and then (on my pc at home, dual core). Poser ... i tried the demo but you cant do much.

with feedback from rutra i think i will try a kids model for daz and see what i can do. does anyone know if i can add my own clothes or customize the presets? or do i have to buy all additions?

a long term alternative would be to finally get going in low poly modeling myself ...

for next week i will have another go at the axyz set and try to convince my boss to get the other one with children. when the kid models are not that close they work fine for me. would be the quickest and cheapest short term solution :)

the cornucopia models also look interesting but i dont understand the posing. if i only have the buyable movement options then its not for me. i need them sitting, playing, running and not walking, discussing and belly-dancing!

this is an interior shot. not much decoration yet but one question.

on the right hand side you see due to the wide lens camera (25mm) and perspective that the column for example is not vertical and the dot (drilling) pattern is not horizontal. in some software i have found an "architectural" perspective where the vertical stays vertical, only the horizontal lines converge. is there a way to do this in vue? if not i can do it in post but just want to know :)

You may want to look into RPC's if you have many design projects like you are doing now.  (they may not have many children available, but many others)

Check this website

archvision.com  (Home of RPC model and figure collections)

and look at

vismasters.com  (location for architectural renderings and info)

Wow, the gallery at vismasters is amazing!

thanks for the links. they look great!

as i have received so much help and assistance i thought i give you a short update.
(all images copyright lukas lang building technologies)

last week i was able to finish the viz renders for our kindergarten project.

for the grass i made a vue rendering with grass blades and used that pic to create a seamless pattern which i overlayed to the grass material in vue (in post). i just was not happy with any grass vue would show me :) maybe i have to play around more ... the people are aXYZ meshes, good for midground, probably not for closeups. the lower foreground grass hill was not liked to the image was cropped! easy and fast solution.

here i would have liked to have more time to work on the upper left corner. would want to create better road and neighbourhood ...

the two foreground babies, the grid on the roof and the background landscape was edited in as i did not have the time and ability to create that in vue in time. the rest is all vue GR rendering.

the first two images (all at 2400x1500 resolution) took about 10-15 hours with 3PC's and the last where i could use all 5PC's (all dual socket quad core xeon) over the weekend took almost 24 hours. all with final settings where i user defined sub rays to 10/10 and AA to systematic 5/10 100%

after my first "real" project with vue i am quite happy how well it works. esp comparing it to making trees and other natural stuff in maya or blender. the only thing i would like to be better is the AA of "technical" meshes (basically anything with straight lines) at lower resolutions. but i guess everything is optimized for natural chaotic stuff in vue and at higher resolutions required for prints the AA is ok.

Excellent work!  Thanks for posting - I , for one, did want to see how this turned out. Most people with these kind of issues never do share their resolution with all of us.

You've done a nice piece of work and are to be commended for accomplishing so much with software with which you are not familiar.  The outdoor pictures are especially appealing. 

thanks! couldn't have done it without the help here :-)