Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/index.ez?viewStory=1052

Heya everyone, We have some very exciting news to share. For the past few months we have been working on something very special for the members of Renderosity. Today the news was finally released, and I am very proud to share the link. Some of you are already aware of the project, but for those who aren't please go check it out. The contest will be AWESOME, and I hope all of you take part. It would be a coop for our forum if one of our artists won ;] May the best artist win. btw..I am not on the judges panel, nor do I have any influence on the voting, suffice to say however that being part of the team, I am procluded from entering.

This is great we just subscribed....thank you Beck for sharing this. Sharen

Very cool! :)

I saw it in the Marketplace (always trolling ;)). Are you in the magazine business too Sacred? A fellow slave to print? ;) Laurie

Beck, I'm afraid they only will consider Poser images, not Vue :-( Guitta

Guitta, the contest is open to all artists using any type of software. Vue images would be perfect. Please dont be discouraged, I know that the first prize is ppp, and the avatar lab, and the victoria 2 and mike 2 cd, as well as having the winning image on the front cover. The second prize is also the avatar lab and the image will be the back cover of the issue. Laurie, I am no longer in the publishing field, but I am part of the team in this mag :))

Now wouldn't it just be a coup if the Vue guys won front and back cover on the first edition? Ha ha. Could take a consorted effort. I'm sill debating whether I will enter. I'm not much on contests but it would make it all worth while to me to see Vue on the front and back. Boy they don't give you a lot of time around here on these things do they?
Got to watch them bryce guys that program when used properly can be tough to catch up to. There is only one guy that could possible catch Vue and Bryce with Zbrush and since he's sort of a commercial guy I can't see him entering. If everyone is going to take a stab at this I'll go for it too.
My advice would be No Vue entries till Dec 31....

I honestly think that this forum and its members CAN do it! I have every faith in your abilities and I am more than proud to be a member of this forum. Please consider it entering. I KNOW we can DO IT!!! It is my greatest wish to see a VUE artist win such an accolade :)

I'm sceptical about "open to all artists using any type
of software". The contest is sponsored by Curious Labs
and DAZ and the winning prizes are also from Curious
Labs and DAZ. We are definitely talking about POSER here.
I'm currently not a POSER user, so what could I do with
the victoria 2 and mike 2 CD, or the poser pro pack ???

Talking about that, is POSER really so good ?
I've tested the demo, and it seemed like a very limited
application. I'm really not impressed by it.
Every model done on Poser looks the same (the typical
lifeless expression). I can recognize in 5 sec a Poser
model, even rendered in VUE.

Tell me if I'm wrong. Or does anyone know an artist
using poser in a "creative" way ?

Eric

Well Eric, Poser may not be perfect, but it DOES give users the opportunity to use human and animal figures in their scenes in a pose of their choosing. And if you won, you're right...you'd still need to get Poser, or is Pro Pack standalone? I keep forgetting if it is or not. If it IS standalone, then you could use both the Victoria and Michael CD's too then ;). Laurie

Oh, and if you'd like to see Poser figures used in a creative way, visit www.earthcurves.com or http://www.andysplace.cwc.net/ ...2 of my absolute favorites :). Laurie

Laurie, but I know what ya mean. It's my beef in that you just rendered it somebody else built it. Not everyone but the majority of poser users seem that way. I'm not entering for the prizes. Like I said I don't render with people. You can't get the quality with Poser yet that you need I think to make it look real. Now Zbrush on the other hand. Forget the prizes and just enter. Who are these Judges going to be anyway? If there made up from anyone from those companies well that's a conflict of interest isn't it? Just like I said in a different thread Show us what Bryce can do and win of all things Bryce...... :p

Yeah, it does seem silly to offer Bryce as a prize in a Bryce contest, but maybe for someone it would be a newer version? Anyway, I am one of the folks who couldn't model my way out of a cardboard box, but I do like people and animals in my scenes every now and then. I can still make my own textures ;). But being able to pose a model however I need to, if however "unreal" looking, is a real boon to me. I'd hate my renders after while if I couldn't at least put animals in them :). And there is STILL the stamp of my creativity in the render as in the fact that I bet most folks can tell one of my renders from, say, Guitta's just by looking at it :). Laurie

If the judges are as "honnest"" as in other votes.... no more comment :-) Guitta

Laurie,
first of all I have to say that what you've done
with POSER and VUE is excellent. Probably the best
POSER work I've ever seen (Shannon Howell is also
a winner).
I've already visited earthcurves, it's also
"creative" poser artworks. But the guy is doing
a lot of editing...
Andyspace is also quite impressive.
Do you know any gallery where I could see poser figure
in a "realistic" environment (i.e. a guy walking in a
city) The link you mentionned are all in the "fantasy"
style...

Eric

Well, I know I've been assured that there will be no "favorites" and NO FLUFF (how it was put to me). The folks on the staff are people I know to be fair and not part of the in-crowd, so hopefully all will go fine and everyone will get an equal chance :). I'm sure the folks working on the mag knew there would be questions of this nature before they started working on it, so we'll just have to trust until we see for ourselves how things go :). Laurie

Well forget the judges and lets just pelt them into submission on the 31 of December. If we got lots of good art there on that day and not one of us gets on the cover we'll know for sure. I got a great idea for mine but it will require one animal mesh I never made. I'll have to get hold of who ever made it and ask if I can use it. The theme sucks. Lets just for one time sake give it a try. Lets have our own contest then. I'll up the anti. Lets have a vote just on the Vue stuff seperate and the winner can have a set of all my for sale stuff in dxf or vue format what ever they want it in. What ya think; are ya in? Maybe we can get some more stuff thrown in the pot...

Eric: hmmm...a guy walking in a city ;). I know a lot of really good Poser artists (Ghostofmacbeth from Big-i and here for one). But he doesn't really have a gallery up yet. And he does do some fantasy too. There are a lot of Victoria images floating around in the galleries that look pretty photorealistic. But most of those are of the portrait type. I'll have to think on that one. You see, my faves are the painterly looking ones...guess that's why I like Vue so much, because it tends to look a bit more painterly than real. But that's just me ;). Laurie

Very nice of you MightPete :) Laurie

MightyPete, I'M IN ! I'll throw some "home made" textures
in the pot (it's not much, but I have nothing else to give...).
We could put all the winning prizes in a nice little
CD-rom ( the VUE pro pack ?).

Eric

I'm sure I could whip up a little something too ;). Laurie

Sure. That would be a good way to mail it out. I'll have room to put on both sets then. We'll just have a informal vote on this forum then I guess. All Vue Forum users are welcome to vote. May the best art win. We'll since you can't post your art till after all the magazine voting takes place We'll have to have our voting after that.

Only thing is, if we do it in cd format, somebody's gonna have to pay for the cd and the shipping? Maybe we should make it downloadable. I can host the files on my website (I've got plenty of room) and then send the winner the link? That sound better? Laurie

I can do the cd no problem and I'll pay for the shipping no problem. I got icq people can send me stuff that way to put on the cd. Or upload it somewhere where I can download it from. The thing is both these sets are huge. 339 megs....

I really think that a CD-rom is better...
To be an interesting prize there should be plenty
of material (more than 100 MB). Downloading is not
very convenient for such an amount of data.
A CD-rom is cheap (less than $1) and the shipping
won't be expensive.
I could take care of it, but I only have a analog
connexion, downloading all the files would take days...
and as I'm living far away from everybody shipping
from my country is pretty pointless...

Eric

I got a high speed commercial account. No problem for me to download huge stuff. I do it all the time. Why do both sets? Well if you ever tried to import 2079 mehes into Vue it will make sence real fast. It will be nice on a cd cause there will be no zips so you can just read it off the disk instead of loading all on yer drive if you lack space. Both sets gives you maximum use. Vue and a whole wack of different programs can use them then.

So I guess this will be get yer stuff on the cover of Renderosity magazine with Vue contest......Ha ha. You don't even have to win to win.... Just enter the Renderosity contest on Dec 31 rendered with Vue to be eligible for this second contest.

One more thing don't put rendered in Vue on your submission. Just post it. Let them figure it out. We'll collect a list of names after.

"...I could see poser figure in a "realistic" environment (i.e. a guy walking in a city) The link you mentionned are all in the "fantasy" style..." Hello Eric...not really a poser figure walking in a city or in fantasy style...but just the same, a guy scuba diving in...well, sorta of a real world underwater environment. You are looking at purely Vue rendering without post editing and the sea life etc..except for props are pose in poser. Poser is a program I use just for posing...nothing else. IMHO - Vue, Bryce, Poser...they all works in harmony. I choose to use what is best at which stage for composing my final piece. One good thing about poser is that you can "pose" the model unless its a prop. Poser is not at all like Vue or Bryce and neither is Bryce and Vue so much like Poser. Its a good program and a must have. Vue and Bryce do not have "bones" capability like Lightwave, Maxs and others which is way out of budget to get for most of us. Poser is the best alternative. Do get the demo and try. There is no other way you can post a figure at that price range unless someday, Vue and Bryce can have posing feature, better still bones that allow you to create you own for plain objects. This image is an early WIP piece and it has brought Vue down to its knees or may be its my knees. I have to close and shut every layer just to have items for selection, to move them etc...still then, at about 15 to thirty seconds to see things takes effect and the changes. To get to see the changes, there is always a screen refresh that takes about close to a minute to redraw. Yes, all in wire mode, OpenGL off on a dual CPU(1 Gig) with 1 Gig ram. The final piece I am still doing now has 1,450 obj, 3 lights and total number of polygons is 40,440,252.00...the scene file size is close to 240 Meg. No, I won't expand or improve my hardware....but I'll go get a "pacemaker" instead...just in case.

It's excellent, Bill, and that's a great way of describing how/why many of us use Poser. :) Now....240 megs?!?!?!?! 1,450 objects?!?!?!?!? Are you crazy?!?! I bet Vue can get REAL funny all over a scene of that size! ;) But, hey, the quality of that picture makes it all worth it. I wouldn't have thought Vue capable of rendering a scene that size......

Well, well...It looks great. I think it's time for me to get POSER ! Eric

Get that picture to fit the theme for the contest and stop posting it here and post it for the contest on the 31st. I'm going to have to also use one prop. I don't think it a poser prop though. Just render it in Vue is all that's required. Then when you get your interview you can tell them rendered in Vue.I want to see Vue front and back... I'm going to see if I can get more stuff to sweeten the pot. We can do this guys....

Hey Bill, as usual, a GREAT picture, and you do those underwater scenes so well...

Beautiful!! Any chance you'll be coming out with an Angelfish and Butterfly fish Mappak soon Bill? ;o) I have those ya know ;o). Laurie

Mike :) Thanks and Poser is great and serve it purpose. Vue works in its own wonder too. Two other important thing is good available model and texture too. "...I bet Vue can get REAL funny all over a scene of that size!"...LOL!...surprising it did not, and the fact that it did not makes it funny...LOL!...I'm using 4.03 official patch for this one. One thing I notice though, if you twist and turn or rotate an object (group) too many times, sometime, some of the parts that form the whole object get displace out of its axis...or shall I say, fall out of its place. The other thing about the patch 4.0.3 is that, the default for "export picture" is "all picture file" which I find should not be there or its not working right if no image format is chose, (like tif, bmp..), you get no image of your render save. Not sure if any of you have this funny problem, but I do. Eric - LOL!...please do and do take your time. Some people does almost everything in Poser and I have seen wonderful works! It actually does more than just "posing". It is actually excellent for portraiture works with studio lightings. MightyPete - Thanks. I afraid that this image would not fit or is suitable for the Renderosity mag cover contest. Good image, rendering and al is one thing, but for contest like this, it has to fit the theme and one has to do what the qualify judges want to see. I can say, the "visual message" from the image is important and not an easy one most of the time for most contest. Once an ideal image to the theme formularize, chosing the rigt program and model is the next thing. Does anyone know who the judges are and their background? Seeing things pretty is one thing, knowing what art is, is something else and what really fit the mag with all the works is another for a contest like that. Paul - Thanks :) Its easy once you does it...just use Vue underwater preset, play with calrity in the "murky" slider and have enough (low power) lighting and their right placement to light up what need to be seen. Laurie once taught me that there is no shadows underwater, depending on how deep its is...most of the time, its the caustic that is found at shallow end and clear water. If there is ever a need for shadow, it has to be very very mild and soft. If its fantasy piece, there is no rules :) Laurie - :), its actually in the works and takes quite awhile. Its base on real world species and MT is needed for the current DAZ3D models. Those that you see in the image are the "Racoon" and "Rainbow"..again, different reef and age of the same species produce some differences in pattern and color. Dressing them up to fit on the DAZ3D model at the right place is quite a task, so is the 'bump' effect of 'scale' (some).

Really?? YIPEEEEEEE!!! I just LOVES your angel and butterfly fish. I've been admiring them from afar for a LONG time ;). I'm sooooo happy! ;) If I'd have had your maps, maybe my angelfish image would have been better ;). Laurie

tesign, I'm sorry... just a silly question : what does "LOL!" mean ???? Eric

Attached Link: http://www.varian.net/dreamweavn/chat.html

Eric: LOL is shorthand for "laughing out loud". You can learn more of this kind of acronyms at the link. Great image, Bill! Your work never fails to astound. :)

"Laugh Out Loud". It's an expression to mean a laugh or chuckle since on the internet you cannot see each other's face in order to understand meaning or emotion. That's how sometimes things can be taken the wrong way, because one can't hear the way in which it was said or the facial expression of the person at the time. LOL means all is friendly :). Sorry, didn't mean to start a dissertation...LOL. Laurie

OIC... TNX Varian but then OMG, why are you all "LOL"ing in this forum ??????? J/K,BBL,AFK2P,IYKWIM, Eric

Well Eric....its not a silly question :)...I learn it the way you just did...LOL! (there I go again). Thanks to Varian and Laurie for the explaination of it. Thanks Varian...watch out for the final image. I won't fail to astound you all Vue user here. That is only less than half done :) However, the final will have to go through post work and it would not be display here, well its for a contest..."free for all" in another forum and there is only one prize for it and I have to make it good. I let you all know when its up...anytime tomorrow...at noon, my time...its actually 13 Dec 5:01 am now.

OMG Bill...don't you EVER sleep??? I'm not even ALIVE at 5:01 in the morning ;). Laurie

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=114062

Looks like I migh as well stay up and go have my coffee at around the vicinity here whichopens 24 hours :) Hey!....someone just pointed me to my bass texture being use :) Check it out at Poser gallery -

Hey, they did a nice job. Sorry it wasn't me Bill :(. I just got Vue 4 and I have to work my way UP to doing underwater ;). Hehehe... Laurie

Awesome Bill, and I'll be looking forward to your final. :) Eric, I got just one thing to say: ROFLMAOSHIMPMP!! =:D

Well, I got the first half ;o) Laurie

Laurie....I think I got it all...ROFLMAOSHIMPMP!! meaning - "Rolling On Floor Laughing My Arse/Ass Off So Hard I May Pee in My Pants" or "Running Off Fast Like Mad Ass Hole Over Shitting Hard In My Pant and My Patio!!" If this sound 'morbid' sorry..can't help it!...guess must be lack of sleep!

OMG....LOL!!! ROFLMAO!!!!!! :o) You ARE a funny guy Bill ;o). Now go get some sleep ;o). Laurie

LOL!! Very good Bill! :D