You Vue-3 users will be pleased to know that Vue d'Esprit 3 received 5 of 5 stars. The only negative in the review: "Needs more visual feedback/previews" Time to save the pennies :) Bongo ya told us so....

heya; kinda preaching to the converted, aintcha? ;) thanks for the tip, dl... (did they have any vue tutorials??)

No Vue 3 tutorials per se, but it was only a two page review. What was done hoewever was a six shot mini tutorial to highlight some of what one can do. Shot 1 mentions and displays some of the presets. They pick an "Atmosphere" preset. Shot 2 is where the the single infinite plane is mentioned and where they add the sea floor plane and the water plane above that and the materials for each. Again they highlight that materials are chosen from a visual browser. Shot 3 They create a terrain. It looks like the terrain editor in Bryce, but in color. Many dials and buttons. Shot 4 They show a test render of the three terrains they made (BTW I forgot to mention it's a Beach scene! Wait a minute! Bongo!!! Did YOU write this review???) for the land and the water/sea floor terrains. Shot 5 Wire frame of squashed spheres to hold the cloud material/. (Really reminds me of Bryce here) Shot 6 the final complete render. Total stated time for what was done: 30 minutes. Not too shabby that final render. They were not happy with the clouds, but for 30 minutes work.... I'd like to quote one paragraph. (quotes on!) LOOKING GOOD In terms of sheer visual beauty and for creating gob-smackingly lovely scenes, absolutely nothing beats Vue D'Esprit. That includes everything from Bryce (inferior atmosphere and no native vegetation) through to World Builder (more variety and control, but nowhere near as realistic) and World Construction Set. Only the work-in-progress Terragen (from wwww.planetside.co.uk) beats Vue 3 in terms of realism, but that's still very much an experimental novelty, rather than a useable tool. (quotes off!) The last line is: Buy it, even if you don't need it- you're bound to be inspired. Computer Arts #40-January 2000 edition, pages 84-85 Computer Arts is a British magazine and if you happen to see it, grab it and start collecting. It is also a good resource for inspiration.

Bongo, I got a copy at Borders Book Store, but I would think Barnes & Noble would either carry it or be able to get it for you. ALSO, there is a magazine called DIGITAL ARTS which I believe is the sister publication of COMPUTER ARTS. COMPUTER ARTS is UK while DIGITAL ARTS is US. Hope this helps. - Art -

Bongo, DOn't forget about 3D Artist. They have had many great articles about Poser, animation and a variety of 3D topics, tips, tutorials and stuff & things. Check them out at www.3dartist.com or you can click on the link through my homepage at http://members.prestige.net/artstone ALSO, www.pcgv.com (Computer Graphics & Video) and www.cgw.com (Computer Graphics World) Ya know, the more the merrier. Good Luck! - Art - P.S. - Know what happened to 3D Ark? Seems their site just disappeared! Used to be a great place for the 3D artist.

TO Art: I've heard about Digital Artist, but what I heard was that the ComputerArts version was better. Does Digital Arts come with a CD?