Greetings! I wanted to post this earlier but got a wee bit too busy to do it(just got married on sat), so here it is now. :)

I wanted to encourage new users to try to do the challenges or contests here and anywhere else. When I first came here just over a month ago, it was during the Mystical Moment challenge. I was brand new to Vue and saw all those entries and thought to myself "no way can I do that." But I wanted to see what I could do with the new mud challenge. I wasn't ready to tackle multiple texture edititing and mixing. I wasn't going to deal with individual texture settings on different objects or shadows quite yet.

But I started to poke around a few menus here and a few there seeing what they all did. I know I wouldn't have done it so soon without the challenge. It gave me a focus of what to try and learn. Even if I didn't win the challenge I was already a winner because I learned far more in that time that I believe I was capable of doing.

So I encourage all you new users to try some them. Don't be afraid to try something different and go wild. We are all here to learn. These Vue forum challenges are great and don't forget the whole Renderocity wide year long playing cards contest(check out the contests section). All are great ways to test yourself and learn at the same time. :)

Thanks for your time. I hope nobody minds me posting this. I just know I got a lot out of the challenge and hope others can get the same. Maybe if some of you others had similar experiences you can post them here as well. :)

Congratulations on your wedding, hope all went well and the weather was good to you? I agree with what you were saying, I personally have learnt so much here it's almost untrue.... you only have to look at my gallery to see how my last image is so much improved from the first, all due to poking around, and more importantly asking questions. No matter how dumb we think the questions are there's always some-one who will answer or point you to the right answer. So any-one who wants 'a go' at the challenges I suggest you take a deep breath and jump right in!

Yes, hey congrats to you and your spouse, may you forever be joyful and happy. Sharen & Mike going on 22 years of wedding bliss...:-)

Congrats Nightvoice. What you said is very true. The challenges are a great way to learn Vue and everyone here is very helpful. I remember being a nervous newbie when I first came here late last year. No one snapped my head off and my dumb questions were never ignored... For that I will always be grateful. Now... if they could only actually give me some talent I'd be happy ~G~ They have tried though. ~s~

Congratulations on your new union! :D On the challenges, I think you summed it up best with this line, "Even if I didn't win the challenge I was already a winner because I learned far more in that time that I believe I was capable of doing." That's how it really works -- everyone wins! That's a deal that can't be beat!

Persuing a monthly challenge is challenging for me. I've learned things that I otherwise would probably be reluctant to persue due to their inherent difficulty. Fire is one of those things! lol ... Charles

Congratulations for your wedding NightVoice and lots of happyness for you and your wife:-). Thanks for pointing out and inviting new users to participate to the challenge. Especially this month you have choosen for us a real great theme. It is not easy to create even an ordinary little fire. And so many questions came here to know how to do it. Also we will learn from each other this month, hoping that everybody shares what he (she) finds out to get great effects. Personnally I've never done a fire or something burning, it will be a challenge for me too:-). Hopefully I have time to do something. Good luck to all, we are very exited to see the first submission:-) Guitta

I agree :) The challenges give me new ideas and I always learn so much from trying new things. I just joined Renderosity a couple of months ago and I feel like I have learned do much from then just by asking and trying new things that I otherwise wouldn't have. So a great big THANKS! to everyone, and congratulations NightVoice on the wedding!

Thanks everybody. The day went perfectly and we are both very happy. Was the first day since I got Vue that I didn't use it. :)

I chose the theme because I have had such a hard time doing it. As mentioned, I have only done it once and it was just a simple fire mat on a sphere. I know this will be a pretty hard one but I picked it because I am not ready to give up on trying them yet. Plus it will be a great way to learn some lighting techniques and using different types of light sources. :)Last round was mainly about the materials, where this one I think will come down to lighting. I still don't know what my entry will be about yet though. :)

It's true we can learn a lot to purchase a contest or a challenge (since we try to make a perfect image). But the theme can be more and less interesting... It's not a problem for me since I'm inspired by pictures of the others or by precedent challenges Yves

Yves, LOL, why do you want to purchase a contest? Guitta

I don't know Guitta ! Maybe I made a mistake. Replace purchase by participate, it will make a sense to my previous post. Yves Thank's Guitta to try to improve my english