YL : I did try with materials in the first place, thinking it would be easier to map an image and bumpmap to do the job, but as you'll see in the picture, some of those stepped edges where whole slabs have fallen away are in the order of several feet deep, so really it needs to be done with terrain rather than texture to convey that - but I really haven't been getting very satisfactory results, despite trying it by using an image for the terrain and even by physically drawing the slabs in the Vue terrain editor. I think it's a matter of technique - and mine isn't right! I was hoping someone might have had better luck doing something similar!

This is what it *should* look like! ;o)

Vue is pretty flakey about Open GL in my experience. I have tried 3 different video cards since I've had Vue 4 and none would work with it. The first two (An ATI something-or-other that was so rubbbish I took it back, and a Geforce 2 MX) did exactly as you described. I now have a Geforce 3, and although it doesn't crash outright, if I move elements around, it doesn't refresh the window views, so I just end up with trails of lines and meshes all over the place until it eventually obscures the scene. Hence I have never had the benefit of using Open GL with Vue.

I'm pretty much of the same opinion as MightyPete with a good sprinkling of what jstro said. I personally wouldn't enter a 'reproduce this' challenge, but that's because I spend all my time at work doing pretty much exactly that with no room for personal creativity. I don't want to do it in my free time as well! I much prefer the more open theme based challenges. That way it's as much about your imagination and skills in translating that into artwork as it is about your mastery of Vue. In other words it levels the playing field - you might not be as good as some others here with what you can get out of Vue, but your image will shine (and win!) because it shows amazing creativity. If it's just a 'copy this' challenge, then the emphasis is entirely on how good you are with Vue... imagination not required. I also don't mind postwork at all - in fact I think it is a good thing; there are just some things that you want to convey in your image that Vue can't do. But yes, you should declare what postwork was done. My tuppence worth.

Attached Link: http://www.wibwobweb.com

Nice image. Personally I like the way her hair flows. It looks like it's moving in the wind. Perhaps you could make further suggestion of that by leaning those grasses on the right hand side towards the right as well. I also like the simplicity of the dress. It doesn't detract from the rest of the image. Perhaps consider a subtle pastel red or something if you are looking to bring her out more. Other than that, if you were looking for suggestions on how to enhance the image further, I would think about adding more foreground vegetation so that it doesn't look quite so flat. And perhaps reducing the scale of the texture/bumps on the foreground rock. The texture looks fine for sandstone type rocks, but the texturing on the landscape in the background suggests to me that the local rock here is a more sedimentary and finely textured rock ;) My tuppence worth. HIH. -- Jason

Kevin,

It does have quite heavy ground fog done in the conventional way via the atmosphere editor, but the effect is enhanced a lot with a quadratic spot with light gel shining through trees that are off screen.

Cheers, Gebe, but the ones you have already are way better than mine! I have a way to go yet! I'm only really just getting to grips with Vue, really, despite having had Vue4 since it came out and having had Vue 2 before that. It's only now that I can really say that I'm happy with some of the results I'm getting. My problem has always been 'photorealism'. Convincing and interesting lighting in particular I find difficult, and tends to be what I try to focus on.

You can tell I haven't posted here for a while, either. I thought 'caption' meant a caption for the picture. Doh!

I've been playing around with this technique a bit more. I'm quite pleased with this condensation covered bathroom mirror.

I've included a cylinder to illustrate the reflection - oh, and I've wiped the mirror a bit so you can see it ;)

Ah... should I really reveal my secrets while the competition is still on, though? ;)

Well if you promise not to tell anyone, I'll give you a hint...

alpha planes

A question, if I may. Having never entered your challenges before, I'm not familiar with the 'rules' - if there are any. Are there any posted anywhere?

For example, is post production work ok? To get the kind of surrealist imagery I would want to do would require an amount of image processing outside of Vue.

Is it a case of 'Vue only' or of 'as long as Vue was used'!?

Bug-eyed alien insect fractal thing?

(ok. enough fractals already)

This is also (and far more obviously) generated from a fractal...

I tend to find that a good way to get a more exacting fit is to copy the terrain for the crater again, invert it in the terrain editor, 'slice off' the top using the altitude tool, and either clip or dig out the extra stuff you don't need. More work, granted, but if your crater or whatever has thin walls or an irregular shape that won't allow you to use a plane or cube, then it has the desired effect.

MikeJ : Funny you should say that... it was changes at my place of work that actually inspired the image. Though you can't really see it in the published version, my company logo is actually reflected in the glass at the far side of the room. I have another version of the image where it's much more blatant! I'm sure it'll be circulating round the processing clerks on Monday! ;)