Hey congratulations Dan! A deserving winner. vue and Cinema work really well together, Vue will render the most beautifull seamless panoramic skies and the C4D terrain export is a dream. its got to be just about the best landscaper out there and the volumetric atmospheres are superb. Have fun.

Well mate I own both so I am in a good position to compare them. I used to use Bryce a lot but now I almost always use Vue.Vue's layout is better,its faster to use by a long long way. The renderer is faster, The atmospherics are far better. The material editor is easier to use and understand. The vegetation looks better although is more limited in my opinion than the Bryce tree lab, although Bryce only does trees and Vue does a range of plants also. The sun looks real Bryce's does not. One thing that I think Bryce does better is erode terrains. Vue can tend towards the dreaded Jellymould effect if you are not carefull.A bit of practice eliminates this though.Bryce seems to produce slightly better water in my opinion but this is a minor gripe....as you can tell Vue is the one I use and Bryce is gathering dust

remember to look at any 3D mags for free software. you can really get some good stuff this way e.g. Vue D'Esprit 2, Amapi 5 or Cinema 5se. Any of these will set you up. One more thing for people in the know is where the bargains are. www.dvgarage.com do the best in my opinion.For a small outlay you get Electric image 2.9. This is high end software used on the Phantome Menace. I tried it yesterday as a demo and it is a very powerfull piece of kit. get it if you have the cash

You could try posting a request in some of the forums for information and links to free or cheep software. some people here are full of good information. for Cinema look at www.maxoncomuter.com For Bryce look at www.corel.com, for Vue look at www.e-on software.com . you will quickly find yourself flooded with more info than you need. good luck

For producing artwork the programs are many and what you get will be often what you can afford.Some are free though, some cost a small fortune. you can produce great work with free software but a good start if you are going to start modelling in my opinion would be Cinema 4D ART by Maxon. expensive but very very good. Vue D'Esprit by Eon software, and a good image editing program..you can get away with Paint shop Pro 7 or Photoshop Elements. These are just my recommendations by the way based on my guess about what you wish to know. Other people will come up with other ideas. I hope I have been some help and not caused you any confusion

New to Renderosity? If so, Hello mate you will like the people here. to submit work all you need is an image in some form of digital format.Anything goes here. If you are interested in 3D modelling then yes you will need a 3D program.

Hey ComaLock, before you go I opened the 3D can of worms by buying Vue..Keep your eye on computer magazines especially mags like '3D World' you will pick up some amazing free software by doing this, for example: poser 3, Cinema 5 SE ,Amapi 5, D scupltor, truespace SE ,Amorphium 1 and the list goes on and on . Sooner or later youi are going to want to build your own models, this really brings your work alive, so you are going to want a good modeller. You could do very well by picking up a copy of Amapi or dounload Wings3d from www.wings3d.com. for little or no cost you will bolster your 3D 'Arsenal'. My only warning to you is this...this way of making art is so good, so addictive that you could eventually find yourself "needing" Lightwave or Cinema XL7 or Maya...prepare to be very poor, have fun mate, good luck

I agree with jmahoney, Real world Bryce 4 is the bible as far as Bryce is concerned,so many useful tips in there. One thing, do not be scared of the deep texture editor although it may seem puzzling at first. Always try to make your own textures and skies.

1 Fast rendering of course, usable volumetrics 2 INTERFACE OVERHALL, Its time for multiple displays, make it look like Carrara. Open GL 3 More intuitive texture editor 4 global exposure slider A La Vue D'Esprit 5 sort the duff skies out.Suns that actually look bright,not a duff hard edged flat disk. editable moons and planets,Ability to ad more than two cloud planes, ability to edit them with slider controls separately. 6 plants, with export ability (the will never do it I know) 7 the ability to alter terrain meshes in true 3d not just grey scale info to give Bryce the ability to generate asymetrical rock forms..if this can be done without turning it into a full blown modeller, a move that would probably shoot up the price. Could this be done with just mesh subdivide and magnet tools, posibly ad true displacement using Bryce procedurals?

If your just going to model I would go for Cinema 4D ART 7. Cinema XL without the animation of course, the reason for this are many, it has a good modeler that you will use, you will not pay for an animation system that you will not, what you will get as well as the modelling tools are a pro quality rendering engine/ output system, with radiosity and caustics, great communication with poser, an extremely powerfull shader and texturing package, access to a range of powerful free plugins including hair Dept for example, free hair anyone? and of course if you get really enthusiastic and eventually want to animate you can upgrade to XL7, You do not have to reinvest in a new package or learn a new system..outstanding in my opinion and I'm sticking by it...