Very useful tutorial, thank you. I shall have a play with these ideas on my next image.

Thanks Gebe for bringing this useful resource up to date. And Polax - thanks for the smile your understatemnt of the week "Not really intuitive" raised for me. ;-) Blender has my nomination for the most impenetrable user interface ever! I know it's good - I've seen some excellent results from it - but I remain in awe of those who manage to wrap their brains around the interface.

The following doesn't sound likely in yor case, but just on the off-chance... Have you installed the latest patch? I had this problem when I first bought Vue, except that the full screen size "stuck" for one load, but then reverted to the smaller size. The problem disappeared when I applied the 4.12 patch (or possibly the one before that).

I think you are referring to the extremely talented (and generous) Alain Gracia. he does not post via the Freestuff section, but announces his new freebies from time to time in this forum. You will find his site at http://gracia.alain.free.fr/index.htm .

No I will never pay for technical support for a product that should work properly in the first place. I am not a Pro user, but sympathise with the general tenor of the comments made by those suffering at present. May I say I find one statement in one of Lynn's replies particularly depressing: "Only upon public release can a software company get the real picture, and then respond with updates, fixes and workarounds." To me this reads as an open admission that quality assurance is so lax that they are deliberately using us, the unwitting purchasers, as a significant part of the testing plan. Imagine if car manufacturers did the same (though some might say they already do!). Yep, it's got four wheels and it seems to steer OK so let's put it on the market and see if buyers report anything siezing up or catching fire... then we'll have a look for a work-around or maybe fix it. I think not! And before anyone tries to tell me I obviously don't understand the complexities of software development and testing, let me add I spent almost 30 years in that profession so do have some knowledge whereof I speak.

Thanks for all the free models, Sharen - also for the chuckle from the typo at the end of your post at the top of this thread: puts a new complexion on that phrase "Does my bum look big in this?" :-)

You could also try the Wings 3D Forum. The program is free and most people find it has a fairly easy learning curve compared to most modelling apps.

Of course there is nothing wrong with the use of alpha planes, and you integrated yours well with the Vue elements. I think the mistake you made was in not stating clearly in your original post that the dominant feature of the image was an alpha plane, although it was pretty obvious that this was so. I haven't looked back at the comments, but this may have been what led some to think maybe you had tried to pass it off as a model of your own creation. I didn't personally read it that way, but I guess it was open to such interpretation.

Philywebrider - unless I misunderstand your problem, having got the sky to whatever solid colour you want all you need to do is select the ground in the world browser and press delete. Presto! All sky and no ground plane. Of course, if you want to be able to render shadows on the background, you would need to do something like Tiny's last suggestion instead.

Muller - it is not so much what you said as the manner in which you said it that causes so much offense. A few months ago I made a substantially similar point, suggesting to a particular contributor (who shall remain nameless) that his image, which I thought was effective and not gaining the response it perhaps deserved, would probably have received a better reception if it had been put in the Poser gallery rather than Vue. Although Vue was the renderer, what little background there was was clearly just a simple prop for the Poser figure and its pose, clothing and texturing. Nothing wrong with that - it just seemed to me in the circumstances that the more appropriate location therefore was the Poser gallery. Not only did I not spark off any flame war by my comment, but the artist in question sent me an IM agreeing with my point of view and stating his reasons cogently and in a completely friendly manner. It's a simple matter of according due respect. Your heavily sarcastic post, apparently your first here which makes it reflect worse on you, had quite the opposite effect - intentionally or otherwise. Had I not noted that you allege to have taken the photographs in your own "work" some 20 years ago, I would have had just two words to say to you: "Grow up". As it is, perhaps I should modify that to "Think before you post" - unless of course your intention was to disrupt, in which case I'll stick with the original phrase, age irrespective. Oh, and just before signing off, I'm sure Pmermino has no need to feel embarrassed. He had no control over whatever outpouring you wished to make, and I'm certain no-one here would dream of associating him in any way with this sort of nonsense.

Excellent! Thanks Thomas.

Thanks Bob. I have the patch. Don't think I'll be throwing away RAM any time soon - might consider updating once the Vue 4.2 patch is out and I've saved up a few more pennies. Oh well, I guess it's just a case of shuffling between two PCs for the moment.

Thanks John. I'll check that out.

SigmaDog 3 points Layla-Rose 2 points Stotty 1 point and thanks to all the others who made choosing so difficult.

"A software company that talks too much about future products almost always shoots itself in the foot." Well, Lynn, if that's your policy line on release of information, I think you're in a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't! Aside from the usual rip-off on US vs. European pricing, the initial side-grade offer is not unreasonable. But it is still a substantail amount of money, much of which is paying for features such as animation and high-end workflow integration that is of no interest to me whatever. Given the assurances that the Vue d'Esprit line will continue, I find it hard to believe that the enhancements will not include most of those that I find attractive in Vue 4 Pro - notably the vegetation editor and to a much lesser extent the wind thing. A faster render engine would be nice too, but having just majorly upgraded my PC, that is not of primary concern to me. So in the absence of any statement of even the most general nature about the likely content of a future Vue d'Esprit, I shall probably stick with my assumptions and wait for that upgrade for a product in the same price range as Vue 4.12 rather than possibly get hooked into two upgrade cycles, one of which is much potentially more expensive and likely to continue to develop in areas that are of no interest to a hobbyist such as myself. Call me cynical but it seems to me that this short time period for the intial side-grade offer and the starvation of information about future directions are a marketing ploy to get as many of us to sign-up to the Pro version as possible, and of course thereafter into a more expensive upgrade cycle. It is inconceivable that the company does not know at least in general terms whatit plans to include in the next version by now (unless of course there is no intention of a next version...), so I think you owe it to us, your loyal existing customer base, to be open about it and enabls us to make an informed decision without this added time-pressure of 15 october hanging over us like a Damocletian sword while we wait for straight answers.