ckeyes, what's the name of the animation? Are you talking about "4 seasons"? Eran

Hi nastycanasta, The scene file on the 3DW CD is the one I used to render the final image, so if you render at broadcast or higher, you should get pretty much the same result. As I had expected, it came out a bit different in print. The shadows are darker (too dark I'm afraid), and there's some color shift. Note also that when you recreate the image, you'll always get slightly different results, because of the random factor in EcoSystem population. I hope this helped :) Eran

Yup. No displacement yet. But if you need displacement on a flat surface (like stone walls or pavement), then standard terrains do the job very well. I wonder why this option is not used more often.

You will be very satisfied. V5I's material editor is one of the best there is, especially when dealing with procedural materials. The function editor is a graphic interface that lets you connect virtually any parameter to any other (unless the connection doesn't make sense, of course). The list of avialble parameters is huge. Obviously, it includes everything you mentioned, plus hundreds more. Nodes fall into various categories, like different noises and procedurals (all editable), different filters, mixers and combiners, mathematical functions and so forth. If you are into materials and shader creation, you'll have plenty to explore :)

I eco every word you said Sharen. For me, she was the first. A true inspiration. Eran

Farwell my old-days Vue companion. You were the first true Vue artist, and a mother to us all. Rest in peace, in a place as beautiful as your art. I'll miss you. Eran

This is very bad news. Guitta was the first Vue artist I got to know and admire back then with Vue 2.... Guitta, I pray for you and your family. God bless you. Eran

And once again my friends, I am sooooo happy for you!! Wish you all the love and happiness. May your life together be as beautiful and serene as your Vue images :) Eran

Congrats rodluc2001 ! Loved your image :) Funny and original interpretation of the theme, with excellent lighting and a clever mix of old and new. Congrats to all the participants as well!

33

Ah, i see....My previous advice was refering to a different problem :) I totaly agree with the replies above. It seems that the cale of the houses is very small, making it difficult to control the camera placement. Why not scale the houses x10 or even x50? Would make things much easier for you :)

Debby, are you using a wide focal angle (less than 30)? Such values distort the perspective, resulting in a "fish eye" look. This is obviously very apparent on things that should be strait, like houses and walls. If you want to encompass a wide range in you picture, my advice is to use the usual architectural rendering trick: Use a "normal" lens angle (like 36), move your camera far enough to see everything you want. Now you'll probably have unwanted "empty" areas around. Just render a larger resolution than you need, and crop the unwanted parts in a paint program....

I must say that 3ddave44 is absolutely right here. Vue is indeed a great program for its price, but the mapping functions are its major weakness. This is no "high end" feature. It is merely the result of Vue starting out as a pure landscape program, with a greater emphasis on procedural textures. I truly hope the next version will allow simple interactive mapping, or at least the logical assumption that a 1x1 ratio means that the image is applied exactly ONCE to a face of a cube or plane.

A master of underwater Vue scenes wins an underwater contest! Congrats for a great image cermit :) And congrats to all the other participants as well.

#4