I've seen many forum posts comparing these different applications, especially Terragen to Vue. There has been a great deal of debate on what one tool can do and what another cannot. Sometimes the discussions have become quite fervent. We all wish Vue could do more and I'm sure that in time, it will. The other tools cannot do some of the things Vue can do and I bet their users wish the same. In the meantime, however, I wish to present my own position on the matter and offer up Terragen and Mojo as simply tools for use in Vue.

If you use Vue as your main 3d stage,  then Terragen and Mojo can be very valuable in the set design. Renders from both programs make excellent mattes and backdrops in Vue lending the aspects of both that are currently lacking in Vue. Vue is built to do this matte painting/alpha plane thing quite well. In the render presented here I used a cloud alpha way in the back and coming forward, a Terragen render as background, a Mojoworld render as midground and then finished up the foreground with Vue. Of course, a Poser eagle thrown in for good measure.

The main thing to be conscious of when compositing in the Vue space is consistency in lighting and shadow. What I do is set my Vue scene up first and get the stage ready. I note my lighing and direction and then go into the other apps and set their renders to match. When they are done, I mask out the sky (unless you want a TG or Mojo sky) in Photoshop and apply them to alpha planes and place them. Presto! 

Now what if I wanted a castle back across that Mojo valley but I only had the Mojo Viewer that's incapable of importing objects? That's where using Vue in the same manner comes in.....I save my scene and then open up a fresh one with the identical atmosphere. I import my castle, put it in the approximate position of where the Mojo ground is and render. Then I render the alpha mask. Open up the previous scene, place the castle on an alpha plane, turn off all shadows and put it back there on the Mojo ground. Any needed shadows are then painted in post.

The same thing can be done if you want skies from those applications. Back in the Brycing days when I hated Bryce skies, (and still do lol)  I used Terragen skies in my Bryce renders and felt much better about cg life.

Then there is texture harvesting. Terragen, TG2 and Mojoworld can all be viewed as texture generators for Vue. Take your camera in and scout around. Do just as you would do if taking your real camera into the field. In Terragen, you don't even need to create a terrain. Just make a surface (or load one), take your camera up and point it down -90 degrees on that open flatness and take your snapshot. In Mojo, it's a texture hunting adventure because you have that entire planet to hunt in.

Then make them seamless in your favorite 2d application and apply. Nothing to it.

You Vue veterans, I'm sure, were aware of this technique but our newcomers may not and it never hurts to do it again. So, bend other tools to your Vue will and render on!!

M