Hi Folks, Is it possible to take pictures of people or things, and save them as a .tiff and import them into a Vue scene? I know it can be done in Bryce...can it be done in Vue as well?

Well sure but I don't know about tiff format. If tiff works for you then go for it maybe you got a mac. This is how it's done: Get picture if it's tiff well maybe convert it to bmp. I can't check right now but I don't know if Vue imports tiff maybe if the extention is .tif and not .tiff I rendering I can't check right now. Um convert it to bmp make it easy unless of course you have a mac. Figure out what you want to be in the scene and what you do not want in the scene. Select all that you want and paint it pure black, select all that you don't want and paint it pure white. Save as *_a.bmp, this is your mask so that what you don't want gets cut out from the image. In photoshop it's really easy by using the magic wand then to select the part you don't want then just delete it. Of course you got it on a new layer right? Keep doing that till all you don't want is gone, then select the gone part paint white then select reverse and paint it black, I use fill 100 %. Mask is the hardest thing to make really. If it's already a 32 bit image the mask is sorta already there if you know how to find it then making the mask from that channel is even easier. You can also use the image as the mask actually but you'll have a slightly transparent image. Best to make a mask. Anyway then you make a new alpha plain in vue and get the picture then finally get the mask, It steps you right threw the process really. You may want to tweek the textures you want the picture set bicubic and auto and the mask in the transparency part the same. Check here for tutorials here on alpha plains. See book page 264 It's easier than bryce.

What's even more powerful is you can make and export the mask from Vue. Can't do that in bryce. You can say render a tree with a perfect black mask sky and no ground like keep the tree way up in the air and delete the ground. render it then save the image and then save the mask. Voila Billions of trees ! If you can't figure out how to make a perfect mask it's the easiest way. Maybe your object is just to complex to cut clean say. Pitures of people are hard because they are generally have a background that makes it hard to select and delete but you just got to keep pluggin away at it a little at a time till it's all gone.

Yes tiff works, It written right on the back cover of the manuel. Knew it was somewhere.

..and if you want lossless full color, a much smaller byte load, and transparency done in your 2d editor, vue imports .png

Ya png is probibly best. Just ban the jpg's. There BAD NEWS !

Will Vue recognize the ALPHA channels of a TIF image, like Bryce does ... so you can map it to a rectangle and have just the object showing? I think this is what the original poster wanted.