Vue used in Heroes Kindred Poll Results

So you've had your say and 85% of you thought that I was right that Vue was used for the sequence in Heroes Chapter Three: Kindred?

Cities Sale

Up to 70% off selected building models for Vue at Cornucopia 3D this week.

Vue 6.6 PLE Now Available

The latest release of the free Vue PLE is available for download now. It adds xStream compatibility with the newly released 3ds Max 2009, and Design 2009, as well as support for 3ds Max and Maya 2008. This PLE build includes all the Vue 6.6 feature improvements.

The Personal Learning Edition (PLE) is a fully functional version of Vue 6 Infinite/xStream (selection of Infinite or xStream is done during installation). With the PLE, you can:

• Create complete projects, save your work and export to other applications
• Render stills and animations without size/length limit
• Experience Vue’s power directly inside Max/Maya/LightWave/Cinema4D/XSI
• Learn at your own pace (the PLE never expires)

The PLE is for personal, non-commercial use only, files cannot be exchanged with other PLE users and are not compatible with other versions of Vue, renders may be watermarked and carry a logo.

Geekatplay Vue Tutorials

I don't know where they find the time to make one tutorial but this week there are three new video tutorials for Vue 6 available at Geekatplay Studio covering creating a jungle, tips to creating realistic ecosystem and an overview of their Building Construction Kit.

GeoControl to Vue Tutorials

A two part tutorial on bringing GeoControl landscapes into Vue has been made available on the Virtual Lands web site. The first part covers exporting the terrain from Geocontrol and importing it into Vue. The second part goes on to cover how to distribute materials on your terrain in Vue using Geocontrol selectors.

Vue 6 Espite 50% Sale

For 1 week only, all Vue 6 Esprit products are 50% off including sidegrades and upgrades are discounted! This offer ends May 31, 2008.

	US/Canada	Europe	UK	Others
Vue 6 Esprit - Download Version	US$100	US$100	US$100	US$100
Vue 6 Esprit - Boxed	US$115	€96	£63	US$115
Vue 6 Esprit - Boxed - Vue 5 Esprit Upgrade	US$65	€54	£36	US$65
Vue 6 Esprit - Download - Vue 5 Esprit Upgrade	US$50	US$50	US$50	US$50
Vue 6 Esprit - Boxed - Vue 5 Easel sidegrade	US$80	€66	£44	US$80
Vue 6 Esprit - Download - Vue 5 Easel sidegrade	US$65	US$65	US$65	US$65
Vue 6 Esprit - Boxed - Vue 6 Easel sidegrade	US$65	€54	£36	US$65
Vue 6 Esprit - Download - Vue 6 Easel sidegrade	US$50	US$50	US$50	US$50

Vue 6.6 build 292711

Vue 6.6 build 292711 is now available from the e-on software web site for registered users to download. This update is to be installed on the Vue 6 final release version (build # 289768 and higher).

E-on Software News - May 23, 2008

E-on software's latest newsletter is now available from their web site including a new user project from Le Bisou, details of new AsileFX and PixelRaster training videos and a From the Developers Desk about Scratching the Subsurface (Scattering).

Vue 6 Infinite review at Blog Critics Magazine

There is a new review of Vue 6 Infinite at Blog Critics Magazine which "highly recommend Vue 6 and especially Vue 6 Infinite".

Clocks Sale at Cornucopia 3D

There is a sale on clock and other time piece models for Vue at Cornucopia 3D.

Material Preview Probe for Vue Version 2

Jon has released version 2 of his useful, free material preview probe for Vue at Vuelocity. Version 2 of the probe includes different lighting, the Vue logo and a smaller file size.

New Vue Landscape Tutorial

Geekatplay studio has launched a new Vue tutorial "From Closeup to large size landscapes".

New CGTalk Lighting Challenge

The fifteenth lighting challenge is now running at CGTalk:

The challenge here is to render this scene in a Film Noir style, making it look like a frame from a film shot around the 1940s or 1950s.

The deadline for this challenge is June 30th 2008.

Two Quick Updates from the Ranch Renderfarm

Frederic Louguet aka RenderFred has posted two little announcements about the Ranch Renderfarm:

• You can now download your files directly from the RANCH web site with your web browser.
• The free trial for new users, now allows you to send a 100 frames animation sequence instead of 51 previously allowed.

Vue Nebula Tutorial

Silverblade has released a new Vue tutorial on creating Nebulae using volumetric shaded material on terrains.

Vuelocity Web Site

New Vue web site: Vuelocity.

Free Pink Plumeria for Vue

A new, free, static Pink Plumeria plant by Bruno Memain available at Cornucopia 3D for use in Vue 5 and Vue 6.

Making Web Backdrops and Animated Titles with Vue Tutorial

New tutorials are now available from Geekatplay Studio the first is about how to creating backdrops for your web projects using Vue while the second covers creating animated title. Mega Pack II is also now available, including lots of stuff from past and future tutorials.

Cornucopia 3D Soft Top Sale

Cornucopia 3D has a new flash sale on soft top car models for Vue including: FIAT Topolino Uncovered, Auburn 851 Speedster, Chevy Bel Air 1957 - Convertible, Morgan +4, Ford Mustang 350 GT Convertible, Delahaye 165, AC Cobra 427 Mk III, Triumph TR2, 1936 Cord, Bugatti 57S Atlantic, Jaguar type E, Jaguar XK120 (1951), Jaguar XK120 (1948), Austin Healey 100 BN1, Triumph TR3 Racing, Austin Healey 100S BN2 and Lotus 7 Series 2.

Silverblade's Dirt on the Bottom Tutorial

Silverblade's got a new tutorial, Dirt on the Bottom, about making objects more realistic in Vue (and other 3d applications) by adding moss and dirt on the bottom.

Vue used for Heroes Chapter Three Kindred?

Watching Heroes last week I noticed a VFX shot with a distinctly Vue 6 flavour in the season 2 episode "Chapter Three Kindred". Its taken me a couple of days to track down a video of it on YouTube (above) and a few higher quality screen captures (below). If you can watch it on TV because it stood out even more for me then.

The background hills and clouds are fairly distinctive but for me the real give away is what looks like a large scale EcoSystem of the standard Vue palm trees made famous by the UFO video last year.

Anyway I've set up a vote so you can let me know if you think I'm right or not.

Monsoon and Wabe: Burning Up the Vue!

Welcome to the first Vue News interview. Tonight to kick off this new experiment I've got Walther Beck and Mark Lawson better known as Wabe and Monsoon with me. You'll know Monsoon from his web site Monsoonsky and his hard work as a moderator on the 3D Commune's Vue forum. Wabe's a moderator over at Cornucopia 3D but did you know he did computer animation for the film Enemy Mine? So on with the interview...

Vue News: Where did you grow up and where do you live now?

Wabe: Stuttgart, South Germany. Now at the edge of the Black Forest, close to Stuttgart, South Germany

Monsoon: Graduated high school in Horseheads NY. Now Winchester, Virginia USA.

Vue News: So what do you guys do for a living?

Monsoon: Early childhood educator/Papa Smurf/Summer camp guy

Wabe: Running my own company together with two friends, working as a graphic designer in print and presentation. Clients are IT and Automotive companies.

Vue News: Other than Vue do you have any hobbies?

Monsoon: I'm a practicing musician…and then I practice some more lol…

Wabe: Table tennis (I play in a team), music, friends

Vue News: Which cartoon/comic character to do you most identify with?

Monsoon: Dr. Quest

Wabe: Donald Duck, definitely!

Vue News: Do you produce art or design in more traditional ways and if so what is your favourite none computer medium?

Wabe: Always made photos and still do. The first "plan", before 3D graphics did exist, was to become a professional photographer. You can see some of my photos in my Renderosity gallery.

Monsoon: On canvas, I like oils but my specialty was murals and painting huge. I say 'was' because I rarely do them anymore except for specialty clients or here at the museum where I work.

Vue News: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Atari, Abacus or what other computers are you most comfortable with?

Monsoon: I run a dual core Gateway with XP but have a few portable hard drives with Linux and Windows virtual machines.

Wabe: Difficult question because I worked with a lot already. Started on mainframe computers from DEC (Vax), then worked (through the Vax) on a Cray for a while. After that I used an early commercial 3D animation system from BTS (FGS 4400) and started, parallel to this, to develop a modeller on my home Atari ST. Then the first Mac appeared in my toolbox (1987) and stayed with that. But always had to work professionally with Windows boxes too so I am familiar with this side as well.

Vue News: So how long have you been doing 3D Art and is it work, pleasure or a bit of both?

Wabe: First things in this field I did in 1982 I think. First professional work in 1984.

Monsoon: I think 5 maybe 6 years since I first discovered the digital medium. Quite a pleasurable mix of both.

Wabe: Started as work, quickly became big pleasure too. Nowadays it is pleasure only, no real professional work anymore – lucky me.

Vue News: What 3D Applications can't you live without?

Monsoon: Vue, of course, and any number of 2d applications, Metasequoia and Curvy 3d.

Wabe: Vue I would say right now. Maybe Poser too. The rest is easily be exchangable.

Vue News: Postwork or no postwork on your renders?

Wabe: Beside a bit of "standard postwork" like color enhancement, unsharp masking etc definitely no postwork. I call myself a purist – I find it most interesting to achieve effects directly in Vue. A lot more interesting!

Monsoon: Prework, midwork and postwork. I'm a firm believer that while working and creating, 3d tools should be in one hand and 2d tools in the other.

Vue News: So let's talk a bit about you and Vue. What was the first version of Vue you used and how did you come to Vue?

Monsoon: Vue 2 I started out a Brycer and one day while cruising the web looking for trees to stick in there, I saw this palm tree in a render that was misty and moody and I was quite taken.

Wabe: Vue 4 – it was the first version available on Mac. I read articles in magazines about Vue already for quite a while. Tried a demo of Vue 2 and was not impressed. Then, when Vue 4 appeared on Mac I bought it and was hooked.

Vue News: Would you call yourself a Vue addict?

Wabe: Yes.

Monsoon: Absolutely without question and I have no interest in rehabilitation lol…

Vue News: What's your favourite thing about Vue?

Wabe: Easy interface that allows quick results. Especially because I do Vue only for pleasure I do not want to fiddle with complex things. I want the "Solitaire" feeling – a bit of Vueing as playing a relaxing computer game. This can be done here perfectly, without been limited by the software. You can reach all quality levels you want within an easy looking environment.

Monsoon: One of my favorite things is the great wide open 3d spaces to work in. Using C4D, Carrara, and others, I feel small and cramped, and it gets hard to breathe. It's always a relief to get back to Vue.

Vue News: What thing about Vue most annoys you?

Wabe: Maybe the fact that Vue seems to be VERY sensitive to specific system settings. So that what works on several machines does not work on others. This is very confusing to the whole community I think. And forces heavier discussions than it would be necessary.

Monsoon: It's fragility. It seems sometimes that when one thing gets fixed, another that was working fine no longer does. I await the version that is indestructible.

Vue News: Have you got a great tip to share on using Vue?

Monsoon: Don't give up on learning and using the function editor….you will reach that 'aha' point and then the whole application goes to another level.

Wabe: Hard to say, there are so many. I don't think I have THE ultimate specific tip. Maybe something an old support engineer told me once – when i asked him an obviously stupid question about a software package. He said "95% of the problems sit in front of the monitor." Sounded a bit harsh on first sight but there is a lot of truth in it – think first before you believe something is a bug, it easily can be you misunderstanding something. Real bugs are hard to find!

Vue News: You both launched packs for creating fire in Vue recently. Tell us a little about them and what made you want to make your pack?

Wabe: One major intention of my package was to get better control over fire in Vue. Precise positioning, flexibility, the option to use it in ecosystems and be able to change the shape to my needs. All this is in a way given with Vue plants, so I started to experiment with those. It took a long time when I look at when I did my first tests - 2-3 years ago actually. The demands were quite different. From strong and intense fire balls, to weak little flames, all should been covered with the package. And finally is. You can do tiny little flames (on some pieces of wood for example) up to a full fire inferno via ecosystems.

Where fire is there must be smoke, so of course there are SolidGrowth smoke plants in as well to make the package complete.

It was a logical continuation of the things I did before. Weather effects like fog, rain, snow. As well done with SolidGrowth plants. Same reasons as mentioned above – to have something flexible, with a "defined" shape that is easy to use.

Monsoon: It's a package that contains objects and materials for making fire and explosions using different Vue techniques.

It originally started out as part of an 'Eve of Destruction' pack that included tornadoes, lightning, tidal waves, meteors etc. But that got too big so I decided to break it up and focus on fire and explosions which I figured folk could use more.

Vue News: Any tips on getting the best from your pack?

Monsoon: It is my hope that those new to Vue will take the items apart to see how they are made and thus learn…but for any and all, it is best to use a combination of the items…ie a fire sphere with an explosion sphere with an alpha fire and so on.

Wabe: Two tips: #1 use always several "fire plants" overlaying each other. SolidGrowth plants sometimes come with strange shapes (and have color variations as well) so it often is a good idea to break these shapes up a bit by overlaying several plants. #2 don't use too many, the fire effect easily can be too strong. Especially when using the plants in ecosystems it easily can end in a fire "catastrophe" – lol.

Vue News: I've read on the forums that you helped each other out as you created your fire packs how did that work?

Monsoon: Yes indeed. I beta test for Walther and he for me and together we try to derive the best solutions for Vuers.

Wabe: Result was that in a lot of images we used elements from the other package. And mentioned that in the image descriptions. Again, fairness and friendship. Especially after it was clear that we do not really cover the same areas with our products. But complement each other.

Vue News: Monsoon your pack is based on objects and textures while Wabe yours is an unusual application of Vue's Solid Growth plants. What would you say the advantages and disadvantages of your approaches were?

Monsoon: Between the two, we present the different ways to do a thing in Vue. Walther's plant advantage is ecosystems and eco painting. Mine, I think, is the ability to make quite passable explosions.

Wabe: The advantages of using SolidGrowth plants are defined but flexible 3D shape. They can be used in ecosystems and every created "plant" looks different to the others. A big advantage in my eyes. The use of non-volumetric materials keep the render times relatively low and is easier to handle when modifying the "plants" in a scene. One other big advantage I found more or less by accident was that the materials I created do not need a light source (hidden in them) to act as they shine. This was amazing to me but VERY useful.

The disadvantages? Well, as we all know, SolidGrowth plants can sometimes act a bit strange. Some plants have strange shapes, there are often unwanted color variations. So in my eyes overlaying 2-3 fire plants to get a good fire is a good thing. To cover these issues a bit. The other disadvantage is that the degree of realism can be a bit higher when using bitmaps of real fires for example. Or using volumetric materials under specific circumstances. But I think the flexibility I have is balancing this out.

Vue News: What products do you have in the works?

Wabe: I just released a rain expansion pack that seems to be very popular. I think about a smoke expansion as well to have more options there. Actually I work on something totally different. 3D cobblestones. Something I played with for a long time already, time to bring it together into a product.

Monsoon: Mostly product advances and second volumes. Earthenwear Procedural, CliffsnCaverns II, 2 Postcards from the Rim addon packs, Scrapyards of Antares and The Alien Vue. I'm also trying to compile a comprehensive tutorial on how to use my products.

Vue News: What product are you proudest of/happiest with/most pleased about?

Monsoon: I construct my products around my own needs as a Vue artist and thus, hopefully, fill the needs of others. I use Earthenwear and SeaVue an awful lot but I'm quite fond of Postcards from the Rim.

Wabe: #1 Splashes because it was the initialisation of all the following weather effects packages.

#2 Bad Weather because it was the breakthrough in terms of understanding how these things can be done.

#3 Last but not least Firebugs because almost everybody told me for a long time that it will not be possible what I try. Always a motivation to work harder!

Vue News: One last question... if you were writing your epitaph, what would you say?

Wabe: A famous one here in Germany – "Hier ruhen meine Gebeine, ich wollt es waeren deine". Translated: Here my bones are resting, I wish it would be yours"

Monsoon: Later...

Full Time Vue Artist needed by NetDevil

Taken verbatim from the posting to Renderosity:

NetDevil, MMO game developer is looking for an exerienced, talented Vue user to build complex quality enviroments for cinematic quality product.

e-mail peter@netdevil.com or fil out the on line app at http://www.netdevil.com/employment/

Monsoon's Wavemap Tutorial

Monsoon has released his first video tutorial on using SeaVue on using wavemaps.

Cornucopia 3D: April Showers Winners

The winners of the April Showers competition at Cornucopia 3D have been announced:

1st Place - "Rainy Day Walk in the Park" by Ryan Malone

2nd Place - "April Showers" by Robert Mackin

3rd Place - "It's Almost Stopped" by Gill Brooks

Renderosity Challenge - May 2008

The May 2008 Vue challenge at Renderosity is "Create an image suitable for hanging framed onto an office wall! This could be anything from a nice still life, beautifull landscape or abstract art. What would YOU put on the wall in your office?"

Meshbox Design's Towers of Magic

Meshbox design's Towers of Magic series is now available for all versions of Vue 5 and Vue 6 at Cornucopia 3D.

Two New Geekatplay Tutorials

Two new tutorials are now available from Geekatplay Studios. The first covers modeling simple bridge in Vue using booleans, moves on to using layered materials and finishes up with some work on the sky. The second is an advanced materials tutorial on how to make an oil spill on water material. It shows you how to creating mixed materials in Vue and how to use Vue's function editor.

New Free Planetary Atmosphere Material

Silverblade is offering a new, free planetary atmosphere material for Vue 6.

Urbanscape for Vue

Urbanscape is a new series that's coming to Cornucopia3D from Realms Art soon. The new Urbanscape series of products is aimed at the generation of urban and city renders. Here's what Tony has to say about the Urbanscape series...

Vue is already well known for its outstanding capabilies to represent the natural world... buts its capabilities are certainly not limited to just that. Vue ships with a good set of tools that can be used to generate realistic and highly artisitic landscapes; it has significantly less tools for urban landscapes - the Urbanscape series is here to redress this shortcoming.

Urban landscapes are vastly different from natural ones mainly in their requirement for precision and the need to utilise specific, recognisable items. A natural landscape is organic and imprecise - most of the time it doesn't matter how the contours of a hill are presented, what shape a rock is, or exactly how the colours on a material are distributed. This is clearly not true for urban landscapes which have an artificial and precise form - you can't rely on the random shape of an object to represent buildings, power poles, roads and other objects in the same way that you can rely on the random shape of a hillside terrain or rock. The same is true for urban materials which themselves are often regular and highly recognisable, such as bricks, grates, diamond plate steel, etc.

The important thing about Urbanscape is that it is not simply a series of building models - there are already thousands of those available on the net - Urbanscape is specifically about empowering the user to generate renders with the same level of freedom as they would a natural landscape - Urbanscape is made up of a series of Element Packs, Construction Kits, complete Vue Scene Sets, each with their own extensive tutorials, the purpose of which are to suppliment the tools and skills avialable to a Vue user. Each pack in the Urbanscape series comes with extensive documentation detailing not just the use of the items in that pack, but in using Vue's features to its fullest to achieve urban landscapes in general - such things as, how to use Vue Material Layers to generate your own grime layers, how to line up the textures on adjacent Object Mapped items, etc.

Urbanscape will start soon with basic items such as brick textures, wall grime layers (which can be added to any Vue material to transform it into a realistic urban texture); it will process to complete Construction Kits for specific subject areas such as alleys, warehouses, street corners, etc; and in time will present fully realised Vue urban Scene Sets. Stay tuned for further developments.

Realms Art's Desert Terrains

Tony aka Realms Art has some new desert themed packs for Vue available at Cornucopia 3D:

• Desert Terrains - The fifth in the Terrains of the World series
• American Deserts
• Australian Outback
• African Deserts (coming soon)
• Asian Deserts (coming soon)

Vue Atmosphere Tutorial

There's a new tutorial on how to fix Vue scenes where the sky looks great but the rest of the scene is too overcast on Christa's (aka Croxie or Awfulsouls) blog. Christa is also giving away some nice atmospheres for free.

Rebusfarm

Rebusfarm, a European renderfarm, now support Vue xStream and Vue Infinite rendering including standalone Vue 6 Infinite and the integrated rendering with Vue 6 xStream for 3D Studio MAX, Cinema 4D, XSI, Maya and Lightwave. All content available at Cornucopia3D is accesible as part of their solution.

Renderosity Challenge - April 2008 Extended

The deadline for submissions for the renderosity Vue challenge for April 2008, Something a bit odd here, has been extended to sunday night, May 4th 2008.

Free Hangar Bay Model for Vue

Hangar Bay 35 is a simple, low-poly, backdrop model for Vue provided as a fully textured Vue vob file from Jacob Charles Dietz.

Ventilator Tutorial for Vue

Geekatplay Studios has a new tutorial on ventilator and eco system. It covers the ventilator properties then goes on to show how to link a ventilator to an object to create an animation of a meteor with its own wind.