e-on software: Back To School Special Offer

e-on software are offering 30% discounts on Vue 10 Esprite, Studio and Complete till 23rd September including updates from Vue 9 and Vue 8.

CityEngine Vue reviewed at impworks

I've posted a review of CityEngine Vue on my website.

3D World 139 and Vue

Lots of Vue in 3D World Issue 139 - Start with the free copy of Vue 8 Frontier on the cover disc and the Vue picture on the cover by Dax Pandhi.  Inside Dax takes us through creating the cover picture in a tutorial.  Then there is a four page tutorial on creating a mountainous scene with Vue 8 Frontier.  Finally there is a positive, two page review of Vue 9 Infinite and Vue 9 xStream by Eran Dinur.

Render on the RANCH Runner

From today Ranch Computing is rendering using their RANCH Runner - a self-cooled, compact and scalable supercomputer dedicated to 3D rendering. All our customers' projects are automatically processed on the new system. There is no sharing - each project benefits from the full power of the RANCH Runner - so everyone gets the highest level of performance, everytime. The RANCH Runner supports Vue 9 xStream for standalone and integrated projects (with 3ds Max, Cinema 4D or Lightwave 64-bit). Support will be added in the near future for: VRay for C4D, Autodesk Maya, and the new versions of V-Ray 2.0 for 3ds Max (1.5 SP5 currently supported), and Lightwave 10 (9.6 currently supported).

Creating a Secret Island Using Vue xStream

Creating a Secret Island using Vue Xtream (their spelling) is a step by step, create a scene style tutorial aimed at beginners or intermediate users of Vue 8 xStream by Matthew Taylor.

Silverblade's Free Atmospheres

Silverblade has posted a variety of atmospheres for Vue 8 that he uses (mostly for Dark Sun fantasy art)  on his website.

Vue Classes at LVS October 2010

Peggy Walters' October Vue Classes at LVS are open for registration for the October session.

Classrooms open October 18, 2010
Registration closes October 20, 2010
First lesson posts October 21, 2010

Last Chance Offer on Vue 8 Esprit, Studio and Complete!

E-on software are running special offers on Vue 8 before the release of Vue 9. They guarantee that you will have paid less in total when you upgrade to Vue 9. Until Friday October 15, 2010, save up to 50% on Artist products! This is also the last chance for Vue 6 Users to upgrade. The Vue 9 upgrade policy will offer upgrade paths from Vue 7 and Vue 8 only.

Silverblade Gets All Dirty

Silverblade is giving away new, free layered material versions of his dirt materials for Vue 8 and above.

Vue 8 Frontier Sale

Cornucopia 3D is offering Vue 8 Frontier at 50% ($49.50) off full price. There is also a special offer of 90% off ($9.90) for C.Club members.

Vue Classes at LVS September 2010

Peggy Walters Vue Classes at LVS are starting again soon.

Registration for the September session is open!

Classrooms open Sept 2, 2010
Registration closes Sept 1, 2010
First lesson posts Sept 9, 2010

As of the September 2010 session, LVS has taken on a new format. The first lesson will post on Thursday instead of Saturday and then ALL lessons will be posted the following Thursday. All of the Vue classes have been updated to Vue 8.5.

3D Artist Issue 17

3D Artist (Issue 17) is now available in the UK and includes a step by step tutorial: Create a lush Chinese Garden; a Q&A on creating a scene that shows both above and below the water in one shot; and a review of Vue 8.5

Creating air bubbles in Vue 8

A new tutorial for Vue 8 from Geekatplay Creating air bubbles.

Free Vue Scaling Objects

I've posted a set of 34 objects to help with getting the scaling of scenes right. This first set is based on sports grounds, pitches and playing areas.

There's a bit of narrative about why I made them on my impworks blog and the objects can be downloaded from the free vue scaling objects page on my site.

Hope you find them useful.

Daz 3D Vue 8 Frontier Sale

Daz 3D is running a 25% off sale on Vue 8 Frontier until 6th June.

E-on Software Releases Vue 8.5 PLE!

LEARN PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL NATURE SOLUTIONS AT NO CHARGE

June 01, 2010. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, maker of the leading solutions for natural 3D environments, today announced the immediate availability of the Personal Learning Editions (PLE) of its solutions for CG professionals, Vue 8.5 xStream and Vue 8.5 Infinite.

Vue 8.5 Personal Learning Edition

Vue Infinite and Vue xStream offers CG professionals the premiere solution for creating exceptionally rich and realistic Digital Nature environments with seamless integration into any production workflow.

While Vue Infinite is a standalone application, Vue xStream operates seamlessly inside of 3ds Max, Maya, LightWave, Cinema4D and Softimage.

Key new technologies available in the Vue 8.5 PLE:

• Global Gamma Control: the ability to fully control the gamma in Vue ensures perfect coherence all along the user’s pipeline and will result in much higher fidelity of color and light in the final images. Users can fully control input and output gammas as well as the gamma used for displaying textures and colors inside the application.
• Interactive Cloud Control: cloud layers can be manipulated, rotated or resized interactively using the standard manipulation gizmos. They can also be animated using standard animation tools.
• Animated Planetary Cloud Density Maps: users can define animated maps to control the density of cloud layers on a planetary scale (e.g. to create animated hurricane shots).
• Diagnosis Render Passes: users can easily detect rendering bottlenecks and optimize render times by using the diagnosis render passes. For each pixel in the image Vue can indicate total render time of the pixel, number of anti-aliasing rays, number of texture anti-aliasing samples, total number of sub-rays in the pixel, total number of shadow rays, max recursion depth reached by a sub-ray, and number of final gather samples for that pixel.
• Unlimited Material Painting: the material painting tool allows painting distribution maps with any arbitrary number of materials. These painted materials can also be used as paint masks to constrain painting of other materials inside existing distribution maps.
• Zone Extraction: specific areas of a procedural terrain can be extracted by simply selecting a zone and converting it to a separate procedural terrain. This is ideal to create customized textures on specific areas for instance.
• New Terrain Sculpting Tools: Vue 8.5 introduces 4 powerful new sculpting brushes: Pinch, Flatten, Plateau and UniSlope. Also new in Vue 8.5 is the ability to use a bitmap for reference when sculpting in the terrain editor.
• Advanced EcoSystem Control: with Vue 8.5, artists can easily control the influence of the color variations on EcoSystem populations, drag multiple objects or plants from a browser into the EcoSystem population list, EcoSystem painting can be constrained using the underlying EcoSystem material rules (for instance, using influence of slope and altitude or the coloring rules) and more...
• Improved OpenGL Engine and Viewport Display: auto-exposure is now reflected in OpenGL views, terrain maps can be viewed directly in the terrain editor, the display quality of EcoSystem instances can be changed on individual population elements, OpenGL preview displays normal mapped surfaces, the EcoPainter brush size is now displayed in xStream for 3ds Max and C4D.
• Other improvements: the Z-Depth buffer can now be (optionally) anti-aliased, preview a Dynamic EcoSystem anytime by clicking the Preview button in the EcoSystem material, the user may define his own shortcuts in editors (panning, rotating, etc – for instance to match settings of other applications) together with many other improvements.

More information on the new features of Vue 8.5 is available at www.e-onsoftware.com/professional.

PLE Requirements and Restrictions:

The Vue 8.5 PLE is a fully functional version of Vue 8.5 xStream/Infinite. With the PLE, users can:

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

The Personal Learning Edition ships with a wide selection of Vue presets, as well as the complete PDF Reference manual.

Users can download the Vue 8.5 PLE at no charge from www.vue8.com/ple.

The Vue 8.5 Personal Learning Edition performs under all versions of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit), and is Mac Intel 32bit only for Macintosh OSX (10.5 to 10.6). The Vue 8.5 PLE is not yet optimized for Cocoa 64.

The PLE is for personal, non-commercial use only. Network rendering is disabled, and renders may be watermarked and carry a logo. Files created and saved with the PLE cannot be exchanged with other PLE users and are not compatible with other versions of Vue.

3D World July 2010

The July 2010 issue of 3D World (issue 131) is out now in the UK and includes a mention of Vue Cocoa 64 for Mac in The Filter, an advert for Vue, a Q&A on making a glowing plant (not a growing plant as I first read it) and a review of Vue 8.5 xStream. There is a QuadSpinner video tutorial: Mighty HyperTerrains volume 1 on the CD.

New Tutorials from Geekatplaystudio

Geekatplaystudio has a new tutorial about creating starscapes in Vue using images available to buy at Cornucopia 3D.

They've also posted new, free video tutorials on the Geekatplaystudio website:
What's new in Vue 8.5
Linear workflow in Vue 8.5, part one
Linear workflow in Vue 8.5, part two
Linear workflow in Vue 8.5, part three  
 

E-on Software Ships Vue 8.5

VUE 8.5 ADDS MORE POWER TO YOUR DIGITAL NATURE

May 06, 2010. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, maker of the leading solutions for Digital Nature, announced today the immediate availability of Vue 8.5 xStream and Infinite, its professional solutions for the creation, animation and rendering of natural 3D environments.

New features of Vue 8.5

Vue xStream and Vue Infinite are the company’s flagship solutions for the creation of natural 3D environments. While Vue Infinite is a standalone application, Vue xStream operates seamlessly inside 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, LightWave and Cinema4D. Specifically designed for graphics professionals, these products combine a multitude of cutting edge features that easily integrate into existing production pipelines.

Release 8.5 of Vue adds a number of breakthrough features:

• Global Gamma Control: the ability to fully control the gamma in Vue ensures perfect coherence all along the user’s pipeline and will result in much higher fidelity of color and light in the final images. Users can fully control input and output gammas as well as the gamma used for displaying textures and colors inside the application.
• Interactive Cloud Control: cloud layers can be manipulated, rotated or resized interactively using the standard manipulation gizmos. They can also be animated using standard animation tools.
• Animated Planetary Cloud Density Maps: users can define animated maps to control the density of cloud layers on a planetary scale (e.g. to create animated hurricane shots).
• Diagnosis Render Passes: users can easily detect rendering bottlenecks and optimize render times by using the diagnosis render passes. For each pixel in the image Vue can indicate total render time of the pixel, number of anti-aliasing rays, number of texture anti-aliasing samples, total number of sub-rays in the pixel, total number of shadow rays, max recursion depth reached by a sub-ray, and number of final gather samples for that pixel.
• Unlimited Material Painting: the material painting tool allows painting distribution maps with any arbitrary number of materials. These painted materials can also be used as paint masks to constrain painting of other materials inside existing distribution maps.
• Zone Extraction: specific areas of a procedural terrain can be extracted by simply selecting a zone and converting it to a separate procedural terrain. This is ideal to create customized textures on specific areas for instance.
• New Terrain Sculpting Tools: Vue 8.5 introduces 4 powerful new sculpting brushes: Pinch, Flatten, Plateau and UniSlope. Also new in Vue 8.5 is the ability to use a bitmap for reference when sculpting in the terrain editor.
• Advanced EcoSystem Control: with Vue 8.5, artists can easily control the influence of the color variations on EcoSystem populations, drag multiple objects or plants from a browser into the EcoSystem population list, EcoSystem painting can be constrained using the underlying EcoSystem material rules (for instance, using influence of slope and altitude or the coloring rules) and more...
• Improved OpenGL Engine and Viewport Display: auto-exposure is now reflected in OpenGL views, terrain maps can be viewed directly in the terrain editor, the display quality of EcoSystem instances can be changed on individual population elements, OpenGL preview displays normal mapped surfaces, the EcoPainter brush size is now displayed in xStream for 3ds Max and C4D.
• Other improvements: the Z-Depth buffer can now be (optionally) anti-aliased, preview a Dynamic EcoSystem anytime by clicking the Preview button in the EcoSystem material, the user may define his own shortcuts in editors (panning, rotating, etc – for instance to match settings of other applications) together with many other improvements.

More information on the new features of Vue 8.5 is available online at
www.e-onsoftware.com/xstream and www.e-onsoftware.com/infinite

Pricing information:

Vue 8.5 is available free of charge for all users under maintenance. Users of Vue 8 who are not under maintenance and wish to advance to Vue 8.5 should purchase maintenance today - they will receive Vue 8.5 and the Vue 9 upgrade free of charge.

More information on e-on software’s maintenance plans can be found at:
www.e-onsoftware.com/maintenance

Customers who purchased Vue 8 xStream or Infinite within 30 days of the release of Vue 8.5 will automatically receive Vue 8.5 at no cost as part of the Free 30 Day Maintenance included with all new purchases.

Vue 8.5 xStream retails for $1,790 with one year maintenance ($1495 without maintenance). A one year standard maintenance plan for xStream costs $395.

Vue 8.5 Infinite retails for $1,090 with one year maintenance ($895 without maintenance). A one year standard maintenance plan for Infinite costs $295.

Upgrades from Vue 7.x xStream to Vue 8.5 xStream are available for $595. Upgrades from Vue 7.x Infinite to Vue 8.5 Infinite will be available for $395.

Annual subscriptions for Educational licenses of Vue xStream and Infinite are available respectively for $149/year/seat and $99/year/seat. Upgrades to Vue 8.5 are free for owners of active educational licenses of Vue 8.

Site licensing discounts are available, contact e-on software for further details and pricing information.

Availability:

Vue 8.5 xStream and Vue 8.5 Infinite are available in English for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, for both 32 and 64 bit, and on Mac OSX 10.5+ as a 32 bit application - Mac Intel only (a beta version of Vue 8.4 and 8.5 for Cocoa 64 bit will be released during Q2 2010).

Vue 8.5 xStream is compatible with the following renderers: Mental Ray for 3ds Max, Maya and Softimage (integrated and MR satellites), V-Ray for 3ds Max and Maya, Maya Software, as well as the native Cinema 4D and LightWave renderers. Other renderers are under consideration. Vue 8.5 xStream adds compatibility with 3ds Max 2011, Maya 2011 and Softimage 2011.

E-on Software Uncovers Vue 8.5

VUE 8.5 PRE RELEASE AVAILABLE FOR USERS UNDER MAINTENANCE

April 15, 2010. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, maker of the leading solutions for Digital Nature, pre-released today Vue 8.5 xStream and Infinite, its professional solutions for the creation, animation and rendering of natural 3D environments.

New features of Vue 8.5

Vue xStream and Vue Infinite are the company’s flagship solutions for the creation of natural 3D environments. While Vue Infinite is a standalone application, Vue xStream operates seamlessly inside 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, LightWave and Cinema4D. Specifically designed for graphics professionals, these products combine a multitude of cutting edge features that easily integrate into existing production pipelines.

Release 8.5 of Vue adds a number of breakthrough features:

• Global Gamma Control: the ability to fully control the gamma in Vue ensures perfect coherence all along the user’s pipeline and will result in much higher fidelity of color and light in the final images. Users can fully control input and output gammas as well as the gamma used for displaying textures and colors inside the application.
• Interactive Cloud Control: cloud layers can be manipulated, rotated or resized interactively using the standard manipulation gizmos. They can also be animated using standard animation tools.
• Animated Planetary Cloud Density Maps: users can define animated maps to control the density of cloud layers on a planetary scale (e.g. to create animated hurricane shots).
• Diagnosis Render Passes: users can easily detect rendering bottlenecks and optimize render times by using the diagnosis render passes. For each pixel in the image Vue can indicate total render time of the pixel, number of anti-aliasing rays, number of texture anti-aliasing samples, total number of sub-rays in the pixel, total number of shadow rays, max recursion depth reached by a sub-ray, and number of final gather samples for that pixel.
• Unlimited Material Painting: the material painting tool allows painting distribution maps with any arbitrary number of materials. These painted materials can also be used as paint masks to constrain painting of other materials inside existing distribution maps.
• Zone Extraction: specific areas of a procedural terrain can be extracted by simply selecting a zone and converting it to a separate procedural terrain. This is ideal to create customized textures on specific areas for instance.
• New Terrain Sculpting Tools: Vue 8.5 introduces 4 powerful new sculpting brushes: Pinch, Flatten, Plateau and UniSlope. Also new in Vue 8.5 is the ability to use a bitmap for reference when sculpting in the terrain editor.
• Advanced EcoSystem Control: with Vue 8.5, artists can easily control the influence of the color variations on EcoSystem populations, drag multiple objects or plants from a browser into the EcoSystem population list, EcoSystem painting can be constrained using the underlying EcoSystem material rules (for instance, using influence of slope and altitude or the coloring rules) and more...
• Improved OpenGL Engine and Viewport Display: auto-exposure is now reflected in OpenGL views, terrain maps can be viewed directly in the terrain editor, the display quality of EcoSystem instances can be changed on individual population elements, OpenGL preview displays normal mapped surfaces, the EcoPainter brush size is now displayed in xStream for 3ds Max and C4D.
• Other improvements: the Z-Depth buffer can now be (optionally) anti-aliased, preview a Dynamic EcoSystem anytime by clicking the Preview button in the EcoSystem material, the user may define his own shortcuts in editors (panning, rotating, etc – for instance to match settings of other applications) together with many other improvements.

Vue 8.5 Available as Pre-release

Vue 8.5 is available free of charge for all users under maintenance. Users of Vue 8 who are not under maintenance and wish to advance to Vue 8.5 should purchase maintenance today (they will receive Vue 8.5 and the Vue 9 upgrade free of charge).

If they wish, users under maintenance can immediately download a pre-release version of Vue 8.5. Users of Vue 8 who subscribe to a maintenance plan today will also be granted access to this pre-release version.

Vue 8.5 xStream and Vue 8.5 Infinite are expected to ship during Q2 2010. Customers who purchased Vue 8 xStream or Infinite within 30 days of the release of Vue 8.5 will receive Vue 8.5 at no cost as part of the Free 30 Day Maintenance included with all new purchases.

More information on e-on software’s maintenance plans can be found at:
www.e-onsoftware.com/maintenance

Standard Retail Price:

Vue 8.5 xStream will retail for $1,790 with one year maintenance ($1495 without maintenance). A one year standard maintenance plan for xStream costs $395.

Vue 8.5 Infinite will retail for $1,090 with one year maintenance ($895 without maintenance). A one year standard maintenance plan for Infinite costs $295.

Upgrades from Vue 7.x xStream to Vue 8.5 xStream will be available for $595. Upgrades from Vue 7.x Infinite to Vue 8.5 Infinite will be available for $395.

Annual subscriptions for Educational licenses of Vue xStream and Infinite are available respectively for $149/year/seat and $99/year/seat. Upgrades to Vue 8.5 are free for owners of active educational licenses of Vue 8.

Site licensing discounts are available, contact e-on software for further details and pricing information.

Availability:

Vue 8.5 xStream and Vue 8.5 Infinite will be available in English for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, for both 32 and 64 bit, and on Mac OSX 10.5+ as a 32 bit application - Mac Intel only (a beta version of Vue 8.4 and 8.5 for Cocoa 64 bit will be released during Q2 2010).

Vue 8.5 xStream is compatible with the following renderers: Mental Ray for 3ds Max, Maya and Softimage (integrated and MR satellites), V-Ray for 3ds Max and Maya, Maya Software, as well as the native Cinema 4D and LightWave renderers. Other renderers are under consideration. Vue 8.5 xStream adds compatibility with 3ds Max 2011, Maya 2011 and Softimage 2011.