Vue is the software program that is used for creating scenic backgrounds, artistic renderings, and animations. It is used by 3D artists and animators, by architects and movie studios, and by just about anyone who wants to create realistic 3D scenery.
Vue 7: Beyond The Basics was written to take your skills to the next level of expertise. It has been updated to fully support both version 7 and 7.5 of Vue and primarily concentrates on the professional editions of Vue (Infinite and xStream). It is presented as a series of tutorials. To use this book it is expected that you are familiar with the basics of Vue and as such does not go into the fundamental basics. This book is 342 pages in length, 15 chapters, and separated in to four parts. I will break it out based on the parts.
Part I, "This Land is Your Land," demonstrates that in Vue, everything begins with a scene. This includes atmosphere, terrain as well as some sort of infinite plane that can be water, clouds, or ground. This seems self evident when you look at it from the basic controls, but to move to the next level, you need to master the details of the controls. It is these buttons and sliders that add depth and breadth to your scenes.
In this part you will look at building the terraform and how to stay grounded by building the base forms. Next you will expand into the third dimension by working with height maps and developing them into grand vistas. Finally, you will go to great depths to consider the surface aquatic where you will learn about representing water.
Part II, "Architecture and City Planning," is really useful if you want to mock up layouts for architects and city designers when you want to place a building in a photograph to see how it will really look complete with plants, trees, and environment. It is also useful when you need a building within your scene.
Keep in mind that the SolidGrowth technology lets you grow your own plants, bushes, and trees and will take your talents to the next level. Next you will examine some techniques that provide new challenges. You already know that the outside has one set of challenges, but spend some time working the great indoors and you will see a different set of challenges that can be used effectively for rendering indoor scenes.
Part III, "Illustration and Design," can also be done with Vue. These can range from the photorealistic "toons" to more traditional cartoon-like effects. Then you will focus on working with other products like Adobe Flash and Adobe Photoshop for creating multi-layered banner ads and using Poser to import figures.
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