My 1st 3D Landscape Using Vue 8 (I Call It Fall Mountain)

    I had heard a while back that the big software for creating vast environments in the movies and even some video games lately has been from a software know as Vue.

    Now, I have tried to sit down an learn this software before about a year ago but just didn't have the time and energy.  I am really big with keeping up with the latest and greatest and since I am out of work at the moment I have been keeping busy learning lot's of new things to add to my tool set! 

    

    So, with me being an "Environment Artist" and all I thought it would be cool to give it a go!  This software is pretty bad a**! After taking some time to study the "how to" videos I was up and running.  The biggest trick about this software so far is customization of pieces.  Oh, and the thing that takes the longest of course is getting the rendering to look right!  Colors,lighting, atmosphere, sizing these have to be constantly tweaked in order to achieve your desired result and with each change means more rendering...  It's a constant battle! ;)  But, with a little more practice I am sure I will get my work flow running nice and smooth!

    Here is my 1st attempt with Vue.  I just wanted to get the basics down and get a scene completed.  This is far from being photo-realistic but I can see achieving photo-realism with a bit more studying! ;)

Here's to the start of a beautiful relationship! :)

Happy Halloween! My 1st 3D Pumpkin Carving! Say hello to Tiki-O-Lantern!

    I know this is a little late but I couldn't help it! I just had to post it! I am proud of my 1st attempt at carving a 3D design into a pumpkin and wanted to share it with you!

    Every year as far back as I can remember I have always carved a pumpkin for Halloween.  Well, this year was a bit different! Usually, I would just go about carving my pumpkin the same old tradition way.  Carving all the way through the till I saw the hollowed out inside where my candle would shine through.  

    Instead of going that route I had remembered seeing someone carve a design into the pumpkin without going all the way through about 2 years ago and thought I would give it a go since I am an artist and all.  This method is called subtractive sculpting.  I had performed this method before years ago while I was in school for my sculpture class.  But, the difference was I used a solid piece of clay not a hollowed pumpkin!  You are quite limited when using a pumpkin as your sculpting base material.  What I mean by "limited" is... I am sure many of you know that a pumpkin is not solid all the way through.  The thickness of the pumpkins "membrane" or "wall" varies per pumpkin.  When you carve a pumpkin traditionally the biggest task is to make sure your get all the way through this membrane so that when you put a candle inside the light will shine through.  Well, with subtractive carving it is quite the opposite!  You want to carve the pumpkin without going all the way through!  This becomes a bit of a challenge considering you can only guesstimate when you are getting close by always comparing how far in you are carving to the thickness of your membrane by looking inside and outside of your pumpkin.  There are little tricks that you can do to check how far you have carved into the pumpkin by shining I light on the inside of the pumpkin in the area where you are carving to see which areas are brighter than the other more light = thinner membrane.  I didn't do this for mine this year I just guesstimated and it worked out. ;)

O.K enough blabbing here are is the final results of the night. This took me about 4 hrs to do including gutting the inside of the pumpkin too!

Enjoy! :)