Review: Vue 9 Esprit

Graphic design and similar activities have been a hobby of mine for quite some time.  Going back many years I started creating skins (themes) for various applications and even to this day it is something I enjoy doing.  3D design has always piqued my interest but I have always found it difficult to use for obvious reasons.  These applications are not toys and there is a learning curve if you want to achieve some serious results.  I came across Vue several years ago when it was around version 4, and have been watching the development ever since, and have used  a couple of versions since then.  The latest version of Vue was released not too long ago, and I’m excited to share my experience with this 3D environment application from e-on software.

There’s several versions of Vue that are available for 3D enthusiasts, artists, and professionals.  Every level of experience is covered and Vue has a unique module system where you can even take the “basic” version and build it up to the upper mid-level version.  This is very handy for people who are just learning and don’t want to make an initial investment; this will allow them to purchase reasonably priced modules at their own pace so it’s also easy on the budget.  I’m reviewing Vue 9 Esprit which is aimed at 3D artist category.  This level of Vue has 3 versions – Esprit, Studio, and Complete.  This is the same version of Vue at its core but each version includes a specific number of the modules.  Vue 9 Esprit includes the RenderUP and 3DImport modules to start out with.

What’s New

Users who are upgrading from previous versions will really appreciate and like the work that has been done on the interface.  Vue has always had a nice looking and easy to understand interface, but the big change here is bigger, more prominent icons and buttons.  New users will have an easier time getting started with the new UI, and earlier users shouldn’t have any trouble getting used to it as it is an enhanced change – nothing radical.

Sculpting tools and brushes have also been improved and new features introduced.  The Pinch, Flatten, Plateau and UniSlope brushes are new in Vue 9 and help artists achieve greater control over terrain creation and sculpting.  Another new brush – Smear – gives you the ability to move and mold parts of terrain.  This is similar to a smear brush you would find in Photoshop, but obviously used for 3D environments.  This is just a small example of the overall new features and improvements in Vue 9.  You can read more about those here.

Creating Your World

This is the fun and productive part – actually using Vue 9 to create your own worlds.  As I discussed a bit before, this version of Vue is aimed at 3D artists and what I would describe as serious hobbyists.  I’m focusing on using this to create wallpapers, background – things along that line.  Vue is also used in big budget films such as Pirates of the Caribbean so the possibilities are near endless on how Vue can be used.

With that being said after you fire up Vue you have this clean interface which you can see in the screenshot above.  You have the four views (which can be changed) showing you top, front, side and main camera views.  Vue has a kick-start tutorial taking you through the basics of Vue and how to create your first scene.  I highly recommend doing this if you are new to Vue.  In the included manual (PDF) there are also many more tutorials for scenes and animations.  There’s also lots of outside resources such as books and the community at Cornucopia3D.

Starting off you can select the Atmosphere editor or choose from a bunch of pre-configured atmospheres for nearly every type of atmosphere condition you can imagine.  Simply choose or create the atmosphere you want and you have taken your first real step in creating your 3D world.  From here you have many choices, and Vue makes them all pretty easy to find and use.  Included is a bonus folder of 3D models, plants, trees, scenes, etc. that you can use in your scenes.  Depending on what you are creating you have the options to place a terrain and begin filling it with a variety of plant species, or creating a water plane for an ocean or other water-based scene.  The great thing about Vue is that just about everything is workable in the sense that landscapes can be molded and formed into anything you can imagine using a full set of terrain tools-many of which are of a paintbrush type for ease of use.

Lots of content is available when you purchase Vue, but you also have resources like Cornucopia3D where you can download (free and paid) content that can be imported to view.  Actually, you can do it right from inside Vue which makes it even easier.  Content is just a part of it, you also have lighting sources that can be placed and manipulated which really affect how your scenes turn out.  Once everything is together you can render down your project with a variety of rendering options.  Choose from the size and orientation of your renders, render quality, and much more.  The time it takes to render your scene will depend on a variety of factors, but each version of Vue has improved performance and will render your project in as little time as technically possible.

Animation also plays a huge role in 3D creation.  I can confess I have little knowledge of animating a scene, but fortunately there is an animation wizard which takes you through step-by-step on animating your scene.  This is an area I definitely want to explore more of as I can think of a ton of things to create and animate.

I feel as though I have only scratched the surface in talking about Vue 9.  It is an application that is so full-featured I could write pages and pages about it.  Coming from the perspective of a hobbyist who likes to create things, I have had a great experience with Vue 9 over the past month.  Although you can start using it immediately, your results will only get better with experience and E-on did a fantastic job at balancing Vue to where it is easy to learn and use, but still remains very powerful at what it does.

I have setup a portfolio on Cornucopia3D to show some examples of work I did with Vue.

http://www.cornucopia3d.com/portfolio/sscott

If you aren’t comfortable with jumping in straight to Vue 9 Esprit yet, be sure to try the Frontier and Pioneer editions.  They will give you the base application and you can decide to upgrade or build up from there.  I can easily give this 5 stars and recommend it to anyone looking for a 3D environment creation app.

Rating:

Vue 9 Esprit ($199)

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_9_esprit/

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