ResPower Education Center: Vue, Part I - Rendering a Simple Scene

Figure 1: Atmosphere selector.

Figure 2: creating a cube.

Figure 3: Dropping an object.

Figure 4: Objects in the scene.

Overview

ResPower seeks to be an active member of the community of artists and programmers that develops and uses 3d software. To this end, we have decided to start a sort of journal through the process of learning each 3d application. These journals are intended to be a complete step-by-step record of the learning process for a person with no prior experience in the 3d computer graphics world. Each journal will build on the knowledge and experience gained in the previous journals, and will thus increase in complexity as time passes. This first journal will take you through the process of opening Vue, and modeling and rendering a very simple scene.

A Simple Scene

The first step is to start up Vue. I'll be using Vue 5 Infinite until further notice, and unless otherwise noted, all information here is pertinent to running Vue on Windows. Vue is made by e-on software.

Vue opens with the four "classic" views: top, side, front, and camera (perspective). The default scene has a camera, a light, and an atmosphere, but we will create a new scene so that we can choose from a variety of pre-built atmospheres. In the menu at the top, select File->New... You will get a dialog that looks very much like figure 1. We are going to choose the "Hot Summer Day" atmosphere. It is in the Basic folder, and is the last option on the bottom right. Double click the picture to start your new scene. Vue has an impressive number of pre-built components that are very easy to use, so don't be afraid to play around with them.

Vue is basically a terrain generator. It does a very good job with terrain generation, but adding and editing geometric primitives like cubes and spheres is not what the interface was designed to do. That being said, we are still going to add a cube and render it. Just be aware that we are using Vue in a way that doesn't highlight its strengths as a 3d application.

The Cube

On the left side of the screen is a menu with Vue's primitives. This includes geometric primitives like cubes and spheres, but in Vue it also includes some pretty advanced "primitives" like terrains, plants, rocks, and planets. Click and hold on the button that looks like a sphere (figure 2). Once the sub-menu pops up, slide over and release on the cube. There, now you have a cube in your scene.

Vue has a very neat "Drop Objects" button. This button allows you lower an object until it either hits another object, or until it hits the ground plane Vue automatically generates in every scene. The button is at the bottom of the left menu bar and looks like figure 3. With your cube still selected, hit the "Drop Objects" button. Now your cube is on the ground. Use the top, side, and front views to move your cube into a position in front of your camera. To do this, simply click and hold down on top of the cube and move the mouse. The cube will move with you. Use this opportunity to orient yourself to Vue's viewports. Move the box around in each view to see how it is affected in the others. When you are done, place the cube back in view of the camera.

On the right side of the screen is a panel with the names of all the objects currently in your scene, like figure 4. To change the name of one of your objects, simply click on it, then click on it once again to change the text. It's just like changing the name of a folder in Windows. When your scene has multiple objects, it becomes essential to be able to tell which object is which at a glance.

When you are ready to see the fruits of your labor, simply hit F9. This renders the current scene in the camera viewport. Congratulations. It's a box.

Conclusion

This has been an admittedly simple introduction to Vue. There is nothing in this journal entry that your average individual could not figure out with a few minutes of experimentation with Vue, but this provides a base on which to build with future entries. Thanks for reading, and check back for new entries very soon.

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