Well Vue 6 Is Gonna Come Out Within Few Days Probably But How Many Of You Think It Is Feasable For An Individual To Buy It? Almost 1000 $ ?
What Abt The Lower Versions Are They Still Good To Be Used If You Get It For Low Price ?
In vue 5 which one is betetr infinte or Espirit ??
I own Vue 5 Infinite; quite solid nowadays. I am not using it much though. Although the results you can get are very good, I find it very slow in rendering (quite logical with 80.000.000 poly’s in a scene. I’d like to use it for small animations, but on my 3.4Ghz computer it takes to long to render it out.
My opinion: in Vue you can create stunning scenery in a short time, but getting it into a project is a pain.
Vue 6 looks great, Ecosystems are so much fun, but I expect still longer rendertimes.
how much ram you ahve?
maybe its becaus eof ram its taking so much time?
exactly the render speed depends on what ?
more importantly how do I learn it ?
there arent any tutorial with the trial, its anyhow damn confusing like max and maya.
I love zbrush for its ui 
I second Plakkie.
It’s nice for landscapes but animations are a pain. I use it to render a landscape and then also render the depth map and use that to composite everything together. I would not buy it again. I have better results in the meantime integrating Mojoworld in a similar and equal painful way.
Recently I got the VUE plugin for Cinema4D. It’s a beta but looks nice. That integrates the VUE contents nicely into my C4D scenes. However, it’s beta. I am waiting for V6…
So… I’d wait. And if you look for Landscape’s check out terragen or mojoworld.
Cheers
Lemo
Lemo you confusing me.
Few months back it was you who actually told me about VUE.
I have checked mojoworld but didnt find it that realistic as Vue.
See Vue is gonna be a long term investmnet from my side for making small animation and ads.
Do give me your opinion which software I should be going for then ?
and what other softwares as max and maya are actually out of reach.
what is the main focus of your planned work? If it doesnt involve realistic landscapes as absolutely necessary, i´would go for carrara instead. Keep in mind though, that regardless of the application it will be a pain to render animations without a render farm! If you are looking into creating stills, thats not so much of a problem however.
XSI… that was XSI. VUE is not a choice for animation. Even a camera fly through is painful. In any case, there is no rigging of characrters in VUE. You have to import character animation. There is a way to import poser animation.
XSI with the version 5.11 for about 500$ is the best value you can get. Mental Ray as render engine has a lot of power, besides that you can model, UV map, and animate. There is also a cheap hair module now from Ben Rogal. XSI with BHairy is the best deal right now.
BUT try it out first. There is a trial version at softimage.com. XSI is complex. Not more or less than other packages but it is complex. And before you sink money into something. test drive it.
Cheers
Lemo
lemo you told me XSI for rigging.
for backgrounds you told me VUE.
I am gettign very confused.
Ok forget about everyother software, just think I am asking you to give me a sofwtares list for a small individual studio setup -
which softwraes u will recommend for
modeling
texturing
rigging
4)backgrounds
You are very experinced so give me your choice, which you would like buying.
i can tell you what i have and im happy with it, although not very experienced yet. So take my words with a grain of salt:
modelling=
Hexagon, that thing just rocks beside some bugs
Zspheres are cool too, with the new version there will be some powerful new modelling tools
texturing= Zbrush, no question, i hate to setup UVs, GUV tiles just rock, although there are some drawbacks. You should have at least photoshop elements at start too. For 16bit and above stuff youll need CS2 
animation+ rendering = XSI, very powerful for the price (plus it can cover modelling tasks too)
postwork= For stills photoshop (or PS elements, or gimp if you want to go open source). For animations after effects or shake.
forgot, you could replace XSI with carrara if you really are on a budget. The drawbacks here are the not so sure future of carrara in DAZs hands. And Mental ray is just faster and has more features. Other than that Carrara is still quite a funky application.
I would also like the ratio of compatible softwares as for any production house time is money, so obviosuly softwares which will be able to used togtehr in a much faster amnner without wastge of time.
Especially zbrush.
then there is only one answer: XSI foundation.
Ok for rigiging and rendering xsi( with vue plugin if available)
I am abit dicy about the postefefcts -
speacilly smoke and fur motiona nd all kind of crazy effects- which will work beetter with zbrush and xsi ?
Don’t get confused…
It all depends what you will do in the end. I know you are on a budget. And considering your function wish list I can show you the solution with the most functions for the lowest price.
XSI 5.11 Foundation: 500$
Covers modeling, rendering, rigging, and a few other things:
http://www.softimage.com/products/xsi/pricing_and_packaging/model_comparison/Default.aspx
If you need artificial landscapes on a budget… go for:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
Here is even a XSI importer for that. (Did not try it out yet…)
http://www.guruware.at/main/index.html
With Zbrush you have organic modeling and texturing and UV generation and displacement map and normal map generation which fit’s to XSI.
XSI has a UV layout program and there is a free pelting tool for it if organic shapes are to complex for the build in UV editor.
Add the BHairy module from Ben and you are very well set for much less than 1000$ (not including Zbrush).
All runs on PC. You are on a PC right?!
And go, and try out XSI. It’s has a LOT of contents. There are MANY tutorials out there. But you have to SEE and USE it to make up your mind.
You have many more options for rendering. That’s a good thing and you can pretty much do everything you like. But first you have to understand those options. In Zbrush you model, press a button and there is simply NO WAY that your first model looks very very bad. IN XSI, the first model made me throw up becuase XSI is not setting a stage for you. You have to set it up. Then… it’s excellent. Till then it is exactly as good as your skills are. Having that written… I am experimenting quite a bit myself. But the renders do not make me sick anymore 8-).
Cheers
Lemo
Ah thanks Lemo
skills ? i ahve no skills when it comes to softwares like this.
Its gonna abe a turmoil for sure, but will learn it, important for future.
atleast i wont be modeling in it,will try to get a base mesh and do detailing in zbrush and just import in.
But what about the post eeffcts softwares?
At the end its the eeffcts which makes an animation more appelaing to normal people.
well i am downlaoding XSI trial version now, putting in my head for as much time as I get, have to launch my comic also this month.
XSI will take time and lot of my energy just like maya and max, hope it doenst become boring like them.
No, it will not be boring, it will make you feel alive again! It will make your blood boil, bring tears into your eyes (of joy and of despair), challenge you on many levels. And maybe lead to great results ;-). Take it easy and don’t get frustrated. check out the XSI section in cgtalk and the xsibase. Nice people there if you get stuck.
And I tend do disagree a bit regarding the effects… IMHO it is the story which is the central part. If you have a great story you can have match stick men telling it and it will be great. If the story sucks however, you better have the special effects hahaha.
Have to run…
Lemo
Hehe, Lemo is winning another soul!
Although I know I’m to late, here’s my opinion. Personally, I use Lightwave and Zbrush to make whatever I want, and so far it works great; really haven’t had need for more programs. Lightwave doesn’t have the same reputation as the ‘big boys’, but it’s a good allround package for very little money. Plus, in my opinion, it has a very good modeler and it’s developing fast these days.
I had to make a landscape some time ago, and I tried and tried in Vue and didn’t get what I wanted. Then I used Zbrush and had results in an hour. 
Na, no soul catcher for SoftImage… I fully agree on Lightwave. The problem is that it’s about 900$. Not the cheapest power solution.
However… XSI has no update path for Foundation. So if you think you need the new sexy version… then you have to pay for a new Fnd license again. Also to consider is the fact that one cannot sell Fnd. Only Essentials and Advanced.
I do not know how Newtek works with updates regarding LW9.
Cheers
Lemo