The team at e-on software who gave us Vue d’Esprit 4 (Seal of Excellence) have improved on the existing software and come up with Vue 4 Professional. To refresh your memory, Vue 4 is a 3D natural scenery creation software, that is unbelievably easy to learn.
Thanks to the Kick-Start Tutorial, you can learn about the key features in a few minutes. You will then be ready to create your own world, big or small. You begin by choosing an atmosphere (Daytime, Simple Sunset, and Bad Weather are some of the options.) Then, according to the selected atmosphere, you get more choices. For example, in Daytime, you’ll have the option of picking Golden Yellow or Coming Storm. The choices are plenty, but that’s just the start: You can then add water, clouds, terrain, objects, rocks and planets’yes, even planets.
Modifying scenes are also straight-forward. Even if you export them to 3ds max, Cinema 4D, LightWave, Softimage XSI or Maya, the cameras and lights match the synch plug-ins perfectly. One useful feature is the fast-preview rendering engine that lets you see what the image will look like in a small window if a certain material is applied. Vue 4 Professional also supports multiple processors, filter editing and python scripting. You certainly get a lot of scenic bang for the package’s $599 price tag.
The Good News: Vue 4 Professional’s terrain editing allows users to dig, raise or create various effects with a resizable brush, while controlling its softness, flow and strength.
The Wish List: Although the rendering is faster than before, would’t it be great if we could just forget about the terms loading and render time forever? We certainly wouldn’t say no to a free, bigger library in the future versions of the package.
The Bottom Line: Not only does the software give you incredible control over your landscape, it also supports 3ds, COB, DXF, LWO, OBJ, SHD and other Import/Export file types.
Web Address: www.e-onsoftware.com
Animation Magazine’s Seal of Excellence
Final Score: *****
Ease of Use: *****
Interface: *****
Tool Power: *****
Quality and Depth: *****
Expandability: *****
