A good tip before starting any 3D image is to determine the size of the render you are making. I am making this scene for a website where it might sit in a Flash header. You’ll see in the image below I have really just started out. I created 2 mountains and dropped a basic texture with an ecosystem on it. I’m not really too concerned with the textures at the moment, that will come later. Right now, I am focusing on the shape and size of the mountains. The mountain in the foreground I made in the terrain editor and cut out an area where I want to put the waterfall. This mountain is 1024×1024. The background mountain is further away so it doesn’t need as much detail so i made it in the terrain editor at 512×512. Its basically a prop. I didn’t spend anytime on it all creating its shape. I just opened the material editor, click the mountain button a few times, click erode, and clicked canyon. And TADA, that background mountain is done as far as the shape goes.

Now that I have the basic shapes created, its time to tweak the environment, textures, and add some plants. I modified the environment by bumping up the light intensity because in this scene its really sunny, like midday kind of sun on a clear day. I also modified the texture on the foreground plant by adding an ecosystem. One complaint I have about the plants in Vue 5 Infiniite is there really arent enough of them. There is only 1 bush too. How are you supposed to make a tropic forest with 1 bush? And unfortunately, it wasnt even the kind of bush i needed. I modified the bush that is in Vue in the plant editor and made my own little bush that i then populated across the foreground mountain. I added a couple of other plants to keep things interesting. I haven’t completely finished adding plants to the mountain and the next step is to figure out how to make Vue 5 not populate plants where i want the waterfall to be. Any ideas anyone? Please leave a comment.

Stay tuned…As the scene progresses I will be posting by end of day renders to this blog, wish me luck!

I remember when i first for Vue 5 Infinite and in the feature set it said that you could make your own plant species. This sounded very interesting to me, but it didn’t seem very intuitive on how to get to the plant editor (thank god for the help book!) and start creating my very own plants. It was easy enough to figure out but I’m sure, as you’ll see here shortly, that i am only going to graze the surface of what this tool can do. This tutorial is intended for beginners.

First things first.

1. Load Vue 5 Infinite. Vue should load with a default scene.

2. In the left menu, single right-click on the tree icon.

3. You’ll see the collection of default plants. Plants, Alien Plants, Edited Plants, and Personal Plants.

4. Click Personal Plants.

5. Now click New Collection (its the little icon all the way at the bottom and to the left of the Collections window.

6. Its going to prompt you for 2 things. The first is what folder on your hard drive you want to store the collection. I chose the Plants folder in the Vue 5 Infinite folder. Click ok. The second prompt is the New Collection -> Indicate the name of this collection. I called my new collection Robs Plants.

Creating a new collection isn’t necessary to edit plants, but it will allow you to be more organized with how you save your plants.

Let’s get to editing a plant now for god’s sakes!

The “Please select a plant species” window should still be opened.

1. Click Plants.
2. Choose a plant to edit. I chose the Mexican Palm Tree.
3. Double-left click the plant. This drops an instance of the plant into your scene. Cool — we have a plant.
4. Now with the Tree selected, right click the tree and left click “Edit Object”.
5. TADA! The Plant Editor is loaded. Here’s where things start to get interesting.
6. At this time, pause for a minute and mouseover over all of the options at the top of this window. Those options up there are things like Render Preview, Render Options, New Plant, Save Plant, Response to Wind, etc…

7. It is also important to note that this plant is split into main sections, Trunks/Branches and Leaves/Petals. The Trunks/Branches is split into two subsets, Trunks and Stems. Leaves/Petals only has 1 subset. When modify the Trunks/Stems you can change both subsets at the same time or you can make changes to only the Trunk or only the Stems. I’m sure you’ll find this very usual to achieve better effects.

When you first load up the editor you’ll see at the top left of the window the names of the two subsets and then below that a drop down menu with “All Subsets” selected. This means if you want to modify something you can change both of these items at the same time or you can edit the branch by itself and the trunk by itself too. This offers some really good control and you’ll see you can pretty much make any type of plan in existance or fantasy.

I will be back sometime in the near future to show you some of the wild plants I’ve created with the Plant Editor. In the meantime, try experimenting with the settings and create your very own new plant. Post a comment on my blog below with a link to the image, I’d love to see what you all are creating out there.

Until next time…

Anyway, the image I post to you today took about 2 weeks of experimentation and then 1 session of 1 hour of well-focused work. And this is the result. Still alot needed to be done but this is the best one I have made for sure!

Enjoy – i need to catch some ZZZzzzz’s — until next time!

Of course, the best way to get on my blogroll is to add me to yours first. : )

Rob

What is Kwari?
It’s best described as a Sci-Fi, rapid-action first person shooter (FPS). But wait!!! There’s alot more!!!! After all this game IS going to revolutionize the gaming industry.

What makes Kwari stand out from the rest of the first person shooters (FPS)?
Everything in the game has been designed with one thing in mind — Translate your shooter kills into some serious cash. That’s right with this game you’ll be able to make money. The website implies that even an average player should be able to get ahead in the game quickly.

What are the ways to make cash in the game?
You make cash by hitting other players and you lose money when you are hit. Every shot counts. The amount you can win is based on the stake level you play in. Other ways for you to earn cash are doing damage to yourself, break crates, picking up additional weapons, health packs, other items in the game. Each item might have a value assigned to them in the game.

Does Kwari take a percentage of the money?
No. 100% of the cash generated through playing the game goes back to the players in the form of prizes.

I’ll be back next week and write some more about this interesting game. I’m going to try to get into the beta test myself.

Want to learn more about Kwari? Visit there website here – www.kwari.com

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Just like last time, I opened up the package, hooked the unit up, and right away I’m online. The install takes less then 5 minutes and its super easy. A 4-year old could this thing setup in no time.

In case you don’t know what this unit does, here’s a short description. There are two small units in the box that plug into a regular electrical outlet. Plug 1 in near your router. Plug the other in near your computer. Use any ethernet cable to connect the two units to each peripheral. One plugs into the router and the other plugs into the computer. What happens is the units communciate with each other by creating a network through your electric system in your house. The main benefit is you don’t have ugly wires laying over your floor and you save a bundle by not having to have your house wired with ethernet drops throughout the house.

So, I’ll let you know if i burn through this one really fast or not.

I bought a nifty device from Best Buy. The device is made by D-Link. You have two small boxes that plug into electrical outlets. You plugin one by the router and then hook it into router using an ethernet cable. The other little box you plugin near the computer and then run another ethernet cable from the little box to the PC. This creates a signal from your router to your PC by using the electricity in your house to deliver the signal. Very awesome because it eleminated the long cables across the floor for awhile there. Unfortunately, I think i got a lemon in the bunch because it broke. Best Buy wouldn;t take it back because it was out of the 14-day return policy time. D-Link, however, is sending me a brand new unit. Really I hate buying things from Best Buy. I don’t think they serve the customer very well. I usually just go there to look and then if i want to buy any electronic equipment I’ll go to Circuit City. If you buy games you should definitely only go EBGames or Gamestop. They offer a much better return policy. You can return a game for any reason basically. Best Buys policy is you can only return it if it is broken.

So, I’ve had problems all over the place with getting things to receive a signal in my basement. It’s been an upward battle.

My Sirius Satellite Radio doesnt work in my basement.
My PC, my laptop can’t connect using wireless ethernet to my wireless router, though it works in every other location in the house.
My PS3 can’t connect to the wireless router either, so i have to run a 50-ft cable from the router to the PS3, which I’ve done, but i don’t like it.

Some things to know about the basement:

• Double layer of sheet rock (soundproofed room) in the walls only.
• Just above my bed part of the ceiling slants upward. The rest of the ceiling is flat.
• My basement has a long, pole that extends the entire length of the ceiling to help support the rest of the house.

Does anyone have any helpful tips or suggestions that I might try to get a signal in my basement for all of these devices mainly my Satellite radio, my PS3? I think it would be great to utilize the wireless of the network in every sector of the house.