Vue 6: A Quick Tour of the Primitives

Vue 6 is software produced by E-on Corporation. It is used primarily to create 3d landscapes. However, it has other capabilities as well. It comes in two versions, Infinite and xStream. Given its capabilities, it's a fairly inexpensive piece of software, especially when you compare it to something like Maya. In this tutorial, we will look at Vues' primitive's objects, and the uses that can be made of them.

If you look at the screen, you will see that the Vue 6 primitives' icon is located to the left of the viewer space. When you click one it once in its default state, you get a sphere appearing in the views. But if you hold the icon down for a moment, you are instead given the option to select from a range of primitives. The first shown is, again, the sphere. But if you instead select the second, which is a cylinder, this is what you get. The primitives following the cylinder are, in order, the cube, the pyramid, the cone, the torus, plane, and the alpha plane.

In order to apply a texture to the primitives, you select the primitive in view or, if the scene is complicated and the primitive is had to select in the viewer, go to the scene layers, and select it there. Then go to the Object tab in the menu at the top, and then click Change Object Material. This will open up a new dialogue box, which will present you with various options for adding a new material. Most of these materials are beyond the scope of this tutorial, so just go to the one called basic and click. Then select the red plastic material and click ok. You will see in the preview that the new material has been applied to the object. Now, if you go to the panel on the upper right in Vue, you can make adjustments to the material, as well as to the primitive's size, and position.

One of these primitives works slightly different from the others. This is the alpha plane. The alpha plane allows you to add image to your scene as objects. It uses an alpha transparency to remove the unwanted parts of the plan, and all you are left with is the image on the plane, which can then be made into a "billboard". The billboard will move as the camera moves, always presenting its face to the camera. This is very useful in helping you cut down on the number of polygons in a scene, which saves time rendering.