WayneG

Thanks guys. There's so much stuff to look at I don't get time to do the work!

Absolutely jonas mac. I have found using the forums are often a better way to solve a problem than using VW Help. My thanks to all contributors. I have used the Skydome in the aforementioned House Illustration, and it certainy has lightened the whole works, as you'd expect really. Now it looks very flat, with no contrast between each wall, and the shadows have all but disappeared. I think the Skydome has improved most of the colours in the illustration, except for the house itself! I haven't tweaked the Skydome's settings yet, so I hope to achieve a desireable end product with it. Maybe just deleting some of the light sources will improve things? I like shadows in my illustrations. Don't they have hard edges? Finally: I've looked at alot of CG work over the last few days, and there is certainly some superb stuff being done. The contract that I want back, however, does not lend itself to be THAT creative. I would love to produce different angles, sharper perspectives, more dramatic lighting effects etc, but this is the standard view they want for all their work, which is probably better for me as I won't have to learn too much too quickly.

OK guys. Thanks for your suggestions. Spent a few days on the web and found some decent reference I could use for image props and background material. I would love to find a decent 3d car model though, even to buy. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places. But anyway, you may be interested in my 1st CG house illustration (just follow the CG link): http://www.topdraw-uk.co.uk/ The house isn't that interesting, but good enough for the experience. I'm quite pleased with it, but would very much appreciate some constructive criticism from anyone with greater knowledge of the subject than I. And by the way, because it took me so long to produce, and because my agent's 'replacement artist' failed the test, I've lost my House Illustration contract. Ho Hum. Anyone gissa job??! Wayne.

OK. Thanks guys. Apologies accepted! VW was recommended by my computer man who made a few calls to find out what would be best for me. So I believed him. I'm using RenderWorks also, which I also find pretty good. I've tinkered with image-mapping, so I can see those benefits. Maybe I could take photos of my car in loads of different positions, and choose one to image-map? Whatever I choose to do, there seems to be a hell of a learning curve, especially when I'm new to CAD and 3D, but I shall persevere. My business depends on it.

Did I mention "FREE STUFF"?? I'm not slagging off the software, just the amount of QUALITY models there are on the web, free or not. I am new to 3D. VW was recommended to me, as I now need to learn to produce House/Architectural "illustrations" to replace my watercolour work. I am very happay with that side of VW. Brickwork, roads, paths etc work very well. I could do with car models (for example) WHICH I WOULD PAY FOR to drop into my work. I agree there are numerous objects with the program, but most are not of sufficient quality to be able to use Trees & Vehicles in particular.

Having scoured the web for objects (mainly cars/plants/trees) there seems to be very little out there that can be used in VectorWorks. Objects galore for 3d Studio Max, Cinema 4D et al. Maybe I purchased the wrong software?? Can anyone point me in the right direction?