A test with some low poly geometry and paint effects. Not quite Vue 6 complexity... I could have added more grass I guess... but it rendered fast! At around 2 minutes per frame. Also, compared to Vue, it's a clean render, no grain, no flicker. So that's good. Also(!), it's part of Maya, so... that's even better. Vue integration with Maya seems to be not one of the best... and I found navigating Vue a very painful experience. I'd like an environment-creation plugin for Maya... because navigating and working in Maya is a breeze compared to many other 3D applications (or is it because I got used to it??)
Did some color correction. Still ugly, but it was a fun experiment.
Aaaaand I discovered that the 3D shadows in pfx are sort of camera dependent... so weird things can happen to them... check out how they disappear as the camera moves (more noticeable towards the end of the shot). Weeeird stuff man, weeeeird stuff, hehe. Click to see the 4MB Quicktime.