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MillimeterWondertouch releases ParticleIllusion Professional Emitter Libraries
Feb 28, 2006 6:18 PM
Wondertouch, (www.wondertouch.com), a leading software developer of high-performance particle effects creation tools, today announced the release of the Professional Emitter Libraries, a collection of six new particle emitter libraries for the company's award-winning particleIllusion 3.0 software - widely regarded as one of the most artist-friendly and powerful software solutions for creating high-quality, complex particle animations. The Professional Emitter Libraries (Pro Emitters) have been developed by three digital artists - Tom Granberg, Sasha Milica, and Phalkunabba Rath - who exhibit outstanding command of the particleIllusion software application, distinctive creative styles, and superior aptitude in creating intricate particle-based effects intended to embellish the 'palette' of effects choices for professional particleIllusion artists.
Each of the six individual libraries contains 30 emitters that feature sophisticated, complex, and ready-to-use particle effects covering popular themes including real-world effects such as explosions, auroras, and breaking glass; motion graphics and artistic backgrounds; text and abstract effects - a range of effects that are useful for nearly every conceivable creative professional and prosumer project. The Pro Emitter Libraries can be purchased individually or as a complete set for both the Windows and Mac platforms.
Alan Lorence, president and chief developer at wondertouch, explains that the Pro Emitter Libraries allow a particleIllusion user to supplement the already impressive selection of more than 1400 different preset emitters that ship with particleIllusion 3.0 (as well as the additional emitters that the company releases free-of-charge each month) with a set of extremely high-quality particle emitters.
"While particleIllusion ships with a comprehensive variety of preset effects that is updated each month, and customizing the emitters or creating entirely new ones is relatively simple, some artists don't have the time, desire, or ability to experiment with creating new or complex effects.
"Because I'm the primary creator of the emitters in particleIllusion, I tend to work in a specific way with pretty heavy constraints on the amount of time I can spend on them, which limits the types and complexity of effects I can create. To address the need to bring artists an even greater selection of more artistic and complex particleIllusion effects, I've drawn on the immense talents of Phalkunabba, Sasha and Tom. They have mastered particleIllusion's simple yet powerful engine in creating this new collection that features hands-down some of the most innovative, stunning and incredibly intricate particle effects ever developed for the application," Lorence elaborated. "We are confident that particleIllusion users of all skill levels will be impressed by the incredible content and enhanced productivity that each library has to offer so they can hit the ground running on any project requiring advanced particle effects."
"Once again the team at wondertouch has come through for us with a uniquely versatile blend of creative and technical flexibility. Instead of a major code change, the wondertouch team was wise enough to lean on the amazing talents of some of their most creative users," exclaims Robert Taylor, executive producer and president at Pendulum Studios. "No matter how well we think we know particleIllusion, and how cool the FX are that we're able to create with it, these new 'Pro Emitters' are absolutely breathtaking. If you can't find something inspiring, useful and exciting in this potent new collection of emitters, then you're definitely in the wrong industry!"
"As a motion graphics artist working under tight deadlines in a broadcast environment, the bottom line for me is that these emitters are innovative and sophisticated with motion that is beautiful and eye-catching, and are immediately useful for production work," states Nathan Shipley, animator, IMS (Indianapolis Motor Speedway) Productions. "Those that may not present an obvious use right away quickly inspire spin-off ideas for ways they can be customized. You WILL see these on broadcast network television!"
"This collection of pro emitters demonstrates the wide range of possible applications for particleIllusion. From pyrotechnics to graphic design, this collection has a taste of everything," says Mike Shand, VFX supervisor, Frantic Films. Each Professional Emitter Library contains 30 emitters that cover a specific theme and reflect the stylistic influences of each of the artist creators.
Abstract - This library includes very creative, organic, and beautiful emitters useful in composing backgrounds and adding graphics elements. Most of these emitters involve flowing, wavy, colorful designs that change over a very long period of time. (Created by Phalkunabba Rath)
Text and Logo - In this library, "logo emitters" - some of the most asked-about emitters available for particleIllusion - feature text or a logo that rotates, streams, converges, etc. (Created by Phalkunabba Rath)
Artistic Backgrounds - This library features a wide variety of animated background emitters, covering a range of styles from slow and subtle to wild and wavy which can be used alone or combined for added variety. (Created by Sasha Milica)
Graphics and Distortions - This library shows off the diversity of effects possibilities using particleIllusion and contains "graphics" elements and amazing examples of "distortions" - effects meant to be used on background footage. (Created by Sasha Milica)
Eclectic 01 - This library showcases a fantastic collection of real-world effects: fireballs, explosions, and smokes; "space" effects including wormholes and cosmic phenomena; and a few "graphics arts" style emitters that utilize numbers and simple shapes in very complex ways. (Created by Tom Granberg)
Eclectic 02 - This is the second library collection of realistic and useful effects including dirt, falling debris, breaking glass, clouds, auroras, and frosts. (Created by Tom Granberg)
In similarity to all particleIllusion emitters, every emitter in the Professional Emitter Libraries is completely customizable and can be tweaked to create a slight variant, or turned into a completely new emitter, affording limitless variations with little effort. Additionally, each Pro Emitter Library contains interesting and unique shape images (sprites) that are critical to the look of the final effect that can be re-used in other emitters and in other projects. Thorough documentation is also provided for the collection consisting of a "catalog" of all of the emitters, a thumbnail image for each emitter, a short description, and usage notes including details of how the emitter works (where applicable) and instructions on how to easily modify the emitters to create interesting variations.
"The Pro Emitters not only provide particleIllusion users with an instant and expanded repertoire of great new effects, they also "teach" new and useful tips and concepts to the interested user. By analyzing the techniques used to create many of these effects - some of which have not been seen in particleIllusion before - users will gain an insight into advanced emitter creation," adds Lorence.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.