"We're excited to see the release of a volumetric cloud system for Electric Image Universe. Traditionally, clouds have been created with some variant of a Perlin noise function which works but has a look that you can recognize a mile away. Psyclone actually simulates the water vapor in a real cloud. When you add in self-shadowing and the interaction of lights within the scene, you get a really powerful tool," said Blair Burtan, founder of Northern Lights Productions.

"Northern Lights Productions has done a great job of taking the same technology used to create scenes for Titanic, Castaway, and Waterworld and has created another powerful plug-in for Electric Image Universe Animator that is capable of generating photo-real digital clouds suitable for film, broadcast, and game applications," said Angus Taggart, Director of Product Development at Areté Entertainment, Inc.

Psyclone v1.0 package includes:

Psyclone plug-in: Allows you to create cloud shapes based upon a volume-filling algorithm or by sampling point cloud data from a particle system.

Psyclone shader: Works in conjunction with Psyclone and contains algorithms for rendering volumetric clouds. The shader also generates data need to case correct shadows on other objects in the scene. Objects can also be imbedded in the cloud.

About Northern Lights Productions.

Northern Lights Productions, founded in 1993 by Blair M. Burtan, has created over a dozen visual effects plugins for Electric Image. Coupled with the unprecedented imagery of Electric Image, these tools have been used in such films as Titan A.E., Star Trek: First Contact, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and many others. 

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