VizWorld.com

The result of last month’s merger of GenArts and WonderTouch have just resulted in the first ever release of Particleillusion for AfterEffects, as an integrated plugin that brings the full functionality of Particleillusion into the popular compositing package.

Like its stand-alone sibling particleIllusion 3.0, pIAE is built on the industry’s most robust 2D particle generation engine. As a result, it features the same highly acclaimed speed and ease of use that have made wondertouch products so popular with more than 10,000 compositing artists around the world. In addition, pIAE provides access to the thousands of existing wondertouch emitters — downloadable presets designed to allow users to effortlessly create natural, high-quality effects such as smoke, fire, explosions, sparkles, fireworks and countless abstract effects — without ever leaving the After Effects environment.

Buy it from Wondertouch for $299, only $179 if you’re already a ParticleIllusion customer.

via WONDERTOUCH BY GENARTS SHIPS PARTICLEILLUSION FOR AFTER EFFECTS | The Briefing Room.

Graphics aftereffects, genarts, particleillusion, plugin, software, wondertouch

GenArts has announced that Sapphire5 will be available for Autodesk users in the first quarter of 2010, boasting hugely improved performance over Version 4.  Most of the improvements come from GPU-accelerated algorithms and much improved floating-point support.

Faster Render Speeds
Fully GPU-enabled to provide artists with a completely interactive user experience at HD resolutions and beyond and renders up to 700% faster.

Floating Point Support
Delivers true photorealistic image quality with the highest possible dynamic range.

Fully Interactive at HD Resolutions
Enables artists to push the bounds of their imagination, even in client attended sessions, without intrusive pauses for screen refresh.

See the performance benchmarks on their website.

GenArts Sapphire 5 for Autodesk Systems.

Graphics autodesk, genarts, sapphire, software

GenArts, makers of Sapphire, have just announced that they have purchased wondertouch, makers of the particleillusion plugin.  Initially both products will remain distinct and separate, but with the lead programmer becoming a GenArts employee, that’s likely to change.

“We are really excited about taking the core particles engine technology and seeing what we can do by combining that with the great technology and resources that we have at GenArts to build great next-generation products,” says Bannerman. “We’re hoping those next-gen products will serve a broader audience that will include both Alan’s customers and the current GenArts customers.”

When asked how GenArts feels about one of their main competitors, Trapcode Particular, they had an interesting response:

“Obviously, our customers highly value that type of functionality,” says Bannerman. “Yet one of the things they’ve consistently struggled with is the fact that Trapcode Particular is only really available as an After Effects plug-in. For customers that don’t have After Effects in their pipeline or don’t need After Effects in their pipeline, they have very limited choices: they can insert After Effects into the process and move out of something like a Flame, or even an Avid, and then back again, but they lose a lot of efficiency that way. Or they could just hand it over to the 3D guys and let them figure our how to do it in Maya, which is also really complicated. You almost have to be a programmer to figure out how to do particles in Maya.

via Studio Daily Blog » Why wondertouch Particles Matter to GenArts.

Graphics genarts, particleillusion, sapphire, software, wondertouch