Review:wondertouch Pro Emitters for particleIlusion,
collections 7-9 |
April, 2007
wondertouch Pro Emitters for particleIlusion,
collections 7-9
http://www.wondertouch.com
$90.00
Review by Steve
Douglas
For those of you who have not discovered the wonders of wondertouch's particleIllusion, I can only ask 'Why not?' Not only is the wondertouch application easy to install and use, it is downright fun. ParticleIllusion is a complete standalone application capable of some truly amazing animation effects delivering an incredible number of versatile emitters when producing backgrounds, explosions, comet streams, nature and weather effects, plus watery applications and so much more within a digital production. Imagine your Apple's Motion supplying you with a thousand times the number of particle emitters and you can envision just how much more you would have at your editorial disposal. ParticleIllusion comes supplied with a massive library of emitters to apply as they are or manipulate and recreate in your own vision depending upon the requirements of your project. Additional libraries are released each month at no cost to the user, just go to the wondertouch website and it's there for the download.
Recently wondertouch has released their second collection of Pro Emitters. Collection 7-9. Like their previous collection offering, these collections are thematically based and contain 30 separate emitters. That's a total of 90 different emitters, professionally created and of the highest quality.
The first of the three libraries
is entitled Extreme Graphics and this collection is divided into
3 parts, extreme horror, x-rays and scans and letters & text.
Different types of blood splatters, x-rays of the human hands,
head and body parts as well as a dizzy array of text animations
provide you with a versatile collection useful in a variety of
quality productions.
This image, while
constantly changing in its animated form is a combination of
two different types
of blood splatters, an x-ray and fiery background from an early
wondertouch collection.
A dizzy animation
entitled 'Alphabet Soup
Changing text over
a disconcerting and altering splatter may have a positive impact
for your production opening credits.
I would like to have had control over what text is used however.
The second collection of particleIllusions Pro Emitters 6-9 collection
is a different sort of Graphics Collection of Elements focusing
on different numbers and barcodes, data Gizmos and multiple types
of warp animations.
I utilized the wondertouch
library's, Ultra numbers, Data warp, and Dataspin
to create this image. Again, the animation is much more interesting
to look at.
The 3rd collection of Graphic Elements contains 3 distinct folders,
the first of which has several energy/beam animations, the second
folder resplendent with numerous wavescopes, digital readouts
and radar type animations, while the third comes with a number
of textures and backgrounds from splatters to paint crack animations.
For this frame, two
separate styles of wavescopes were used as well as an Atomizer
emitter,
a Beam Me Up pulse and Data Readout animation.
This Angry Splatter
comes on as just that, a splatter whose parameters and animation
are easily adjusted.
The Radar Array would
be perfect for any number of Science Fiction projects.
Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of Apple's Motion and everything
it can do. However, I also have wondertouch's particleIllusion
installed there as well. It is simply so easy to use that I'd
be a fool to turn a blind eye to it. My only problem is remembering
to go to the wondertouch website each month to download those
free libraries. As for this collection, it greatly enhances the
tools and emitters that I already own. So many of them are different
than the previous libraries, and I appreciate that lack of redundancy.
My bottom line is that if you were already smart enough to have
purchased particleIllusion than you are smart enough to know
that this is a great collection as well. If you didn't know wondertouch
existed, get to their website
and discover particleIllusion for yourself.
Steve Douglas is an underwater
videographer and contributor to numerous film festivals around
the world. A winner of the 1999 Pacific Coast Underwater Film
Competition, 2003 IVIE competition, 2004 Los Angeles Underwater
Photographic competition, and the prestigious 2005 International
Beneath the Sea Film Competition, where he also won the Stan
Waterman Award for Excellence in Underwater Videography and 'Diver
of the Year', Steve was a safety diver on the feature film "The
Deep Blue Sea", contributed footage to the Seaworld Park's
Atlantis production, and a recent History channel MegaDisaster
show. Steve is one of the founding organizers of the San Diego
UnderSea Film Exhibition and leads both underwater filming expeditions
and African safaris with upcoming excursions to Kenya, Bali &
Komodo in 2007, and Costa Rica and Palau in 2008. Feel free to
contact him if you are interested in joining Steve on any of
these exciting trips. www.worldfilmsandtravel.com
copyright © Steve
Douglas 2007
This article first appeared
on www.kenstone.net and
is reprinted here with permission.
All screen captures and textual references are the property and
trademark of their creators/owners/publishers.