wondertouch Acquires Rights to Impulse's Illusion Software

wondertouch to Develop, Sell and Support Popular Particle Effects Software Under the Name "particleIllusion"

particleIllusion Product Line to be on Display at Creative Cow West 2003 Westin Los Angeles Hotel & Conference Center, Los Angeles Airport Complex February 18 - 20, 2003, (wondertouch booth # 611)

LOS ANGELES (February 18, 2003) - At the Creative Cow West 2003 convention, wondertouch™, a newly established software developer specializing in particle effects for the visual effects industry, today announced that it has acquired the rights to Impulse's 'Illusion' particle effects software line. Under terms of the agreement, wondertouch will develop, sell and support the popular sprite-based suite of particle effects tools under the new name, particleIllusion.

particleIllusion will be demonstrated at the Creative Cow West 2003 convention, February 18 -20. (wondertouch booth # 611.)

According to Alan Lorence, CEO of wondertouch and the principle programmer behind Illusion since its conception in 1998, he was prompted to buy the rights to the software line to enhance its recognition.

"wondertouch was established with the sole intention of building upon particleIllusion's trademark production-proven 2D, sprite-based particle effects technology," said Lorence. "With focused emphasis on product development, customer service and dedicated marketing, we are committed to delivering this creative 'secret weapon' to a widespread audience of visual effects artists working in the film post-production, film pre-visualization, standard and HD video and commercial broadcast industries."

Customer Enthusiasm for particleIllusion particleIllusion is deployed at leading production and post-production facilities worldwide where it has been used in countless commercials, television shows and feature films. Praised for its power, speed and ease-of-use particleIllusion is quickly becoming the "industry standard" for the creation of dazzling visual effects.

Pixel Magic is a leading Los Angeles-based facility specializing in the creation of visual effects for feature films and television. For the past two years, the facility has deployed particleIllusion in the both the 2D and 3D departments. Feature film projects that relied on particleIllusion include, "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," "Final Destination II," "Hart's War," "The Rules of Attraction," "Behind Enemy Lines," "Black Knight," "Scary Movie 2," and "Rollerball."

"When I need sprite-based special effects for television or feature films, particleIllusion is my first choice," said Kevin Kipper, visual effects artist, Pixel Magic. "In "Hart's War" for example, there was a tunnel shot that required dust enhancement. Using particleIllusion we were able to create the dust much easier than by using a volumetric technique which would have resulted in long render times. particleIllusion gave me instant feedback to both the look and motion of the dust element and really simplified the process. We are also using particleIllusion to rapidly pre-visualize and fine tune shots. particleIllusion is a 'must have' for visual effects artists everywhere!"

Pacific Title & Art Studio provides a full range of state-of- the-art digital and optical services from 2D image manipulation to multilayer compositing, 3D animation, and more. The company has used particleIllusion for the past six months on numerous feature films including the recently-released "Just Married," and "Biker Boyz," the previously-released "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever," and the upcoming "Dreamcatcher," and "Torque."

Brad Kalinoski, visual effects artist at Pacific Title & Art Studio states that creating visual effects using particleIllusion is simple and fast, enhancing both workflow and keeping bottomline costs to a minimum. "Because particleIllusion is a 2D program and runs in real-time, it is an ideal tool for adding elements such as smoke, fog or snow, on the fly," said Kalinoski. "Compared to other high end packages using 3D, that require double the time, double the effort, and more than double the money, set-up and rendering in particleIllusion is very fast, and the quality ideally suited to our needs."

About particleIllusion

particleIllusion is a standalone particle effects application designed as an easy-to-use, low-cost, high performance tool to quickly and simply add particle effects to any image, animation, or video footage. particleIllusion features an ever-growing collection of hundreds of preset effects such as smoke, fire, explosions, water effects, sparkles, colorful artistic effects, and many others. particleIllusion features OpenGL hardware acceleration to provide real-time (or near real-time) previews of most effects and ultra-fast rendering of final output. Using particleIllusion, creative professionals working in film post-production, film pre-visualization, commercial broadcast, standard and HD video, and Web graphics can easily customize and modify effects, or create entirely new effects.

Highlights of particleIllusion 3.0

wondertouch is scheduled to ship its highly anticipated particleIllusion 3.0 next month for the Windows platform; with Mac to follow in late Q2, 2003.

Feature highlights include:

• Forces: allows for influencing particles after they are created, wind for example.
• Library manager: allows easy movement of emitters between libraries.
• Super emitters: allows for the creation of emitters on-the-fly, to achieve a new level of realism and creativity.
• Rendering engine enhancements: to include high-quality motion blur, field rendering, and improved alpha channel creation.
• Area emitter "masking": allows for the use of any image or sequence as a mask for particle creation.
• Dozens of interface and productivity improvements.

Pricing and Availability

The wondertouch line of particleIllusion products can be purchased directly from the company at www.wondertouch.com.

Pricing is as follows:

• particleIllusion 2.0.5 -$299 (Windows or Mac OS)
• particleIllusion 3.0 - (Windows) particleIllusion 3.0 for Windows is scheduled to ship in early April. The software can be pre-ordered at the introductory rate of $374. particleIllusion 3.0 for the Mac platform is scheduled to ship late Q2, 2003.
• particleIllusion SE - $99 (Windows) particleIllusion SE was recently released as a feature-limited version of particleIllusion. It delivers the highly-acclaimed particleIllusion effects to those artists interested in creating visual effects quickly and easily, but who do not require the enhanced features needed by more advanced users.

About wondertouch

wondertouch is a software developer specializing in particle effects for the visual effects industry. The company's flagship product, particleIllusion, is focused towards the needs of creative professionals working in the film post-production, film pre-visualization, standard and HD video and commercial broadcast industries.

wondertouch founder Alan Lorence was the original developer of Impulse's Illusion software. After acquiring rights for Illusion in July 2002, the company was established to continue the development, sale and support of the product under the name particleIllusion.

wondertouch software products are currently available directly from wondertouch. The company is headquartered in St. Louis, Mo.