wondertouch Advances Particle Effects Creation with particleIllusion 3.0

New Features, Interface Enhancements to Provide Creative Professionals Broader Spectrum of Effects Possibilities

ST. LOUIS (May 20, 2003) - wondertouch™, a newly established software developer specializing in particle effects for the visual effects industry, today announced the worldwide availability of a major upgrade and expansion of the company's cornerstone 2D, sprite-based particle effects software application, particleIllusion™. The new particleIllusion 3.0 enables creative professionals working in film post-production, film pre-visualization, commercial broadcast, standard and HD video, and Web graphics to efficiently and easily customize and modify effects, or create entirely new and realistic effects. particleIllusion 3.0 on the Windows platform is presently available for download.

Building on the strengths of its core technology, particleIllusion 3.0 is equipped with a host of interface and productivity enhancements such as 'super emitters,' 'library manager,' and 'forces' that improve integration into existing production environments, and new color options to facilitate higher-quality image output. Rendering engine improvements promise to provide an even broader spectrum of effects possibilities

Customer Enthusiasm for particleIllusion

Award-winning Visual Concept Entertainmnet (VCE), founded by Peter Kuran, has provided visual effects to more than 250 feature films, beginning with the original "Star Wars."

Kurt Wiley, feature film 2D and 3D visual effects specialist at VCE, used wondertouch's particleIllusion to generate smoke and fog elements for a collapsing dam sequence on the new action adventure film, "X2: X-Men United."

"One of the greatest assets working with particleIllusion is its speed. I was able to do a series of mist and fog tests at 2K resolution and get the results in seconds, rather than hours. I was also able to easily import snippets of VCE's effects library and use them as particle emitters. particleIllusion makes it possible to do complex particle systems that positively 'choke' any other application out there!

"Looking ahead to the new feature enhancements in particleIllusion 3.0, the forces and super emitters as well as more editable libraries, will be very valuable in letting artists tailor particle systems to specific needs and improve render quality."

"particleIlllusion 3.0 marks a key release that promises to provide our customers and prospective users with a more mature, high quality, and stable product," said Alan Lorence, president of wondertouch. "As particleIllusion continues to be adopted as a first choice tool among professionals looking to create realistic effects - quickly and efficiently - the many new enhancements and features we've built into 3.0 will substantially improve workflow capability and allow users to remain competitive under extremely tight deadlines."

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 realtime (or near realtime) previews of most effects and ultra-fast rendering of final output.

particleIllusion is deployed at leading production and post-production facilities worldwide where it has been used in countless commercials, television shows including "Justice League," "Star Trek Voyager," and "That 70's Show," feature films including "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever," "Behind Enemy Lines," "Biker Boyz," "Dreamcatcher," "Final Destination II," "Ghost Ship," "Hart's War," "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," "Just Married," "Rollerball," "Swordfish," "The Core," and "X2: X-Men United," upcoming films, "The Italian Job," and "Torque," and many others. Praised for its power, speed and ease-of-use, particleIllusion is quickly becoming the "industry standard" for the creation of dazzling visual effects.

Highlights of particleIllusion 3.0

Feature highlights include:

• Forces: allows for influencing particles after they are created; wind for example.
• Super emitters: allows for the automatic creation of emitters, to achieve a new level of realism and creativity.
• Color options: including "get color from layer" allow users to simulate "displacement" effects in realtime.
• Library manager: allows easy movement of emitters between libraries.
• Dozens of interface and productivity improvements.

Pricing and Availability

particleIllusion 3.0 is available on the Windows operating system for download immediately. The boxed version of the software is scheduled for shipping on May 31. particleIllusion 3.0 for the Mac platform is scheduled for release in late Q3 2003.

Pricing is as follows:

particleIllusion 3.0 (download-only version - $389 (USD)
particleIllusion 3.0 (boxed version - available now for pre-order; scheduled to ship on May 31, 2003) - $399 (USD)
Academic and upgrade pricing information is available on the wondertouch website.

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 programmer for 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.