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Digital Element Aurora Sky
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Contents
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The Stats
- Developer: Digital Element
- Platforms: Windows, Mac
- Compatibility with After Effects and Premiere CS4, Compatibility with After Effects 7, Compatibility with After Effects CS3, Mac OSX Leopard Compatibility
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Description
Aurora Sky is great if you want to create skies and clouds in your AE or FCP composition, but don't want to build them in a 3D program. It also keeps you safely tucked into AE’s production pipeline, so you don't deal with render or import issues.
We see Aurora Sky as a practical and creative plug-in for landscape and traditional architects, game developers, web designers, CG artists, and basically anyone with a hankerin’ for gorgeous skies.
Can I use After Effects' camera inside Aurora Sky 3D space?
- Aurora Sky allows using After Effects' cameras inside its own 3D space. The built-in camera can fly throughout the vast world within the plug-in, using all the standard axis controls. Even cooler, Aurora Sky is built to utilize AE’s 3D camera. As you move or turn the After Effects camera, Aurora Sky will update its environment as a seamless part of the scene. This integration makes it simple to composite other 3D objects over the skyscape created with the plug-in.
Can I decorate my video or still image with sky effects?
- Yes, you can place video or still image on a layer above the layer which Aurora Sky is applied to. Just make the sky area transparent (it can be done by After Effect's means) so that you can see the new sky generated by the plug-in.
Features
With Aurora Sky, you can create realistic, three-dimensional skies. More powerful and flexible than simple fractal clouds, Aurora Sky includes a wide array of special effects.
Taking advantage of the new 3D capabilities of After Effects, Aurora Sky lets you use texture and cloud shaping maps to create an infinite variety of skyscapes.
Most importantly for users with a lot of rendering power, Aurora Sky gives you the option of truly volumetric 3D clouds that let you create clouds like smoke and fog-like effects.
Camera flies through 3D space and 3D clouds
Aurora Sky works in 3D space, both its own and After Effect’s. The built-in camera can fly throughout the vast world within the plug-in, using all the standard axis controls.
For After Effects users, Aurora Sky is built to utilize AE’s 3D camera (5.0 and later). As you move or turn the After Effects camera, Aurora will update its environment as a seamless part of the scene. This integration makes it simple to composite other 3D objects over the skyscape created with the plug-in.
Texture map applied to the clouds
You can project images or logos onto the regular cloud surface using texture maps. The texture maps respect cloud opacity and shading, and the clouds can be used as a displacement map, displacing the image as the clouds move.
This opens up the door to many effects, from simply projecting a logo to covering the sky in swirls of color using a QuickTime movie.
Light beams effect
Animated clouds behind a still image
The normal cloud layer in Aurora Sky is a fractal-based flat layer of clouds. This works excellently in many scenes, but for actually flying through 'cloudy matter,' users need more powerful volumetric clouds. That's where the 3D Clouds come in handy.
Using a 'U' shaped bezier path, we can fly through the 3D cloud
The 3D Clouds in Aurora Sky are actually 3D objects with mass and substance. You can adjust properties like opacity and number of spheres, and navigate through them using Aurora’s or AE’s camera. This also allows special effects such as fog or smoke layered over the regular clouds.
Using a 'U' shaped Bezier path, we can fly through the 3D cloud. This functionality creates cloud effects that seem to envelope the camera as it passes through them. An especially cool feature is that Bezier paths can be used to apply custom shapes to the 3D Clouds.
Cloud shaping and bumping effect
You can also use grayscale maps to control the shape of the clouds. Words or shapes can emerge from cloudy matter, and - heck - there's always sky writing.
Aurora has plenty of controls for placing and arranging the maps. It's a feature that's as flexible as the maps you can come up with.
Turn on the clouds
3D Clouds are turned off by default because they are a render hit. You'll need to switch them on in either the Options box in After Effects' Effects window, or as a select box in FCP's Effect window.
System Requirements
Aurora Sky requires Adobe After Effects version 5.0 or higher installed on your computer. The full installation requires approximately 10Mb of the hard disk space.
PC
- Windows 98, Windows NT4 SP5+, Windows 2000, Windows XP
- 512MB RAM
- Pentium IV or Athlon XP
- 120MB Hard Drive space for Installation
- 1024x768 true color monitor
- CD-ROM drive
Mac
- Mac OS 9.2, Mac OS X version 10.x
- 512MB RAM
- PowerPC G4
- 120MB Hard Drive space for Installation
- 1024x768 true color monitor
- CD-ROM drive
