Aurora is the only Photoshop plug-in that gives Photoshop users true digital nature effects within Photoshop. Faster and more versatile than clip art and much faster and easier than Photoshop, Aurora specializes in water, sky, and lighting for outdoor scenes.
Aurora 2 offers sky, clouds, water, sun, moon, stars, haze, and both volumetric and ambient light. Click here for more details.
I own Aurora 1, what’s new in Aurora 2?
Aurora 2 has a lot of great new features and an improved user interface.
From the Sun Tab, Aurora lets you add one or more moons and has a sun with an animating corona. The Clouds feature has been divided between two sections and now lets you easily make common clouds. New puffy low-flying volumetric clouds has been added with a brand new look. In the Water Tab you can now go underwater, with light shining from above!
Aurora 2 has an in-plug-in preview and a zoom tool to let you take a close look without rendering.
I need a really sci-fi scene – can Aurora handle it?
Definitely. We let you add in multiple suns and moons, defining the color . You can change the water color and properties as well as add haze effects and colored lights. Clouds can change their luminosity ability and you are not limited to creating Earth-like clouds.
I do high-volume production, what kind of time saving tools do you have?
Aurora 2 has several preview render modes that let you save processor power while working. You can also save off presets that you like. You can even save the random seeds so you get the same effect twice.
Since a surround scene is generated, you can easily modify a 360 degree picture or a group of successive pictures so they all match. With Aurora, it’s easy to make Sky Domes.
Does it take a lot of skill or time to use Aurora?
Using presets and the variation wizard, you can have your first picture done in 5 minutes. Simply mask out where you want the water and sky to appear, load up Aurora and select a preview you like, then go to the Variator and have it randomized. You’re done!
You can learn more about the many features when you wish to produce more custom scenes.
I like a lot of control – how much do I get?
There are over a hundred buttons, sliders and input boxes. Turn on the advanced interface and have fun! Everything is very customizable. You can duplicate exactly any effect you like. Choosing the X and Y length of a wave, Cloud Obertones and their reflective color, and the size of a sun in the sky and at dawn are just a few examples of the control you can achieve.
Don’t worry though – if you don’t want that much control just keep the basic interface selected. It uses all of the power of Aurora and makes it simpler.