News:

June 8, 2005. Jimco reviews WorldBuilder

April 4, 2005. Export 184 Pro 1.0.19 (beta) update is available
(free for registered Export 184 Pro users)

January 21, 2004. WorldBuilder Used to Design Virtual Boathouse for the City of Oakland

December 24, 2004. New WorldBuilder 4 Tutorials are available

December 15, 2004. Export 184 Pro plug-in for 3ds max released

December 1, 2004. 3ds max 7 support for WorldBuilder Pro 4 is available now

September 22, 2004. CG Focus reviews WorldBuilder

September 13, 2004. Updated Poser Plugin is available

August 13, 2004. Immersion and Digital Element Introduce MicroScribe Digitizer Plug-in for Maya for Mac OS X

August 10, 2004. Digital Element Develops Key Technology for Discreet
New JSR-184 Exporter’s Basic Version to be a Feature in Discreet’s 3ds max 7 software—Makes 3D Easy For Cell Phone Application Developers.
Advanced Version To Ship in October

July 30, 2004. Digital Element goes to Siggraph!
Digital Element will be attending Siggraph in 2004
and will be in booth 2104 showing WorldBuilder 4, Aurora and Verdant and new Verdant for SoftImage plugin.

Digital Element will be in the ATI booth showing Export 184, upcoming JSR-184 exporter between noon and 1PM. Also Digital Element will be in the Immersion booth showing our Mac plugin for the Microscribe Digitizer.

July 24, 2004. New Verdant 1.6 update is available
Registered Verdant users can get it for free on Digital Element's registration page.

June 4, 2004. WorldBuilder 4 Ships in July

May 14, 2004. New Aurora Water 1.2 update is available
(free for registered Aurora Water users)

March 29, 2004. Discreet Announces Digital Element to develop JSR-184 exporter for 3DS Max

March 24, 2004. Verdant 1.5 released!

January 8, 2004. Aurora Sky section has been added to the site

January 5, 2004. Check out the complete new WorldBuilder gallery

December 22, 2003. The Verdant Plant Constructor -- coming soon!

Look for the Verdant plant constructor and an update of Verdant for Photoshop in January - we are doing things with algorithms you won't see anywhere else!

December 11, 2003. Latest update WorldBuilder 3.6 and WorldBuilder 3.6 Pro available for download

List of new features:
1. Shadows from Cumulonimbus type of clouds.
2. Distribution of Cumulonimbus in Areas along skeletons.
3. Moon object as a new Compound Sky Layer.
4. Opening the camera's viewport by double-click on the Camera in the Object Tree.
5. 3DSMAX v.6 support
6. Some bugs fixed

Since version 3.6 WorldBuilder Pro installation package includes Rosetta plug-in for WorldBuilder (CommObject.bem). Note: to perform communication with other 3D-package(s) using Rosetta you also need corresponding plug-in(s) for this package(s).

December 05, 2003.
New Aurora 2.1 update is available
(free for Aurora 2.0 users)
Aurora 2.1 works with Photoshop CS and supports RGB/16 bit color mode.

Send an email to customer_support@digi-element.com requesting a download link. Be sure to include your serial number of Aurora 2.0.

December 2, 2003. Digital Element Announces WorldBuilder™ 3.6, Strategic Partnership, and Significant Price Reduction

Free Upgrade for 3.5 Users, WorldBuilder Pro Now $499, Strategic Partnership with EMECSTUDIOS for WorldBuilder 4 Development

November 21, 2003. Digital Element and Digimation Team Up on Modelshop™

Photoshop® Plug-in that Displays 3D Models with Lighting and Shadows Ships November 26th

OAKLAND, CA (November 19th, 2003) Digital Element, an Oakland-based software developer and publishing firm specializing in art tools and Digimation, Inc., the world’s leading provider of 3D models, announced today the release of the Modelshop plug-in for Photoshop, which includes fifty 3D models from Digimation’s Model Bank Collection™ .


November 03, 2003. Critical-Depth reviews Aurora 2.

“You could spend literally hours playing with all the different settings and still come up with some cool effects each time.”

Darlisa Riggs, Critical-Depth

October 16, 2003. Digital Element will soon be releasing Modelshop, its latest Photoshop plug-in.

Modelshop allows users to add most 3DS Max and LightWave models to any picture, with lights and shadows. Modelshop is easy to use and gives Photoshop users instant access to thousands of models available on the web, CDs, and more. If you are a Photoshop user and want great 3D new content to sit naturally in your pictures, look past clip art and focus on Modelshop.

October 6, 2003. The November Issue of 3D World features a full copy of the 3-year-old, but still going strong, WorldBuilder 2.3. Also check out the new WorldBuilder 2.3 tutorial in 3D World.

WorldBuilder Featured in 3D World! Try WorldBuilder 2.3 through 3D World today -- also featuring a new tutorial by Liz Birdsong.

'We're very happy to be working with Digital Element. WorldBuilder 2.3
will be of great value to many of our readers, and we're glad to have
been able to include a full copy on our cover CD.'

Jim Thacker, 3D World

September 22, 2003. CG Focus Reviews Aurora 2.
Check out Jean-Francois’ images of beautiful Montreal in our gallery.
Also take a look at CG Focus’ great review.


September 22, 2003. Aurora in Ed Olson’s new book The Christmas Donkey

July 28, 2003. Liam Kemp recently completed an animated short entitled 'This Wonderful Life' in which she used World Builder to create the landscape and trees. The movie has been selected for this year's Siggraph and nominated for the 3D Awards in Copenhagen.

“I found World Builder to be the best program for creating landscapes and trees. Being able to render a forest, grass and water all in one pass at such high quality was a blessing.” – Liam Kemp

For more information, check out www.this-wonderful-life.com


July 23, 2003. Digit Magazine’s 5th Anniversary Issue is Devoted to WorldBuilder

“WorldBuilder provides everything you need to model, texture, light and animate any 3D world you can imagine.”

Read full press release.


July 22, 2003. PC Review Online Reviews WorldBuilder

Unlike other 3D landscape creation packages WorldBuilder Pro creates terrains in a very unique way. It is very different from any program I have ever seen before and once you understand it, I think you will agree it is a brilliant way of doing it.

July 9, 2003. AAUG Review - VERDANT 1.0 - Software

"What the user really needs to see is the amazing detail in the object when fully rendered. And this really must be seen to be appreciated. The additional lighting controls, and grouping controls allows a virtually unlimited number of other effects to be applied at ease."

Randy Brandon, Alaska Apple User's Group

July 3, 2003. Digital Element Announces the Release of Aurora 2™

3D Nature Effect Plug-in for Photoshop

OAKLAND, CA (June 26th, 2003) Digital Element, an Oakland-based software developer and publishing firm specializing in art tools, announced today the release of Aurora 2 for Photoshop, the sequel to Digital Element’s 4 ½ star plug-in for Photoshop.

Rosetta Plug-ins for 3ds max and Maya to be Released on May 16th

SAN DIEGO, CA (May 10th, 2003) from Booth 2855 at the National Convention of the American Institute for Architects, of Digital Element, an Oakland-based software developer and publishing firm specializing in art tools, announced the May16th release of two new Rosetta Communications packages for the popular 3D modeling and rendering tools 3ds max and Maya.

Read full press release.


May 8, 2003. Digital Element Announces Release of Verdant™

A Plug-in that Creates 3D Plants and Trees for Photoshop

SAN DIEGO, CA (May 8th, 2003) from Booth 2855 at the National Convention of the American Institute for Architects, Digital Element, an Oakland-based software developer and publishing firm specializing in art tools, announced today the release of Verdant for Photoshop, a revolutionary Photoshop plug-in that creates 3D plants and trees, with shadows, in Photoshop...

Read full press release.

April 24, 2003. Check out CG Focus's review of WorldBuilder at http://www.cgfocus.com

February 12, 2003. A Valentine for you from Digital Element!

New Manual for WB 3.2+, New Update for WB and WB Pro 3.5

Our new WorldBuilder documentation is available here. Along with a new Reference manual, we now have revised Training documentation as well as tutorials. We recommend all users to go here to download our new reference manual, training manual, and our revised tutorials. We want you to have this manual, we want you to use it, and we want your feedback!

The update for WorldBuilder and Worldbuilder Pro is a free update for 3.5 users. We recommend that all WB 3.5 users upgrade to 3.55. This update adds stability, improved surf, and more plants! You can download the update here.

All downloads are available online. However, Digital Element will ship the appropriate CDs to any user for Shipping and Handling alone. For this we will use the US Mail upon request, which is much less expensive for customers outside of the US. Registered WorldBuilder 3.5 users can receive a disk with 3.55 and the documentation. WorldBuilder 3.2 users can also receive a disk with the documentation. Getting the disk costs just $5 plus Shipping and Handling.

For 3.2 users -- upgrading to 3.5 now gets you the manual and the latest version 3.5.5 all on CD for no additional price.

Click here to go to the download section.

February 11, 2003. Surf's Up! The free update for WorldBuilder 3.5 is fast approaching, but we want to give you a glimpse of the new and improved surf in WorldBuilder 3.55 and WorldBuilder Pro 3.55! This is yet another quick and powerful new feature that is unique to WorldBuilder and WorldBuilder Pro. Check back here soon for the 3.55 update

January 31, 2003. Dimitri Habich has created a new library of L-system plants. These plants can be used in the Variator so that every plant is an original. Click here to download ( approximately 382 Kb ) the new L-system library. This library works for WorldBuilder Pro and Standard version.

January 30, 2003. New to WorldBuilder? Try Digital Element's improved tutorials -- available now in interactive and PDF format. Click here to go to the tutorials.

December 30, 2002. Update of Aurora manual is available

December 5, 2002. LW-WB Communicator™

Second in the Digital Element line of Rosetta Communicator Plug-ins™

This plug-in allows for the seamless integration between LightWave 3D and WorldBuilder Pro 3.5. The plug-in allows scenes from each package to be rendered in its native environment, eliminating the need for traditional importing and exporting. This is a huge advantage in that each package can be used to do what it does best – with the communicator managing both renderings and compositing the scenes together into a single scene – sharing lights, camera, and shadows.

LW-WB Communicator works similarly to LightWave's Hub, and as a rendering portal between LightWave and WorldBuilder Pro, users can modify scenes without having to re-import objects for the final rendering. Starting a rendering in one package prompts a rendering in the other package. The finished image is a composite of both renderings, and takes into account both the a and z buffers.

December 4, 2002. Introducing WorldBuilder and WorldBuilder Pro 3.5

Generate ultra-realistic 3D outdoor landscapes and animations for your movies, games, landscape architecture and design illustrations with WorldBuilder 3.5!

WorldBuilder is the award winning tool for creating and animating the most realistic, natural environments, including landscapes, vegetation, water, and atmospheric effects, including many features never before seen in a 3D landscaping package. For years, WorldBuilder has been, and still is, at the forefront of 3D landscape technology.

Once again WorldBuilder sets the standard for creating high-definition, animating landscapes.

• Rain effects
• Snow effects
• Levels of detail for landscapes, up to a maximum of 8K x 8K
• Easy to use wizards for the creation of rivers, oceans, and lakes
• RPF file export support

• True 3D Clouds
• Waterfalls
• Depth of Field
• Improved LightWave 3D support

"For 3D graphic professionals, WorldBuilder has long been the leader in 3D terrain generation..." - New Architect Design Magazine

October 31, 2002. Check out TheRenderFarm's review of Aurora at http://www.therenderfarm.com

October 25, 2002. Check out CreativePro's review of Aurora at http://www.creativepro.com

Other reviews of Aurora can be found at:
http://www.cgarchitect.com
http://www.graphics.com
http://www.creative-3d.net

September 25, 2002. Digital Element acquired ownership of WorldBuilder this last May. As a result of that acquisition Digital Element is now releasing Part One of the WorldBuilder Manual. It includes several comprehensive lessons as well as installation instructions. Parts Two and Three will include more lessons and a comprehensive reference guide of all the features. Click Here To Download

September 25, 2002. Get the latest update AWB 3.21.002. Get the latest update Poser Pro Pack plug-in ( approximately 3.8 Mb) This plug-in works with both Standard and Pro versions of WorldBuilder.

August 27, 2002. Digital Element at DragonCon
Digital Element will be attending Renderosity’s Digital Artist Convention at DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia over Labor Day weekend. Digital Element speakers will be talking about Aurora, WorldBuilder, how to make great fantasy scenes, and the state of the computer game industry. We’re proud to have Richard Schrand joining us as a demo artist. For more information, contact don@digi-element.com

Digital Element at Photoshop World 2002
Digital Element will have a booth in Tampa, Florida at Photoshop World 2002 on September 19th through September 21st. We will be providing demos of Aurora and WorldBuilder, as well as our new Aurora for Adobe After Effects, which will be sold through Digital Anarchy. To find out more about attendance please contact Don McClure don@digi-element.com

August 22, 2002. Get the latest update Poser Pro Pack plug-in ( approximately 3.8 Mb) This plug-in works with both Standard and Pro version of WorldBuilder.

August 14, 2002. Get the latest update AWB 3.2.005

August 7, 2002. Demo version of the Aurora 1.1 is available for download.

July 23, 2002. San Antonio, TX -- July 22nd, 2002. At booth 5062 at Siggraph, 2002 Digital Element has announced an August release for a free upgrade to its award-winning 3D modeling and rendering software WorldBuilder...Read full press release.

July 20 , 2002. Come see Digital Element at Siggraph 2002 (San Antonio, Texas, July 23-25). Our booth is #5062.

June 27 , 2002. Links page has been updated. Gareth Morgan opened a website with artwork and tutorials from WorldBuilder : http://mysite.freeserve.com/bigraphics/

June 18 , 2002. Digital Element Acquires AnimaTek WorldBuilder™ Oakland, CA -- June 16, 2002. Digital Element announced today that it has acquired AnimaTek WorldBuilder, along with several other key technologies and has outlined a series of products for the remainder of 2002...Read full press release.

May 09 , 2002. Review of WorldBuilder 3.1 at www.insidecg.com. " If creating stunning 3d environments is your aim then WorldBuilder is definitely a solution..."

April 25, 2002. Maya 4.x support for WorldBuilder Pro 3.x has been added to our download section.

April 22, 2002. Aurora Gallery is updated.

April 21, 2002. Users gallery is updated.

April 14, 2002. Aurora Discussion Forum is now open. We are opening a special forum for people who are interested in Digital Element Aurora. If you have any questions, suggestions, comments, concerns and information related to Aurora then you are welcome to post it here.

April 09, 2002. Major update of the site. Digital Element is proud to present our new product line - Digital Element Aurora.

April 08, 2002. Press page has been updated - "Digital Element Breaks Through With Aurora, The Natural Photoshop Plug-in".

December 18, 2001. Press page has been updated -"NewTek and Digital Element Work to Bring Animation Annex to Siberia".

December 16, 2001. New tutorial: "Making rivers and surfs in WorldBuilder" was added to the tutorials section.

November 12, 2001. Digital Element is proud to present Poser Pro Pack plug-in for WorldBuilder. Now you can Pose characters in super-realistic 3D environments and export to movies and still images. This plug-in is available as a free download for the current version of WorldBuilder.

November 12, 2001. The Frog animation tutorial was added to the tutorials section.

November 07, 2001. Allen Whitt Tutorial and Source Pack Volume 1 Now Available Get the ultimate set for learning WorldBuilder!

November 07, 2001. Get the latest update AWB 3.1.003

August 12, 2001. WorldBuilder Playable Tutorial 4 is added to the tutorials section. In this tutorial you will learn how to use atmospherics.

August 06, 2001. WorldBuilder Playable Tutorial 3 is added to the tutorials section. In the third tutorial we will add water and will set placing conditions for the material and vegetation so that they will be consistent with the water level.

July 29, 2001. WorldBuilder Plants Variator Tutorial is added to the tutorials section. Plants Variator is one of the most exciting features of AWB 3.0

July 27, 2001. WorldBuilder Playable Tutorial 2 is added to the tutorials section. The goal of the second tutorial is to show how to scatter vegetation in areas and how to edit the shape of the areas.

July 25, 2001. WorldBuilder Playable Tutorial 1 is added to the tutorials section. A simple scene is built in this tutorial. Some of the most basic features of WorldBuilder are also shown.

July 23, 2001. 3dsMax Communication Object tutorial has been added to the tutorials section. Learn how to communicate and exchange informations between 3ds max and WorldBuilder 3.0.

July 10, 2001. Links page has been updated.

May 31, 2001. There is a new technical support line available in English and French, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Pacific Time, Monday to Friday. Outside of these hours you can leave your message in the voice mail and we will return your call as soon as possible.

May 23, 2001. The Resources page was updated with the examples of the high resolution textures included in the WorldBuilder 3.0 package.

May 02, 2001. The Buy section has been updated.

April 25, 2001. The Professional version of AnimaTek WorldBuilder 3.0 is available NOW.

April 05, 2001. The upgrade version of AnimaTek WorldBuilder 3.0 is available NOW.

April 05, 2001. Digital Element Releases AnimaTek WorldBuilder 3.0.

March 21, 2001. Digital Element will take part in the Game Developer Conference, San Jose Convention Center, CA, March 22-24, 2001. Catch us at the ID8 Media's booth #1640.

February 11, 2001. Digital Element Signs Exclusive License to Publish AnimaTek WorldBuilder 3D Landscape Animation Software.

February 11, 2001. Digital Element's website is up and running.