Digital Film Tools, developer of visual effects software, has announced the availability of a new plug-in for visual effects artists — Rays. The Rays plug-in allows users to create realistic light ray effects.
Known as volumetric lighting in computer graphics, or crepuscular rays in atmospheric optics, this effect adds polish and style, according to Marco Paolini, founder and president, Digital Film Tools. You can create shafts of light streaming through clouds, rays filtering through a forest canopy, beams of light on a foggy night, or rays shooting out from text.
With Rays you can: set the ray length and brightness; control ray direction with an on-screen control; customize the color of the rays using a color picker; deal with threshold control to specify where the rays will be visible; randomize the rays; and modify settings with slider.
Rays is available now for US$50. Available as a plug-in for Apple Aperture, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, users can download Rays via the Digital Film Tools website (http://www.digitalfilmtools.com). A standalone version of Rays is also available through the Mac App store along with the recently released PhotoCopy.