QuadSpinner Helios

QuadSpinner.com/HELIOS

Control the Heavens

Revolutionary cloud technology that commands attention

Helios empowers you with innovative software that plugs into Vue, and an artistically crafted library of realistic clouds. Brand new features include Subvapor Lighting and Multistrata Coloring. You can now create towering thunderheads, wispy cirrus, volcano plumes, sandstorms, fog, and even aurora.

Powered by Vue's Spectral3 Atmosphere Engine, this unprecedented cloud tech lets you take the best of Vue and delegate the realism, performance, and management to Helios.

Built for e-on software's Vue Infinite and xStream.

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Let there be Light

Results that will change your world

Natural Cloud Library

A wealth of dramatic visuals at your fingertips

Shipping with over 200 clouds, Helios gives you all major cloud types: including Cumulonimbus (Cb), Cirrus (Ci), Cirrocumulus (Cc), Cirrostratus (Cs), Altocumulus (Ac), Altostratus (As), Stratus Fractus (St fr), and Nimbostratus Virga (Ns V).

Another plus, the library also contains atmospheric effects, such as Aurora and Shaped Fog.

You can now make real life skies with ease. Renders rival the reference photography from our research expeditions.

Realistic Buildup and Dissipation

Helios Cloud Types

Subvapor Lighting

The strength of subtle intelligence

When internally processing Vue clouds, Helios capitalizes on how light penetrates vapor, a breakthrough we call 'Subvapor Lighting'. Clouds are treated as masses of water particles, instead of solid objects.

For an even higher edge of realism, Subvapor Lighting partners with Multistrata Coloring, another part of Helios' unique Weather System. This feature factors in atmospheric conditions when rendering cloud colors. Vue's Indirect Atmospherics Lighting can also help light objects with Cloud Radiosity.

External Light Interaction

Subvapor Lighting

Helios vs. Vue Defaults

Massive Cloud Management

A solution that increases your field of control

Helios invites you to create large numbers of clouds and achieve detailed shapes and control over each portion of the cloud field. Any potential for overwhelm has been neutralized by friendly tools that help you sort, manage, and sync clouds.

For greater management, Helios has a time-saving and easy-to-use docked cloud library manager that allows you to swap out cloud templates while retaining your customizations.

Building Clouds

Built for Compositing

Multidimensional versatility

Helios was designed with compositing in mind. This revolutionary system uses Vue's powerful multipass renderer to produce exquisitely detailed alpha masks and color passes that enable detailed post-production.

Helios can be used for both direction animation inside your 3D package via xStream or for creating assets that can be used in compositing. When combined with Multistrata Coloring and Subvapor Lighting, Helios can produce realistic clouds that can be easily integrated into both 3D scenes and live footage.

Volcano Render Breakdown

Weather System

Art direction's answer to Nature's changing skies

One of Helios' star components is the Aethon Weather System, a visual approach to the numeric-oriented Vue Atmosphere Editor, with a perspective on weather. Atmospheric effects, such as Aurora and Shaped Fog are very easy to achieve.

Aethon crafts, edits, and animates atmospheres based on your visual requirements and art direction, instead of technical confines such as Decay, Haze, etc. This feature lets you stay focused on the visual goal rather than on numbers and settings.

Weather System Preview

Lightning Fast Renders

Direct savings of time and money

In most test cases, Helios clouds render at 1080p in just 10 minutes on a single Intel Core i7 extreme processor powered machine. On the same machine, a 720p animation of 30 seconds at 24fps would render in 9 hours or less, yielding under 1 minute per frame. And on a typical 10 machine quad core render farm, Helios can render the same animation in only 90-120 minutes.

Helios renders in both the Vue renderer and mental ray (via xStream) and requires no additional renderers or complex software on your render farm.

Helios in Action

DEVELOPMENT STATUS

Projected availability

Q2 2012 - Early Adoption
Q4 2012 - Complete Release

TECH SPECS

Requires Vue 10 Infinite/xStream
Microsoft Windows only

View Technical Requirements

EARLY ADOPTION

info@quadspinner.com

CONTINUING DEVELOPMENT

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Last updated: February 17, 2012