Perlin Noise and Adobe After Effects
Simulating Nature

  1. The River in this sunset scene was created by using Adobe After Effects Fractal Noise effect, which is part of the Noise and Grain category of effects.

  2. Simulating the Ocean and the Sky both used the Fractal Noise effect, which is After Effects name for the Perlin Noise effect. 3 second long animation.

  3. VIP: Hugo Elias web page about PERLIN NOISE. Adding waves together is the secret, so we will build on sine and cosine experience from Flash and After Effects labs (Flash ActionScript 3.0 language and AE Expressions language).
    4. Look at almost anything: the distribution of patchy grass on a field, waves in the sea, the movements of an ant, the movement of branches of a tree, patterns in marble, winds. All these phenomena exhibit the same pattern of large and small variations. The Perlin Noise function recreates this by simply adding up noisy functions at a range of different scales.
    The following graphic was generated using PERLIN NOISE. All of the land, all the clouds and the water with its waves - all were produced by using perlin noise techniques.

  4. Perlin Noise was invented by Ken Perlin in 1985. He made huge contributions to computer graphics working on the 1982 film Tron. For that contribution and its further development, Ken Perlin received an academy award for technical achievement in 1997.
    5. In 1997, Ken Perlin received an academy award for developing the Perlin Noise generator. Perlin Noise has a multitude of uses ranging from the creation of natural textures (see a Texture demo) to artificial terrain and even worlds (see a Planet demo).

    Lots of examples to check out: NYU home page: http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/

  5. Salt; Talk by Ken Perlin (text version). Food without seasoning, seasoning without food analogy for understanding noise.

  6. Adobe After Effects and Perlin Noise: noise() : After Effects "hidden gem of the week" tutorial by Dan Ebberts.

  7. AE: Fractal Noise - A New Look at an Old Friend tutorial by Chris Zwar. The Fractal Noise plugin for Adobe After Effects.
    Fractal noise is not unique to After Effects, the concept was developed for Hollywood in the early 80s by a remarkable guy called Ken Perlin. In many fields of graphics fractal noise is called "Perlin Noise", and a quick Google search will reveal lots of information on the principle, and how it has been implemented in everything from blockbuster films to computer games. A famous early use of fractal noise was in the terraforming scenes in "Star Trek II", and Ken Perlin eventually won an Oscar recognizing his efforts in 1997.

  8. Adobe Online Help for the Fractal Noise Effect, which is part of the Noise and Grain group of Effects on the Effect menu.