Peacock underwent some exciting updates over the last few weeks and I wanted to highlight one of the most exciting ones here: terrain generation. That's right: you can now render 3D natural scenes in your browser using Flash.
We'll be discussing all the changes over the next few blog posts.
The terrain generator node gives you control over everything from the shadow and light intensity, angle and height of the light source, and even the 3D angle the terrain is viewed from. In short, Peacock just got a hell of a lot more powerful!
Here is a quick tutorial file showing how terrain can be generated in Peacock (just open the file in Peacock to view the tutorial).
Tip: To pan through the document, hold down spacebar and mouse button at the same time, as you move your mouse.
The terrain generator is very simple: You pass in a black and white height texture map and a skin texture map that overlays the 3D terrain. The white areas in the height map represent peaks, the dark areas represent valleys. By adjusting the height map, you can make all different types of 3D terrain (and even non-terrain objects).
Because the computer does all the work for you in the background, you can create very realistic effects just by adjusting options as in the randomized terrain shown above. You can personally replicate this effect by adjusting the random seed option of the top Perlin Noise node in this tutorial file.
Here are some example images showing the terrain generator put to great use: Click on the images, then open them up in the Peacock editor to get a sense for how they were made! 
Icebergs under the Aurora by a handsome devil
Simulated micro-photography of trees in the fall by Mpeutz
Windows XP inspired wallpaper by Robotguy4, bassp and yours truly.
Abstract 3D boxes using the terrain generator and new autopainter node (more on that later) by Mpeutz
Landscape with clouds by Mpeutz
Space Invaders by Mpeutz and Mario
Alien Fossil by davidjensen
Folded Fabric by Redstar
Repeating waves patterns by Mario
Earth-like land mass generator by Mpeutz
Between the Sheets by Mario
It's been a very busy past few weeks for us. In addition to the new team addition, we've also been furiously working on improving all currently released tools AND gearing up for the alpha release of 2 new birds (Some users are already seeing access to them in their accounts, but more on those later).
Let's start this off with some new feature enhancements to our image editor, Phoenix! In our next post we'll touch on some of the amazing new features added to Peacock, our visual laboratory (for creating complex patterns and filters).
More Aviary goodness after the jump!
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A few hours ago, my wife and I welcomed a new beautiful baby boy into the world. He's 7 lb 12 oz with a full head of curly blonde hair and blue eyes (subject to change). His feathers haven't grown in yet.
I'll get some pics up as soon as I get a spare second. Please forgive any lack of responsiveness on my part over the next few days as we get mommy and baby settled in.
Any name suggestions?
Great method actors like Emma Watson (of Harry Potter fame) will embed themselves so deeply in a role that they will look, dress and act in part non-stop for the duration of filming, even when the cameras aren't rolling.
Now as Emma Watson prepares for her most challenging role to date, 57-year-old male truck driver Roscuro in the upcoming film, The Tale of Despereaux, she asked Aviary's resident plastic surgeon Meowza to perform the emergency sexandectomy. 
View the sources and full layered file
It's every Harry Potter fan fic writers dream come true! Here's a video of the operation:
This work made heavy use of distorting, blend modes and smoothing.
Sources:
Kudos to Aerosmith for providing the background vocals!
Standard disclaimer: For those of you new to this blog, this was not created in Photoshop. It was created in Aviary, a suite of online web applications. You can sign up for the current beta at http://a.viary.com.
We have joined the Deck, the premiere advertising network for reaching creative, web and design professionals.
The Deck advertisements only appear on Aviary's blog sections (both product blog and idea blog), not within the Aviary website (or applications as you work).
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We've been extremely fortunate to surround ourselves with team members, advisers and partners of the highest caliber in terms of their experience, reputation and accomplishments. Our new adviser, Patrick Lor is no different, having been the first employee at the very successful iStockPhoto.com in 2001, where he served as EVP and director until its sale in 2006. Together with founder Bruce Livingstone, he turned a community of photographers into an innovative and disruptive business model where the community could profit together with the company.
And a successful model it is. In 2006, iStockPhoto sold to Getty Images for $50 million. Last year, iStockPhoto had $72 million in revenue, sharing $20.9 million of that with its community. Amazing. It's exactly that kind of cooperative partnership with the artistic community that we're attracted to.
Oh and in case you are wondering: Patrick is the caricature circled in red from our About page:
We're super excited to announce that we are winners in CNet's 2008 Webware 100 Awards in the Publishing and Photography category! 
I've got to admit that the idea of bragging about winning an intangible award makes us feel a little weird, especially as I'm not normally a fan of online awards sites (and no, the irony of my founding Worth1000 isn't lost on me). But we really respect the way that Rafe and everyone at CNet run the entire process. Sites don't have to pay to be included in the nomination process, there is some professional editorial preselection and the rest is up to the Internet. Very Cool.
Here's a partial snippet of the email we received from CNet that explains how we were chosen:
The 2008 Webware 100 Awards recognize the best Web 2.0 sites, services, and applications on the Web today. After receiving more than 5,000 nominations for inclusion in the Webware 100, our editors selected 300 finalists. But the Web's users decided the final cut, voting nearly two million times to select the 100 top products--10 each in of 10 categories--from our list of 300 finalists.
So we really have our awesome user base at Aviary and Worth1000 to thank for helping us go all the way!
Congratulations to all the finalists and winners - we were in amazingly good company.
One of the most fantastic things about building a suite of tools around a community, instead of the other way around, is that users are always willing to pitch in and help out others with tutorials and forum assistance. It's our plan to build our applications with a very deep set of community tools, built around forums, wiki-documentation, chat, user-made tutorials and sharable workspaces.
Aviary super star Meowza has already begun paving the way with more than a dozen "photo-phixing" tutorials for other users of Aviary's image editor, Phoenix. Got a specific question on how to make a technique in Phoenix? Ask and ye shall receive.
Unzipping a Kitty
View the full tutorial | Full layered file
Chocolatizing a Statue
View the full tutorial | Full layered file
Cyborg Frog
View the full tutorial | Full layered file
Smoking Woman
View the full tutorial | Full layered file
12 more tutorials after the jump!
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Aviary is excited to announce the launch of its newest application, Dodo, the web-based time machine. 
We've been working feverishly around the clock on this new tool which will allow you to age and de-age people, places and things from any browser with Flash 9 enabled.
Here's a video of Dodo in action:
Dodo is incredibly simple to use: Just upload an input picture, choose between different settings that might affect the aging process (i.e. amounts of alcohol and tobacco consumed), set a year and hit generate. Obviously results will vary, but under strenuous laboratory analysis we have found a margin of error of only +-11% (unprecedented performance for time machines in general, let alone web-apps). 
Dodo automatically detects the subject matter (noting the difference between people places and things) and chooses how to age it, using the Astley-Zonday time displacement theorem with accurate results.
Dodo can also be used on scenery. For example, Dodo changed this scene from an ordinary spring landscape to winter, using Dodo's built-in database of geographically accurate weather history.
Additionally, Dodo is not limited to animate objects, and scenes; It works equally well on inanimate objects, predicting what they might look like at specified dates in the past (and future).
We see market opportunity for Dodo across several mediums, not just graphic design. We imagine it will be useful in everything from tracking down long missing children, to determining if a girlfriend will end up looking like her mother, to deceiving potential dates in the personals section of Craigslist.
To access Dodo, sign up for an Aviary account at http://a.viary.com. If you already have an account, please log out and back in to see it appear in your tool list.
Update April 2nd, 2008: This was an April Fools joke. Dodo doesn't exist. Now can you please stop e-mailing us asking for access to it? :)
Editor's Note: with the launch of Adobe Photoshop Express, came a flurry of concerned emails from friends and family asking "Have you seen this? Are you concerned for Aviary?" My response each time was 'no - they cater to different markets.' They serve red-eye reducer consumers. We serve more advanced hobbyist creators.
But pictures are worth one thousand words, so we asked Aviary superstar Meowza to do an actual comparison against some of the more well known Flash web apps (Photoshop Express, Picnik, Splashup, Fotoflexer and Aviary) to see whether or not he could recreate one of his fantastic Aviary creations.
Meowza's full review after the jump.
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