Digieffects Cyclonist?

[Ron Lindeboom]

DigiEffects Cyclonist has always been one of the plug-ins that most people never grasped. I loved it. I used to talk to Chris Athanas of DigiEffects about it all the time and he’d laugh and tell me that “you and 20 others are the only ones who ever liked or understood what it was.” It was one of the most powerful plug-ins I ever used but it is no more…

If you have a copy, you either need to keep an older machine and copy of AE around to run it when you need it, or let it fade into the haze of memory…

Ron Lindeboom
erstwhile Cyclonist fan

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

I’ve never heard of the plugin, but would like to know “what it was”. Can you describe what it did?

Thanks,
Arie

[Ron Lindeboom]

Cyclonist was arguably the most diverse and full-featured particle system of its time. It was a little rough to get your brain around as it had so many sliders and settings and it could create nearly all of the effects that later were spun off as pre-set effects that you see in DigiEffects Delirium. But in Cyclonist, you were free to import any and all elements you wanted and could use the engine to replicate just about anything you could think of. It was deep and powerful but it was also quite daunting to the person first opening it. Luckily, I knew the designer and used to talk with him regularly and so when I’d get lost, he always would say: “Oh, here’s how you do that…” One of the oddities of the program was that while it was a particle system, it also mimicked many of the paint engine effects that were popular at the time due to films like “What Dreams May Come”. It didn’t handle paint like the paint plug-ins but did it in a way that was quite cool and allowed you to come up with things you never would be able to do had it not been a particle system at its heart. As I recall, Chris never ported this one to Windows and it was a Mac-only program.

Ron Lindeboom
now looking around for an old Mac and copy of AE as I still have the Cyclonist install CD

[Graham Mason]

Hi , Thanks Ron , I realize this thread is old now but I thought I would try anyway. I have used Cyclonist many moons ago and it is a special one. I need to use it again but I can’t seem to get it recognized by AE 6.5 – OSX 10.4,7 – G5, is it only workable with OS9 – G4? I have the plugin but not the original installer. any ideas much appreciated. Thanks G

[Ron Lindeboom]

I am sorry to say, Graham, that you have to go a L-O-N-G way back to get it to work. I think it began getting squirrelly with AE5 if I recall correctly. I think that it worked well up through AE 4.1.

The OS it runs best on is OS8 if I recall.

Sorry I can’t be of more help but it is a long way back in the pre-graying past now.

If you have Delirium nearly all of the effects in Cyclonist became stand alone plugs in that set.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

[Graham Mason]

Hi Ron , thanks for the super prompt response!
I want to give it a try to resurrect some old projects.
Can it work in classic mode with AE 4.1 or . . . .
I have a spare g4 and os 8.0 maybe, but do you still have the installer still?
Will the plugin alone that I have work with the above or does the installer prepare the system in some way? and where can one go to get old mac systems (6-7-8).

Any help/advice much appreciated.
Thanks G

[Ron Lindeboom]

I do not believe that I still have the installer, as Kathlyn and I recently moved (after 20 years in Cambria) and have new digs in Paso Robles. We threw tons of old stuff away in the move. Likely, Cyclonist was a casualty of the move.

I would try the G4 with System 8 and After Effects 4.1 and see how it behaves there.

To find an old Mac OS, go to the Creative COW Magazine page and download the first issue. In it, Jerry Hofmann has an article about setting up a rock solid FCP system and in the article, there are links to legacy Mac systems that you can download. (As I recall.)

Best,

Ron Lindeboom