²⁰⁰⁸
Inception at Arenal

Experiencing the lush rainforest and a variety of active volcanoes at close range inspired the start of QuadSpinner. We began to create artist-friendly tools, scenes, and video tutorials for aspiring CG artists who primarily worked in e-on software's Vue. Our drive became our tagline, "Breathing Life into Nature."

²⁰⁰⁹
Studying the U.S. Southwest

After our first Siggraph event in New Orleans, the co-founders flew to Scottsdale, Arizona and set out in a Silverado for a month-long spin through the Southwest. Fractals, hoodoos, erosion in all its fabulous forms (stratification, talus, and the exquisite coloration) emerged as prominent foci for our future offerings, such as the popular HyperTerrains and eventual GeoColor.

²⁰¹¹
Master Class in Los Angeles

Increased industry interest in our products prompted our move to step out onto a bigger stage. We took a risk, booked a conference venue in Culver City, and put the word out. The response was validating. Veteran artists from tops studios, as well as up and coming talent attended this full-day training - including the entire matte painting department of DreamWorks. In our collaborative manner, we also hosted the CEO of e-on software and the founder of World Machine.

²⁰¹²
Helios

Shifting our sights skyward, we launched Helios, a VFX-oriented atmospheric design toolset for Vue. Our early streamlined UI and feature conveniences were a draw. Users could create ultra-detailed skies in a procedural workflow with friendly sliders. Entry-level edition SkyBuilder introduced those intuitive base tools that also reinforced the importance of lighting.

²⁰¹⁴
GeoGlyph

The development and release of GeoGlyph, our plug-in for World Machine, stemmed from direct feedback from studio clients regarding World Machine. 1) They needed an easier, faster way to create realistic terrains, and 2) they longed for the efficiency, convenience, and visual boost of a modern design interface. GeoGlyph accomplished both goals through its powerful macro-based graphs and the Integrate Design Environment (IDE). Almost everything in the application evolved from real life situations that we had to suddenly create solutions for, which then were adapted for more general usage.

²⁰¹⁶
GeoGlyph 2

The second generation, GeoGlyph2, was powered by our own standalone render engine that worked primarily with heightfields. We added new forms of erosion, better filters, and a new revitalized UI. The potent Erosion effects - Stratifier, SandBlast, and RiverErosion - were the driving force behind the new engine, to move away from the recognizable hydraulic erosion, the industry standard at that time. Color production tool GeoColor became another innovative benchmark. It could take a photograph and generate color patterns for the terrain texture while following the look up mask provided by the user.

²⁰¹⁷
Revealing the "TOR Platform"

Tech Lead and UI/UX master Dax Pandhi revealed the "TOR Platform" when invited to present to graduate design students at Harvard and also to industry veterans at the End User Event (EUE) in Utrecht. The TOR Platform (former codename for the Gaea interface and workflows) announced his core tenet: to have our software not just create art, but to be art. We wanted Gaea to be a joy to work in. Beyond designing for visual elegance, we want our UI and UX to signal our respect for our users and for the software itself.

²⁰¹⁸
Gaea 1.0

We launched Gaea 1.0, the first version of our standalone terrain design software. Gaea was designed to be a complete terrain design solution, with a focus on artistic control, procedural workflows, and high-quality output. The software was built from the ground up to be artist-friendly, with a modern, intuitive interface and powerful tools for creating realistic terrains. Gaea quickly gained a following among artists and studios, and has been used to create terrains for a wide range of projects, from major film to games and even space research.

^2020-2022
Pandemic + Planning Gaea 2.0

The global pandemic delayed the production of Gaea 2.0 significantly. But at the same time it created an opportunity to not just add new features, but take everything we had learned in the past 2 years and rebuild the software from the ground up to be future friendly. We were able to make the core run on cutting-edge technology, and invent new ways of processing shapes while managing memory efficiently.

During this time, we also backported a lot of things we had planned for Gaea 2.0 into Gaea 1.0. In many ways, Gaea 1.3 was the essence of what Gaea 2.0 was going to be. And now Gaea 2.0 was going to leap ahead and be even bigger!

²⁰²⁴
Gaea 2.0

The second major release of Gaea began a new cycle for us. Our investment in the architecture overhaul now put us in a great position to innovate faster, and deliver more features and improvements to our users. Gaea 2.0 was a major leap forward in terms of performance, features, and user experience. It was built to be the ultimate terrain design tool for artists and studios, with a focus on cutting-edge technology, artistic control, and ease of use. The release was met with great enthusiasm from our users, and we continue to work on improving and expanding the software.