Northern Lights Productions and Arete Entertainment announced the release of Arete's award-winning Psunami version 2.0 for Electric Image's Universe. Psunami is a hybrid plug-in/shader that allows users to create photo-realistic oceans and skies. "It's fun to watch people do a double-take when they see a Psunami animation. They can't quite tell that it's not real and that's the goal," said Blair Burtan, founder of Northern Lights. The Psunami 2.0 package includes: Psunami - create major elements of ocean surfaces, generate general ocean surface geometry as well as swells, ripples and boat wakes (curved and linear), apply bobbing motion to effectors; Ocean Optics - works in conjunction with Psunami and contains algorithms for rendering ocean surfaces, creates water coloration and glitter from light sources, creates reflections and refractions of other objects in the scene, renders the ocean surface when viewed underwater; and Air Optics - a universe shader that creates the appearance of a traditional sky, including sunsets, rainbows and haze. For more information visit www.northernlightsprod.com.