Trapcode Particular

Parameter Overview

When you first apply Particular, you'll see an array of parameters which can all be expanded using their twirl-down buttons on their left. Here you'll find brief summaries of what these parameters control, along with links to other parts of this user guide that'll provide more extensive information.

• The Designer is our new and custom way to preview and build your particle settings within its own modular window. It also features a gallery of customizable presets for you to explore and potentially use for jumping off points to create whatever effect you're looking to achieve.
• The Show System group contains controls that'll allow you to show, hide, add, or remove multiple particle emitters from your Particular layer.
  Note that selecting different systems in this group will affect the suffix to the labels for various groups below. For example if you add and select System 2, the suffix “S2” will be added to all parameters for that system.
• The Emitter group generates the particles. This section controls the shape of the emitter, its initial direction, the velocity of the particles, and moving and rotating the Emitter.
• The Particle group controls the properties of the particles, such as size, opacity and color. This section also controls how the properties vary over the particles' lifespan. The Particle group contains an important popup called Particle Type which sets the base shape of the particles.
• The Environment group contains parameters to control the outside forces acting upon your particle systems, such as Gravity, Wind, and Air Turbulence.
• Physics Simulations includes exciting new behaviors for the particles, including Bounce, Meander, Flocking and Fluids.
• The Fast Physics group includes physics emulations that don’t require heavy rendering times, such as Drift, Turbulence and Spherical Fields.
• Global Controls (All Systems) is a set of parameters that affect all emitters globally, such as Pre Run, Physics Time Factor, and World Transform. The Layer Maps group provides a means of driving various aspects of a particle field via the color, alpha, and luminance values of a source layer.
• The Lighting group houses all Shading effects, such as Shadowlets , which creates a shadow off the main light for soft, self-shadowing.
• The Visibility group gives control over where particles are visible. For example, particles far away can be set to fade out. Here are also all obscuration settings, so that layers in the composition can be used to obscure particles.
• The Rendering group controls how the particles look when they render. The Motion Blur feature gives fast-moving particles a smooth look, like a real camera does.