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Trapcode Particular

Environment group

The Environment group houses external forces that act upon particles, including Gravity, Wind, and Air Turbulence.

Air Density and Air Turbulence allow for more realistic displacements of particle systems, such as rain sheeting in a blustery wind.

Using the Designer, you can have one Environment block on the Primary system that controls these external forces for all your systems to inherit from. Alternatively, you can assign each system its own Environment block for more individual control.

Gravity

Gravity acceleration makes particles fall naturally. Mass and Air Resistance settings affect the final force downward, just like any object in the real world. Low values make particles fall slowly. High values make particles fall faster.

Wind X, Y, Z

The new Wind simulation applies a force that responds to particle mass and air resistance. Particles shifted off their path by wind will continue on in a new direction. More natural results, such as sheeting rain/snow in a windstorm, are now possible.

Drift (Fast Physics) is identical to the original Wind effect, simply shifting particle positions without regard for particles' physical properties.

Air Density

Air Density works with the Air Resistance value to determine how easily particles move through the air. The default value is 1. Turning this lower makes it easier for particles to move; moving it higher makes it harder for particles to cut through the environment.

Air Turbulence

You can define the Air Turbulence around your system and how much that turbulence will affect particle Position and Orientation/Spin, all of which can be moved by the Wind.

This behavior helps tremendously when creating fire and smoke effects to make particle motion look natural. Unlike fluid dynamics, Air Turbulence computes quickly and can be freely scrubbed back and forth in the timeline.


Air Turbulence working with Flocking attraction.

If you want to know about the inner workings of Turbulence Field, read more about Perlin Fractal Noise.

Affect Position

Affect Position uses the fractal to displace particle position. This is useful for creating natural-looking motion for fire and smoke effects as well as sheeting rain or snow.

Affect Orientation/Spin

Affect Orientation/Spin uses the fractal to modify the particle's orientation or spin. This will be more noticeable on Sprites that have a more obvious orientation than a sphere particle.

Move with Wind

Move with Wind (measured as a percentage of the Wind value) gives the ability to move the Turbulence Field with the Wind. It ties the Air Turbulence field into the Wind X, Y, Z controls. At 100%, Air Turbulence follows the Wind exactly. At 50%, it still follows the Wind's direction, but only 50% of the distance.

This control gives a very realistic look to fire and smoke effects. It is useful for getting a natural look in making wind, since the Turbulence Field moves with the wind as it would in real life.

Turbulence Controls

This group gives you control over the underlying fractal driving the Air Turbulence offsets.