Particles Tutorial
Making something like this:
An anon asked me how to make this effect on the graphic a few weeks days ago and I finally decided to make a tutorial.
The only application needed to make this is
adobe after effects (CS5 or later)
Difficulty level: 5/10
There’s just a lot of step so be patient.
You will need the trapcode effect and you can get them here(windows) or here(mac)
serial code for windows:
8746-8890-2111-7337-8410 8917-8840-2111-7993-9581 9058-8838-2111-5905-9722 8754-8866-2111-7395-5418 8527-8800-2111-8949-4191
YOU MUST USE ALL THE SERIAL CODE TO GET FULL EFFECTS.
1. Create a new composition [cmd+N/crtl+N]. Resolution at 1000x1000 so that the quality will maintain when you import it to photoshop to make it a gif or whatever you want.
2. Go to effects> trapcode >particular. Above the layer, there would be the already set particular settings. Open the “emitter” effect in the effects panel. Change the particles per second to 200 or anything you want. If your “emitter type” isn’t already at sphere, change it to sphere. (or whatever shape you want your dust explosion particles to be in) Here are my settings, if they’re not the same, change them to the one in the picture.
3. Open the “particle” effect and leave everything at the original settings except the opacity. Change the opacity to 0. Some particles will disappear but it’s fine. You want that effect in this tutorial. Here are my settings:
4. You don’t have to touch anything in the “shadings” effects. Under the “Physics” effect, change the gravity to 30 (so particles will move down and not all around the place), you may change this digit to suit your taste. The physics model should be changed to “air”. My settings:
5. Moving on to the “Aux System” settings. Leave the emit % at 100. Change particle rate to 800 (or anything near this digit). And life to 5 seconds. Change the digit you used for life to your liking. Make sure particle type is at sphere (or whatever shape you put in the beginning) Change the velocity to 0 so that i will not move in just one direction, and size to 1 or whatever size you want.
6. Under the Aux System, you should change the size over life to a curve instead of a whole red rectangle. Just use your mouse or pad to draw a curve. When you made the curve, play it with the preview button to see how you like it so far. As for the opacity over life, draw a straight line with a negative gradient (going downwards) and chose the colours you want the dust particles to be with the color over life. Change the transfer mode to “screen”. Here are my curves:
6. Now under the “phyiscs” effects part, there should be an air option. Go to physics > air > turbulence field. Change affect position to 600, scale to 10, complexity to 5 and octave scale to 1.2. Change the octave multiplier to 1 or 2. Leave the offsets at 0. Because we’re using a sphere shape, go down to the spherical field effects. Strength to 100, position z to 550, radius to 300 [you chose this value for the size of the sphere], feather to 50. If you’re not satisfied with the values, change it to whatever you like.
And you’re done! File> export> add to render queue> render. The file should be under quicktime (alpha+RGB if you want a transparent) and import it to photoshop and then save it as a gif!
another sample (x)