Instruction Manual

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Particles overview
Particle systems let you create sophisticated eects involving large numbers of automatically
animated objects. You can use the included Particle Emitters library to add a premade particle
system to your composition, or you can create your own custom particle eects using nearly any
image layer or group in your project.
You can modify any particle system by adjusting parameter controls in the HUD or Inspector. You
can further rene particle systems by adding behaviors, keyframes, masks, and lters.
To learn more about creating particle systems, choose a topic in the Help table of contents (the
sidebar to the left of this window).
For step-by-step instructions on creating particle systems from scratch, see:
•
Example 1: Create an animated background on page 551
•
Example 2: Create animated pixie dust on page 553
Anatomy of a particle system
Particle systems consist of two basic elements:
•
Particle emitter: A special type of eect applied to an image or shape, causing the image or
shape to multiply and animate according to the parameters you set in the Inspector.
•
Particle cell: The image or shape that is multiplied and animated by the particle emitter.
Particles
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