5

• Applying Filters to Particle Systems (p. 722)
• Particle System Examples (p. 722)
• Saving Custom Particle Effects to the Library (p. 731)
About Particle Systems
Particle systems consist of two basic elements: a cell and an emitter. Think of the cell as
the “mold” for the particles generated by the emitter. You can use nearly any layer or
group in Motion as a source for a particle cell, including images, shapes, text, movies, and
image sequences. Each particle created is essentially a duplicate of the original cell, and
is animated according to the parameters for that particle system (a particle cell and
emitter) over its lifetime.
Object prior to becoming a particle system Particle system
The layer you use as a particle system’s cell determines how that particle system looks.
Particle systems can contain multiple cells, resulting in the release of several types of
particles from a single emitter. You’ll find that many of the most sophisticated particle
presets in the Particle Emitters library are constructed in this way.
Particle system based on a single cell Particle system based on two cells
668 Chapter 14 Working with Particles