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The HUD displays a selected particle system’s most essential parameters, including the
size and number of particles created, how long they remain onscreen, how fast they
move, and the direction and area in which they travel. Select an individual cell in the
Layers list or Timeline to edit its parameters in the HUD.
For more detailed information on using the particle HUD, see Customizing a Particle
System Emitter. For more comprehensive information on customizing all of a particle
system’s parameters, see Emitter and Cell Parameters.
Creating a Simple Custom Particle System
Although Motion provides a wide variety of particle system presets, many times you’ll
want to create something completely new. Creating a particle system begins with selecting
a layer in your project to use as the source for a cell in a new particle emitter.
You can use any layer in your project as a source for a cell in an emitter, including still
graphics, animation or video clips, or shapes created in Motion. The layer you select when
you create an emitter becomes the first cell in that particle system. In the Layers list, cells
appear as a sublayer under the emitter layer. The cell specifies the look of the actual
particles generated in the Canvas.
Note: You can also use a group as the source for an emitter cell, but your computer’s
processing performance may slow drastically.
To create an emitter
1 Create a layer to serve as the cell source for the particles that your emitter will generate.
This example uses an image of a simple white circular gradient, such as the “basic blur”
image located in the Library (in the Particle Images subcategory of the Content category).
2 Move the object in the Canvas to the location where you want the center of your particle
system to be.
674 Chapter 14 Working with Particles