5.1.1

Chapter 14 Particles 517
1 In the Library, click the Particle Emitters category.
2 Click a particle subcategory, such as Nature, Pyro, SciFi, and so on.
3 Select a particle preset in the Library stack.
An animated preview of the selected particle emitter plays in the preview area.
4 When you nd a particle preset you want to use, do one of the following:
•
Click Apply to add the selected particle system to your project at the center of the Canvas.
Note: If Create Layers At is set to “Start of project” in the Project pane of Motion Preferences,
the particle system is added at the rst frame.
•
Drag the particle system from the Library stack into the Canvas to the position where you
want it to appear.
•
Drag the particle system from the Library stack into a group in the Layers list or Timeline. The
particle system appears at the center of the Canvas.
•
Drag the particle system from the Library stack to the track area of the Timeline. When you
reach the frame where you want the new particles to start, release the mouse button.
The new particle system layer appears in your project, composited against any other layers
you’ve already added.
Note: Some emitters look best when motion blur is enabled. Preset Library emitters that benet
from motion blur include Jelly Bands, Light Transit, Rain Streaks, and Silly String. To enable
motion blur, choose Motion Blur from the Render pop-up menu (in the status bar above the
Canvas), or choose View > Render Options > Motion Blur (or press Option-M).
When you add a particle system from the Library, the system acts as it did in the preview area. If
necessary, you can edit a particle system’s Emitter parameters in the HUD or Inspector to tailor
them to your own use. For more detailed information on using the particle HUD, see Adjust the
Emitter HUD on page 520. For more comprehensive information on customizing all of a particle
system’s parameters, see Emitter parameters on page 526 and Cell parameters on page 536. You
can only modify a particle system after it is added to a project.
Create a custom particle system
To create a custom particle system, you must select 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 cell source, including
still graphics, animation or video clips, or shapes created in Motion. The layer you select when
you create an emitter becomes the rst cell in that particle system. The cell species 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.
67% resize factor