In Depth: Particle Plugins for After Effects within your Budget

Particles can be used in so many ways in motion design and visual effects – fire, smoke, cells, swarms, and more. Learn about the options for generating gorgeous particles in After Effects, including a great free option. We’re breaking this article down by features, host support, presets, and price. We’ll also show you lots of examples.

This is actually a two-part article. In the first article, we’re focusing specifically on After Effects. In the second article, we’ll focus on particle software that works with 3D hosts, such as Cinema 4D and 3ds Max.

What is a Particle Generator?

A particle generator, or particle system, is a method of producing replicated elements using sprites, 3D models, or other elements. Common uses include weather and natural elements, including rain, snow, clouds, fire, sparks, and water. In VFX, particle generators are used to create energy fields, magic effects, space elements, swarms of creatures or aircraft, and much more. I like to use particles to create swimming background elements.

Most particle emitters start from a point, a box, a line, a plane, or even an object.

Particle Plugins for After Effects Comparison Chart

Boris Continuum Particle Illusion

Particle Illusion is now part of the Boris Continuum family of products, and there’s a free standalone version, too. Particle Illusion is fun to use. It’s fast and really easy to jump right into. There is a very small learning curve to get the basics, but if you want to create something complex and tweak every single parameter available, that is also available.

First, a bit of history. Particle Illusion started at a company called Wondertouch and people loved the gorgeous, photo-realistic particles that could be generated from it. Wondertouch was acquired by GenArts in 2009, and particleIllusion AE for Adobe After Effects shipped not long after that. In 2016, Boris acquired GenArts and its technology, including Particle Illusion.

Particle Illusion Interface & Effect Controls

The interface can be rearranged depending on your preferences, but the interface includes a preview window for the presets, the presets, an area to adjust the parameters, the main preview window with a few on-screen controls, and a timeline. The image below is the same on the free version and the plug-in version.

It’s incredibly easy to choose some presets and layer them in the Particle Illusion interface. That said, the options do run incredibly deep. There are A LOT of settings that allow users to customize the smallest details. Of course, users can build elaborate particle animations from scratch.

Below, hover over the images to magnify them.

Particle Illusion Designer	Effect Controls

Particle Illusion Free Standalone vs. Premium Filter

Get Particle Illusion

If you’d like to use Particle Illusion, you have a few options.

Particle Illusion Free Standalone

Today, users can download and use the free standalone Particle Illusion, which includes 2500+ professionally-designed, drag & drop presets. It’s fun to use and allows users to export up to 8K.

Particle Illusion Plugin

In addition to the free version, Particle Illusion also comes as a premium filter.

Particle Illusion also comes with the Boris Continuum suite of plugins.

Download Free Emitters

Whether you purchase the plugin version or you use the free version, don’t miss the free emitter libraries.

Learn more

What’s new in Particle Illusion Standalone 2021

Particle Illusion 2021 adds some great new features.  Recorded February 3, 2021, John Dickinson, Director of Motion Graphics for Boris FX, goes over the new features.

Maxon Trapcode Particular

Trapcode Particular is an advanced and robust particle generator for After Effects and Nuke and continues to be a popular choice for motion designers and VFX artists. It won the category of Favorite Particle or Fluid Generating VFX Tool in the Toolfarm 2020 Plugin Awards. Not only that, Particular is number one on Premium Beat’s 10 After Effects Plugins Every Motion Designer Should Have.

Some Particular History

Originally developed by Peder Norrby, Particular has been considered a “must-have” and “an indispensable plugin” for After Effects since it was released in the early 2000s. Red Giant and Trapcode is now under the Maxon umbrella of products and is available in the Trapcode Suite, Red Giant Complete, or Maxon one.

It’s worth mentioning Form, another Particle generating plugin that is included in Trapcode Suite. It was originally called Flux, but that sounded too much like Lux, another Trapcode product, so the name was changed to Form. Peder explained, “I choose the name ‘Form’ because I think it described the functionality and I’ve always liked the Form/Emptiness duality that creates everything in this world. During development, Form evolved so it can do much more than these types of effects.”

The latest version of Particular includes new flocking/swarming and predator/prey behaviors. Particular also includes improved realism in its physics. It also includes parent/child emitters, so users can create really complex effects. For example, think of a firework that explodes into a rain of light, then the sparks explode once again.

Like Particle Illusion, Particular includes an interface called The Designer, that lets users manipulate presets and create their own particle systems from scratch. Users can get started quickly by layering and modifying the presets but can dive deep and modify complex settings for physics and flocking. In other words, the learning curve can be steep with more elaborate setups, but it’s easy for the beginner to jump right in.

The Particular Interface

In After Effects, there is also an effect controls panel, which harkens back to the days before The Designer. It’s useful for quick adjustments, especially as you composite your particles with other elements in your shot.

Hover over the image to magnify.

The Designer	Effect Controls

Rowbyte Plexus

Plexus uses a different approach to creating particle animations in After Effects. So, do you know the ubiquitous design with dots connected by lines? That’s Plexus. Create and render the particles, and develop unique relationships among the particles by adjusting the parameters. Plexus is a fairly complex tool but, with it, users can create dynamic animations that would be impossible to create in After Effects without it.

Plexus has not had a major release since at least 2015, so it’s anticipated, but not confirmed, that we’ll see version 4 sometime in 2021. Version 3 includes motion blur, depth map culling, a sound effector, a new slicer object, seamless beams, and unified rendering. It also brought improvements to path objects, obj import, and null object performance. Below is an example from Rowbyte showcasing what Plexus 3 can do.

Plexus Effect Controls/User Interface

Plexus 3 added a new object-based UI that’s a major boon to workflow and staying organized. To put it another way, you won’t be spending your time scrolling through a long stretch of parameters. Take a look for yourself!

Hover over the image below to zoom in.

Purchase Rowbyte Plexus

Superluminal Stardust

One of the newer particle plugins on the scene, Stardust is a particle powerhouse. Stardust 1.6 added Volume Rendering, which is great for creating beautiful and realistic smoke effects. Volumetric Lighting lets users quickly add lighting and shadows. In addition, you can import VDB and OBJ files as particles, and articles can bump and interact with each other. Not only that, it works with AE’s camera for easy compositing.

Stardust Effect Controls

Hover over the image below to zoom in.

Buy Superluminal Stardust

Video Copilot Element 3D

Element 3D works a little differently than other particle plugins. It creates particles from 3D models and text. It’s a lot more than a particle generator, with the particle replicator.  I won’t go into much detail on Element 3D but watch the video below for a fantastic overview from Andrew Kramer.

The Element 3D User Interface

Like other Particle plugins, Element 3D has an Effect Controls panel and a custom UI, known as the Scene Setup. This is where the magic happens.
Hover over the image below to zoom in.

Effect Controls	Element 3D Scene Setup

Get Element 3D