New Features in Particular 2.0

This page lists the new and improved features in Particular 2.0. If you know Particular 1.x, you will be amazed by some of the new features, and pleased with some oft-requested features that we added in.

New features to 2.0

Sprites and Polygons
Custom particles allow the use of layers as 2D sprites (as in version 1.5) and as the new Textured Polygon type.
Light Me Up
Shade all particle types from up to 128 lights in After Effects. Shading can emulate light falloff to make the lighting results look more natural.

Dynamic Self-Shadowing
Shadowlet rendering can cast shadows on both main and aux particles, adding realistic self-shadowing from a single light source.
Full Floating-Point Support
Improved bit-depth support now offers high-quality, 32 bit-per-channel rendering allowing for full-range output with HDR results.

Transform Your World
The Transform World feature allows the entire workspace to be offset or rotated in 3D space without moving the After Effects camera for increased animation flexibility.

New Streaklet Particles
Streaklet particles resemble long-exposure light effects as seen in Apple's iPod Nano Remastered commercials.

Reflection Map Support
Textured Polygon particles can use a layer as a reflection map to add dynamic color changes to particles as they rotate in 3D.

Full 3D Rotation
Textured Polygon particles can be fully rotated in 3D space, with random rotation direction and speed. Also, particles can be automatically oriented in the direction of their motion.
Backward Compatibility
Projects from earlier versions will render with similar results in version 2, but with access to new features and faster output times.
Millions and Millions of Particles
The maximum particle limit now allows quick bursts of up to one million particles per second!
Many Views
Orthographic rendering support allows you to view particles from After Effects' built-in camera views (Top, Right, Left, Bottom) making it much easier to adjust particle motion in 3D space.
Updated Presets for SD and HD
Version 2 offers 45 updated presets with support for SD and HD resolution.

Improved Physics
Particular now offers support for glitch free-animation of turbulent properties.

User-driven Improvements
Version 2 offers a number of small improvements including: custom particle layers no longer have to start at the same frame as Particular; a new custom particle time-sampling mode; support for the Adobe color picker; and many other small bug fixes and improvements.

Changes from 1.5 to 2.0

- No Preview Window. This was too confusing, so we removed it. This Preview was a way to preview animations and get a feel of the physics. It rendered in real-time.
- New Options menu. Previously, the Options window was cluttered. We have removed all but two controls. Those controls have been moved to the Effects menu.
- Particles > Texture was formerly named Layer Source. In the Particle Type popup, the Layer Source types are now called Sprites.
- Not a new feature but an often-overlooked one: In the Options menu, you can set up multiple light sources (and now shadowlets) very easily. Just use the Light Emitter 'Name Starts With' and the Shadowlet 'Light Name' options. You can set up and unlimited number of light emitters and a single Shadowlet light.