![]() ![]() If you do any online searches for particle techniques in After Effects, you will probably see another effect mentioned a lot: Trapcode Particular. Many of the options in Particle World can be applied to the other particle simulation effects as well, so learning this one will give you a good head start on using the others. We’re going to be focusing on CC Particle World, since it’s the only effect that works in a 3D environment. If you look under the “Simulation” section of the effects, you’ll see that there are actually a few different particle-related options: CC Particles Systems II, CC Particle World, and Particle Playground. Even as a purely abstract aesthetic element, particles can add a lot to a composition. Particles can be used to create all sorts of interesting effects, including rain, snow, smoke, flames, fireworks, stars, and a lot more. Let’s explore another 3D topic with one of After Effects’ coolest features: particles. You can download the After Effects project here: halftonepatterns-withcardwipe.So far, we’ve created 3D objects and cameras in After Effects. There are options for a black & white image, RGB and CMYK colour space. Here are two AE projects – one which creates an ordinary halftone effect on a flat layer and one which demonstrates a 3D camera move. The paper background was created with fractal noise and you can find an article detailing the process here. This way you can adjust the size of the overall halftone effect with the one slider. The offset is also linked with an expression to the size of the dot being used. The size of the circles is linked to the Card Dance effect so that the correct number of rows and columns is automatically set, and the colour layers are slightly offset to simulate the printing process. If the DotSize you select gives you half a circle at the bottom of the screen then the finished result will look a bit odd, as the Card Dance effect doesn’t do half-cards. Unfortunately I haven’t figured out how to ensure that the same limitation works vertically. The slider which sets the size of the circles has a simple expression applied to ensure that they’re evenly spaced out horizontally – with no half-circles sticking out the side. There are a few other expressions in this project designed to help the end result look as good as possible. ![]() This has the added advantage of allowing me to set up some simple expressions to drive the size, position and alignment of the circles. Use Particle Playground and a text grid of bullet pointsīut the one I went for is to use a Shape Layer, and then a repeater.Use a solid and Brush Strokes (size 5,length 1, density & randomness 0).Use the circle effect, then CC Repetile / Motion Tile.It’s actually interesting to consider how many different ways there are to create a grid of circles in After Effects – including: While Card Dance provides the finished halftone effect we also have several options for creating our grid of circles. This opens up a whole load of possibilities for interesting 3D halftone effects. The layer itself isn’t a true 3D layer but behaves as though it is. So by separating our source image into primary colours, applying our halftone effect using Card Dance to each individual colour layer, and then combining them with small position offsets we can create a passable halftone effect: Halftone effect using Card DanceĪnother advantage of using Card Dance is that it’s aware of the AE comp camera and can be used to create a 3D halftone effect. And Card Dance is much, much faster than Particle Playground. Card Dance divides our source image into a grid of cards and then sets the size of each card according to luminance of another layer- exactly what we’re looking for. So it’s worth looking for a better alternative.Īnother plug-in which will do what we want is Card Dance. …except that Particle Playground is slow. This is exactly what we want and this approach would work perfectly… We could set up Particle Playground to create a grid of circles using text bullet-points and then have a controlling layer – our source image – determine the size of each circle. My first thought was Particle Playground – often overlooked but still very powerful. All we have to do is figure out which compound effect will do what we want. In After Effects terms this sounds like how compound effects work – the scale of one layer is being controlled by the brightness of another layer. Basically an image is divided up into a fine grid, usually of circles, and the size of each circle is proportional to the brightness of the image under it. If we consider how halftone works then we can think of some solutions. But what if you want to achieve a halftone effect using only standard AE plug-ins? Printed images are made up of loads of dots and there are several 3rd party plug-ins around which simulate this effect. ![]()
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