Now the particles are grey, let’s size them up. Change the color to #3F3F3F, a grey color.ġ4. Click on the colored box to bring up the color picker.ġ2. Direction Random Spread will be 150, so the smoke covers a nice wide area as it spreads out.ġ1. Alter the Direction to 180 degrees to aim the emitter downwards, like the smoke billowing out of an engine.ġ0. Change the Position to 960, 870 so the emitter lines up with the engines.ĩ. Now, in the Effect Controls, toggle open Cannon.Ĩ. Go up to Effects > Simulation > Particle Playground.ħ. For this, go up to Layer > New > Solid.ĥ. Okay, we’ll be making some smoke that jets out of the rocket’s engines. Now we really feel like we’re in space! Smokeġ.

There’s quite a few stars though, so let’s reduce the Size in the Effect Controls to 50.ġ3. This turns your Solid layer into an amazing star field, rushing towards the viewer. You’ll find this by going up to Effects > Simulation > CC Star Burst.ġ1. We’ll be making a super cool star field effect using Star Burst. Click and drag it to below the globe layer.ĩ. A new layer now appears in your layer stack. Change the color to #FFFFFF, pure white, by either sliding the picker to the top left or entering the hex code.Ĩ. Click on the little colored box to bring up a color picker.ĥ. We’ll be focusing on adding effects to really pump up the piece, essentially working with only three layers total. Upon opening the file, you’ll see a few layers already there and animated. We’ll also refine the look a bit with some simple Transparency animation. Don’t be scared by these big names, the process largely involves just dropping the effects onto your layers and moving some settings around. You should end up with an After Effects Particle Emitters folder.įor this tutorial, we’ll be working with these particular effects: Star Burst for that cool interstellar space look, Particle Playground with a Gaussian Blur for the smoke, and CC Particle Systems ll for the engine sparks.

After the download has finished, be sure to unzip the file if it hasn’t been done for you.

There’s an entire menu of just particle simulators in the program, and in this tutorial, we’ll show you how to use three of the most ubiquitous ones. By learning how each one works and how to adjust the settings, you can make anything from bubbles to smoke to caustics to even fireworks.

Particle Emitters are one of After Effects’ most versatile tools.

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