Grid Controls For Particle Playground (Pro Only); Using The Layer Exploder And Particle Exploder (Pro Only) - Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 Manual

Grid controls for Particle Playground (Pro only)

The Grid creates a continuous plane of particles from a set of grid intersections. The movement of Grid particles is
completely determined by the Gravity, Repel, Wall, and Property Mapper settings. By default, the Force control of
Gravity is on, so Grid particles fall toward the bottom of the frame.
With the Grid, a new particle appears on every frame at each grid intersection. You can't adjust this frequency, but if
you want to turn off the Grid or make the Grid stop generating particles at specific times, set the Particle Radius/Font
Size control to 0, or use keyframes to animate the value of the Particles Across and Particles Down controls. To make
more particles appear each frame, increase the values for Particles Across and Particles Down.
Note: By default, the Cannon is on and the Grid is off. If you are using the Grid and want to stop the Cannon from gener-
ating particles, turn off the Cannon by setting its Particles Per Second value to 0.
Specifies the (x,y) coordinates of the grid center. When a grid particle is created, it is centered over its grid
Position
intersection, regardless of whether it is a dot, a layer, or a text character. If you're using text characters as particles,
the Use Grid option in the Edit Grid Text dialog box is on by default, placing each character on its own grid inter-
section, so normal character spacing, word spacing, and kerning do not apply. If you want text characters to appear
at the grid position with normal spacing, use a text alignment other than the Use Grid option.
Specify the dimensions of the grid, in pixels.
Width, Height
Particles Across, Particles Down
grid area. Particles are generated only when the value is 1 or more.
Note: If the Width, Height, Particles Across, and Particles Down controls are not available, the Use Grid option has been
turned off in the Edit Grid Text dialog box.
Sets the color of dots or text characters. This control has no effect if you use a layer as the particle source.
Color
Particle Radius/Font Size
effect if you use a layer as the particle source.

Using the Layer Exploder and Particle Exploder (Pro only)

The Layer Exploder explodes a layer into new particles, and the Particle Exploder explodes a particle into more new
particles. In addition to explosion effects, the exploders are also handy for simulating fireworks or for rapidly
increasing the number of particles.
The following guidelines can help you control particles resulting from an explosion:
•
A layer is exploded once for each frame. By default, this creates a continuous shower of particles for the duration
of the composition. If you want to start or stop a layer explosion, animate the Radius of New Particles control by
using keyframes so that its value is zero at times when you don't want particles to be created.
•
If the source of the layer is a nested composition, you can set different Opacity values or In and Out points for the
layers within the nested composition to make the exploding layer transparent at different points in time. The Layer
Exploder does not create particles where the source of the layer is transparent.
•
To change the position of the exploding layer, precompose the layer with its new position (use the Move All
Attributes into The New Composition option), and then use the precomposed layer as the exploding layer.
•
When you explode particles, the new particles inherit the position, velocity, opacity, scale, and rotation of the
original particles.
•
After you explode layers or particles, the movement of particles is influenced by the Gravity, Repel, Wall, and
Property Mapper controls.
Specify the number of particles to distribute horizontally and vertically across the
Sets the radius of dots in pixels or the size of text characters in points. This control has no
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