Toolfarm Rating: (5/5)

Trapcode Particular is an incredible plug-in for After Effects that gives the artist the ability to create realistic fire and smoke, as well as awe-inspiring organic "stuff".

Awe-inspiring? Yep. That's what I said. Feast your eyes on the samples over to the right. Go on. Glance over there. We'll wait. Click any of the images to view a short movie. Wow!

This plug-in has been out for a while, and those of you who already own it, I'm sure will agree, Particular is phat! I've recently used it quite a bit on projects, most notably, my School of Fish tutorial. The tutorial demonstrates how to make several fish that move individually, but together, as in a school. Although you probably don't have much use for animating sea bass, Particular makes Hollywood caliber explosions, sci-fi starfields, blizzardy snow, abstract dancing lines, glowing spheres and just about anything else you can think of that might be in groups.

Read the rest of the review and see more samplesAfter dabbling with the plug-in for few hours, I was hooked. This plug-in has comprehensive settings for every detail of the particle, which you would expect from any particle generator. What sets Particular apart from the crowd is the exceptional preview window, which lets you see what the settings look like without rendering. You can spin and turn your particles around in 3D space to view every angle.

Another great feature is the Animation Presets, which works like Favorites. Trapcode spent loads of time creating dazzling samples for you. When I first started using Particular, I was a bit overwhelmed by having so many options in Particular. The Animation Presets menu allowed me to jump in with two feet, find something similar to what I wanted and then tweaked them until I was content. Evened for the seasoned Particular user, setting up an effect from scratch could be laborous, but the preset menu allows one to choose something similar and modify the settings. It's really an efficiency tool in disguise.

The built-in help is superb. It's thourough and easy to understand. I am not the type to ever look at a manual or help section. I prefer to drive myself insane trying to figure things out on my own. I did look up the Aux System settings because I really didn't have a clue of what they did. Five minutes of reading through the built-in help and I was ready to go.

I did run into one thing that I wanted to do with the plug-in, but could not, and that is to create an enclosed area with a mask that would contain the particles. This can be done with Particle Playground, After Effects' built-in particle generator. Particle Playground works in 2D and Particular works in 3D, so I can see how difficult it would be to create a three dimensional mask. Maybe in future versions....

Overall, Trapcode Particular is freakin' awesome. I can't think of one other plug-in that is so versatile and makes me look so good, and that's really what it's all about, isn't it. Making your stuff look really good.

Trapcode Particular is available for download only. Toolfarm bundles Particular with other cool Trapcode products, too. The Trapcode 3D Pack includes Trapcode 3D Stroke, Particular, and Lux plug-ins. The Trapcode Suite 2004 bundle is the bomb - all 6 Trapcode plug-ins ( Shine, Starglow, 3D Stroke, Sound Keys, Lux and Particular). Trapcode consistently puts out must-have plug-ins, so believe me, I am not just blowing smoke (although I could with Particular - okay, bad joke).