We are now comfortably into 2019 and enjoying the Chinese Year of the Pig — or at least I am! So readers, you might remember that with each new year comes a Red Giant Trapcode Suite update. And Red Giant didn’t disappoint with Trapcode Suite 15.
Every year Red Giant adds more amazing features to its already amazing particle generator and emitter toolset, Trapcode Suite, and this year is no different. Trapcode Suite 15 is keeping tools like 3D Stroke, Shine, Starglow, Sound Keys, Lux, Tao, Echospace and Horizon while significantly updating Particular, Form and Mir.
Particular 4 The bread and butter of the Trapcode Suite has always been Particular, and Version 4 continues to be a powerhouse. The biggest differences between using a true 3D app like Maxon’s Cinema 4D or Autodesk Maya and Adobe After Effects [besides being pseudo 3D] are features like true raytraced rendering and interacting particle systems with fluid dynamics. As I alluded to, After Effects isn’t technically a 3D app, but with plugins like Particular you can create pseudo-3D particle systems that can affect and be affected by different particle emitters in your scenes. Trapcode Suite 15 and, in particular [all the pun intended], Particular 4, have evolved to another level with the latest update to include Dynamic Fluids. Dynamic Fluids essentially allows particle systems that have the fluid-physics engine enabled to interact with one another as well as create mind-blowing liquid-like simulations inside of After Effects.
What’s even more impressive is that with the Particular Designer and over 335 presets, you don’t need a master’s degree to make impressive motion graphics. While I love to work in After Effects, I don’t always have eight hours to make a fluidly dynamic particle system bounce off 3D text, or have two systems interact with each other for a text reveal. This is where Particular 4 really pays for itself. With a little research and tutorial watching, you will be up and rendering within 30 minutes.
The presets for all of these options can be accessed by clicking the “>” symbol in the upper left of the Designer interface. You can access all of the detailed settings and building “Blocks” of each of these categories by clicking the “