Shading group

New to Particular 2.0 is the Shading group, which shades or colors the particles in a scene according to their proximity to the lights in the After Effects comp. Particular 2.0 supports up to 128 Spot or Point Lights and an unlimited number of Ambient Lights.

The plug-in requires an After Effects Light layer be preset in the Timeline. Once you've added a light, Particular can calculate the shading for the particles. The particles are illuminated based on the Light characteristics, including color and intensity.

The full Shading group of controls in Particular

The four kinds of After Effects Lights. Particular supports particle shading based on Spot, Point and Ambient lights.

Shading

By default, the Shading group is turned off with the Shading menu set to the Off option. You switch on the Shading group by setting the Shading popup to On. The Shading group needs to work with composition lights.

IMPORTANT: If there are no lights in your Timeline, when you first turn on the Shading group, the particles will seem to disappear.

Good way to test the Shading: Add two Point or Spot Lights. Rotate one Light towards the particles and one away from the particles. Keep at least one light a white color. This is a great way to see how the Shading section works.

The Shading menu option turns on and off the calculation of shading from lights in the scene.

The Shading control is set to the Off option and all particles simply are colored white based on the Particle > Color setting.

The Shading control set to the On option but without a light layer. Particular cannot calculate shading without a light and the scene goes black.

With the Shading option set to On and an After Effects Light, Particular shows the coloring of the particles based on their light proximity.

Using Light properties in After Effects

All of the After Effects' Light layer properties are read and used by the Shading group. There are different types of Lights (Point, Spot, Ambient), and each kind has a different set of properties. The light properties can include Color, Intensity, Cone Angle, Light Angle, Orientation and Rotation. To adjust these controls, open the Light Options group of controls for the Light layer in the Timeline, not in Particular's interface. Particular reads the values from the After Effects Light and creates particle shading based on these property values.

The Light Options controls for an Ambient Light.

The Light Options controls for a Point Light.

Note: If you want the lights in the comp to all be visible, you can use the Trapcode Lux plug-in, a separate plug-in that renders After Effects lights as visible points or cones of light. Visit: Trapcode Lux for more information.

Light Falloff

The Light Falloff control has two options, None (AE) and Natural (Lux). The Light Falloff control determines how the shading is calculated from the After Effects Light's Light Intensity value. Light Falloff is supported for Spot and Point Lights.

There are two options.

- Natural (Lux) is the default setting. This setting creates natural looking shading where particles that are close to the light position appear very bright, while particles that are more distant from the light appear dimmer. Natural calculates the light intensity fall off with square of the distance from the particle. This is how natural light intensities decrease in the real world—just imagine a street lamp on a dark street. The street lamp only illuminates objects around it brightly. Objects that are distant from the street lamp get practically no illumination. This is also how Trapcode Lux calculates light intensity—thus the (Lux) after the Natural label.
- None (After Effects) means that particles receive the same brightness no matter how distant they are from the light source position. This can be useful in certain situations. For example, if other 3D layers in the comp are also lit by the same lights, the None (AE) option will make the particles shading behave the same way as the shading of the layers. After Effects uses a constant shading model for Point and Spot Lights meaning all layers illuminated by these light get the same intensity, no matter their distance from the light(s).

Left to right, Light Falloff set to Natural (Lux) and None (After Effects).

Nominal Distance

This control is active when Light Falloff > Natural (Lux) is selected. Nominal Distance defines the distance, measured in pixels, at which the Light has its original Intensity and where the light fall off begins.

For example, if a Light has a Light Intensity value of 100% and a Nominal Distance value of 250, the particles with a distance 250 pixels of less from the light will all have a value of 100%. As the particles are positioned further away from the light than the nominal distance the Light intensity will decrease causing the particles to appear progressively dimmer.

Particle Shading Components.

There are three value that determine the contribution of color (and the color's intensity or brightness) to the appearance of each shaded particle: the ambient, diffuse and specular components. Each of these components will be

Ambient

The Ambient value defines how much ambient light the particles will reflect. The Ambient light type in After Effects is a background light that is everywhere and radiates in every direction (and why the Light Options are just Light Intensity and Color). The Ambient light is useful for adding illumination to the particles in the shadows, where there may be no illumination from the Point Lights or Spot Lights using the Light Falloff > Natural (Lux) mode.

For the Ambient value to show any result, there needs to be an Ambient Light in the Timeline. Remember to create at least one Ambient Light in the comp when using this setting. The default value is 20. High values make the ambient light color and intensity dominant in the scene, making it look more like the Light Falloff > None (AE) option. Low values make the light contribution visible.

A Particular effect with only a Point Light in the scene.

A Particular effect with a Point Light and a blue Ambient Light with a low Ambient value.

A Particular effect with a Point Light and a blue Ambient Light with a high Ambient value.

Diffuse

The Diffuse control defines how much the particles reflect the light in a diffuse manner. In the real world, diffuse light would be light that has passed through a translucent or sheer fabric, or bounced off of a white wall. Diffuse light is indirect lighting that has scattered from a surface. This gives the light a softer appearance than direct light with less shininess. This does not tie into any particular Light but instead affects all Lights in the composition.

The default value is 80. High values make the light(s) contribution brighter and causes particles closer to the lights in the Natural model to have a more uniform color and intensity. Low values result in the light color and intensity having a dim, soft appearance. Matte surfaces typically have a large diffuse component.

A Particular effect with a low Diffuse value.

A Particular effect with a high Diffuse value.

Specular Amount

The Specular Amount simulates a hot spot created by the light shining directly back at the viewer like from a metallic or glossy surface. The values defines how much the particles reflect the light in the direction of the camera. For example, a glossy surface like plastic or metal has a large specular component.

High values make the particles appear more glossy, while low values make it less glossy. You may need to lower the Diffuse value to allow more of the the glimmer to show through. The specular appearance is very sensitive to the angle of the particle.

A Particular effect with a low Specular Amount. Notice how only particles very close to the light object appear to be brightly illuminated.

A Particular effect with a high Specular Amount. Notice how particles even somewhat distant from the light object appear to be brightly illuminated.

Specular Sharpness

The Specular Sharpness value defines how narrow the specular reflection is. For example, a glass surface may have a very narrow angle of reflection, while a plastic surface may be slightly less narrow. Sharpness lets you lower the sensitivity of Specular Amount so it's not so sensitive to the angle of the particle. High values make it more sensitive. Low values make it less sensitive.

A Particular effect with a high Specular Amount and a high Specular Sharpness. Note how many particles seem to reflect light back to the camera. Specular Amount set high for both.

A Particular effect with a high Specular Amount and a low Specular Sharpness. Note how few particles seem to reflect light back to the camera.

Reflection Map

The Reflection Map menu lets you setup a layer that particles will appear to mirror as if the image were mapped on to a sphere surrounding the volume of particles. To enable the Reflection Map, select a layer in the Timeline. The Reflection Map layer need not be visible to contribute to the scene. This is an easy way to create greater realism in the shading of the particles since the colors will be defined by the image content and not by just the lights in the After Effects comp.

The Reflection Map menu let's you specify a layer source for the reflection.

The Particular effect in a comp with a single spot light but without a Reflection Map. and the comp with Map applied.

An image of a sunrise that can be used as a Reflection Map.

The comp preview of Particular showing the light illumination and the sunrise map (above) specified as a Reflection Map. Notice how particles that are rotated to face up and toward the light are bright but also get the coloration from the reflection map's sky. Particles that are rotated down get the color of the dark water and appear more brown.

Reflection Strength

The Reflection Strength defines how much the Reflection Map image content contributes to the particle shading. Since the Reflection Map can be combined with the regular shading from comp Lights, this is useful for adjusting the overall balance of particle color between the comp light(s) and the reflection map. At the default value of 100, The reflection map is fully on and the particles will pick up color based on the map's color and brightness. Set lower, you are taking down the strength of the Reflection Map and mixing in the shading from the scene. Values greater than 100 increase the brightness of the Reflection Map layer making it appear as though it is lighting the scene. Note that really high values will simply make the particles appear white with no specific coloration.

The comp preview of Particular showing the light illumination and the sunrise map (above) specified as a Reflection Map. Here the Reflection Strength is to a low value.

The comp preview of Particular showing the light illumination and the sunrise map (above) specified as a Reflection Map. Here the Reflection Strength is to a high value.

Shadowlet Settings group (new to version 2.0)

Shadowlet Settings provides a soft, self-shadowing for the particle volume. This is a new feature to Particular 2.0. Read more about each of the controls and how they change the particle appearance on the Shadowlet group page.