Apple Motion 2 - Manual (Page 566)

566 Chapter 8 Working With Particles
Particle systems use objects, referred to as cells, as the “mold” for the particles that are
generated by the emitter. You can use nearly any object in Motion as a source for a
particle cell, including images, shapes, text, movies, and image sequences. Each particle
that is created is essentially a duplicate of the original cell, and is animated according
to the parameters for that particle system (a particle cell and emitter) over its lifetime.
The object you use as a particle system’s cell determines how that particle system
looks. Particle systems can contain multiple cells, resulting in the release of several
types of particles from a single emitter. You’ll find that many of the most sophisticated
particle presets are constructed in this way.
Object prior to becoming a particle system Particle system
Single cell Two cells
01112.book Page 566 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM