Apple Motion 2 - Manual (Page 567)

Chapter 8 Working With Particles 567
The Anatomy of a Particle System
Every particle system is made up of an emitter and one or more cells. Each cell appears
inside of the emitter in the Project pane and the Timeline.
The emitter and cells have separate sets of parameters that control the particle system’s
behavior. If you imagine that a garden hose is a particle system, the nozzle acts as the
emitter, while the water represents the flow of particles. Changing the parameters of
the emitter changes the shape from which the particles are emitted and their direction,
while changing the cell’s parameters affects each individual particle.
By changing a few parameters, it’s possible to create very different effects using the
same cell.
Emitter
Cells
Original objects
(now disabled)
Behaviors applied to
one particle cell
01112.book Page 567 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM