Rendering group

The Rendering group controls how the particles look when they render. Makes sense, right?

The full Rendering group.

Render Mode

This popup lets you choose how the particles look when they render. There are two Render Modes.

- Motion Preview - This mode draws dots at each particle, a quick way to preview the motion of particles.
- Full Render - Full Render is the default mode. This creates the expected results rendering all particles with full scale, position and shading. This mode should be used for final output.

Left to right, Render Mode set to Motion Preview and Full Render.

Particle Amount (new to version 2.2)

Particle Amount lets you quickly change the amount of particles shown for previewing. This is especially useful when the Emitter> Particles/sec control is keyframed.

Depth of Field (revised from version 1.5)

Depth of Field (DOF) controls simulate the focus of a real world camera. DOF does this by mimicking the way that a real camera cannot maintain sharp focus in all depths of a scene. Depth of Field is useful for increasing the realism of a scene. It is also useful for matching your Particular effect to footage shot with a real camera where Depth of Field is apparent.

By default, DOF is turned on with the Camera Settings option. Choose the Off option to turn off DOF. Read more about how to use Depth of Field.

Left to right, Depth of Field set to Off and Camera Settings (On).

Depth of Field Type (new to version 2.0)

This control sets the kind of render that Depth of Field provides. This setting only affects Sprite and Textured Polygon, and is greyed for other Particle Types. There are two Depth of Field Types.

- Square (AE). This mode uses the same square aperture that After Effects uses internally for DOF. This kind of render is useful when other elements are treated with AE's own DOF.
- Smooth. This mode gives a smoother DOF effect that in most cases looks more realistic. Its render is slightly slower than the Square mode.

Version 1.5 Note: The Depth of Field Types were previously Render Mode settings. The DOF render is now automatic instead of an option to turn on/off. s

Transfer Mode (new to version 2.0)

A new feature in the Rendering group is the built-in Transfer Mode popup. Now you can apply Particular to a video layer, not just a Solid, and you can see the imagery behind it. You can also use Transfer Modes to stack multiple effects of Particular onto one layer. The Add mode is typically the best choice for stacking. The default setting is None, or off.

The Transfer Mode popup gives a list of standard modes.

Opacity

Opacity sets the transparency of the entire Particular layer. This option is active when Transfer Mode is set to any option other than None. The default value of 100 makes the particles fully opaque. Lower values make the particles more transparent.

Motion Blur group

Motion Blur gives a smooth look to fast-moving particles, like a real world camera does. Read more on the Motion Blur group page.