Have You Heard? Particular 2.0!

If you have ears, read blogs, or have twitter, you will have probably heard that  Trapcode Particular version 2.0 has finally hit the virtual shelves.   There is a reason why I didn’t write this the day it came out.  One, because it was the day before I got married, and two, for the fact I wanted to have something to offer you guys in terms of tutorials and some inspiration to get you working on some cool new stuff to utilize the new features included with this release.  There is bound to be an onslaught of tutorials, good and bad, long and short in the coming months with people jumping on the Particular 2.0 bandwagon, but the first tutorials that have been released have really given us some awesome insight to the possibilities with the new features.

First we have tutorials directly from Red Giant TV which includes an awesome introduction video tutorial from Maltaannon and some crazy uses on using the new plugin.  He walks you through some of the main new features like Streaklets, shaded particles, reaction to lights and things like that.  A few days ago, Harry Frank, Particular master himself, had an episode posted covering how to create a crowd scene using some Crowd Control clips and some flyovers and custom particles, now referred to as Sprites in Particular’s settings.

There were a few videos foreshadowing the release of Particular 2 as well… you could have possibly missed them along the way.  What with NAB being the best time and place to give some sneak peaks, you know the big dogs would be itching to show off how they were some of the select few beta testing and the lucky ones with the inside scoop.  Most recently there was Aharon Rabinowitz’s video from AENY a week or so before the release which outlined the major new features of the upgraded plugin as well as giving you a few other awesome techniques to use. FXGuide was also at NAB covering all of exciting new things on the horizon for the video industry, and of course, one of those huge things was Particular 2.  You can check out this video of Trapcode’s founder and creator, Peder Norrby giving you a streamlined idea of what was to come with the new release.

Lastly I would like to end with a video showing some amazing use of Particular 2 with some basic handheld street footage.  This might possibly be one of the videos that pushes Particular’s limits the farthest that a lot of us have ever seen.  Using 3D matchmoving with PFHoe, along with After Effects 3d world, and Particular’s use of 3d space, Eric Epstein has created one of the most visually stunning pieces of Particular artwork in recent times.  It really is one of the pieces that makes you ask yourself and your computer monitor “How in the hell did they do that?”  Well, if you want to find out, Eric will actually be presenting at AENY this Thursday July 30th at 6:45pm EST.  Check out the video I am talking about directly below.

http://www.vimeo.com/5716181

Bottom line is, if you work in motion graphics or visual effects, you can’t afford NOT to have Particular 2.0.  There are so many new additions that have been a long time coming, that it wouldn’t make sense not to have it.  This is probably one of the most widely used plugins on the market, and almost every studio or post house inevitably has it.  Also, it is relatively cheap, and you can usually find coupons by watching Red Giant TV episodes, or frequenting Toolfarm or other places around the net.  This is one of the biggest and most anticipated plugin releases for After Effects in a long time, so get on over to Red Giant Software and go pick up your copy.

As always, if you create something with Particular 2, and want us to take a look at it, post a link in a comment, or even if you haven’t created anything, leave us some love!  We like hearing what our readers think!