Colin Hess
Designer
UV/PHACTORY, New York

Favorite gear: Trapcode Particular, an After Effects plug-in

List: $299

Why I love it: It’s so much quicker and easier to manipulate
particle systems using Particular than it is with the 3D particle
simulators in other packages.

"We use many software tools here at UV/PHACTORY. Our newest favorite,
though, is a plug-in for After Effects called Particular by Trapcode.
We’ve used it for many of our recent projects. It’s a particle
generator that can create complex explosions, smoke, clouds, straight
graphic elements and crowds-in both 2D and 3D spaces. Particular can
even use exported 3D camera and light data from 3D applications such as
Softimage XSI to match its particles to 3D elements in the composite.

Particular is really flexible. Its integration into After Effects helps
eliminate the normal back and forth between 3D applications like XSI
and After Effects, which can become frustrating when working under
tight deadlines and ongoing modifications. Also, manipulating particle
simulations using Particular requires no knowledge of computer
programming. That’s a huge plus, as it lets us designers and animators
stay visually oriented instead of spending hours troubleshooting
misplaced periods."