Particle Illusion
Free and Easy to Use Particle Generator
Particle Illusion, by Boris FX
is an easy-to-use, powerful, high-end particle generator that gives editors and artists instant access to photo-realistic particle effects for motion graphics, visual effects, titles, lower thirds, and background graphics. Available as a free standalone application, a paid premium filter, and as part of the Continuum suite of plug-ins, Particle Illusion is the choice anyone looking to quickly and easily add amazing particle effects to any image, animation or video.
Okay, this thing just hit the shelves as a freebie, and I didn't have, nor have I tried it before - so I don't have much to offer for advice except this: Go download this thing now! It's a perpetual software - not a timed or limited version, though the plugin (Pay for) version is the way to go if you need to composite directly into your VFX software.
We're going to get into Post Production topics soon - currently a pile of things not-post production are on the table, but I didn't want to wait to present this cool software.
Video Compositing
In the workflow I'm using to present this website I'll be layering many visual elements together in post to create the final image. What I've done so far with the videos "Introducing Rosie 5" through "Volumetric Lighting - Basic Interior" is incredibly basic stuff in Fusion, and it leaves out the color grading and most audio functions as well. By the end of this series, the polish on the demonstrations, presentations and tutorials with increase to more and more of a shine as we hike along this journey - so it'll be fun to watch this through in the end.
Many of the layers that I'll comp in were intended to be created mostly in Carrara and PD Howler - I'll still be doing a lot of that because both are very strong for these things. Particle Illusion will be a huge asset for making a lot of the various elements we need to make the final image complete. Things like smoke, fog or even fires, sparks and explosions or liquids - Things that I might otherwise use Stock Footage for. Carrara is really fun for making these things with its particles, but it's nowhere near real time. In fact it really takes a heavy toll on resources, scene work-ability and render times.
Particle Illusion is pretty much instantaneous, but that also depends greatly on your system. Most people into VFX probably have pretty hefty computers and they'll just work away blasting particles around! It totally Rocks on my machine (Ryzen 2700, GTX 1660 6GB, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD) but if your system isn't quite up to snuff, it's probably still going to be easier to work with visually than Carrara.
Anyway, I wanted to tell you about it. Boris FX have put a lot of time and energy into bringing us this free standalone particle emitter system and have gone out of their way to put out a great series of video tutorials on how to make this thing sing! It's really, really cool!!!
Getting Started with Particle Illusion playlist on YouTube
Here's a sample of the series. >>>
... articles and videos on this software coming in the future ...