Archive republication: This article was originally published on 17 February 2021. It has been translated into English and lightly updated for clarity while preserving the original reporting and context.
This article originally appeared in Digital Production 02:2019.
Dynamic Fluids in Particular 4
The most significant addition in Trapcode 15 was the simulation of liquid- and gas-like behaviour in Particular 4. Red Giant called the feature Dynamic Fluids. By adjusting viscosity, artists could model particle motion resembling either gases or liquids.
The system brought effects such as smoke, fire, tornadoes and colliding galaxies into a compositing application without requiring a specialised 3D fluid solver. Particular supported up to 30 million particles. That was substantial for motion graphics, though still well short of the Milky Way’s more than 100 billion stars.
Particular 3 had already allowed several particle systems to coexist in the same 3D space. Version 4 extended that setup with collisions and forces exchanged between systems.
Dynamic Fluids was not a complete replacement for a dedicated 3D simulation package. It could not produce a physically detailed waterfall comparable to RealFlow inside a 3D renderer. Its advantages were speed with large particle counts and a shallower learning curve.
Trapcode Form 4
Trapcode Form 4 gained the same dynamics. Form also used particles, but kept them alive indefinitely to construct persistent complex structures.
Trapcode Mir 3
Trapcode Mir advanced to version 3 and added OBJ import and texturing, including reflection mapping. It did not replace Cinema 4D’s deeper integration with After Effects, but offered a compact route for smaller 3D tasks.
A remaining limitation was host support: the Trapcode collection was not available for other compositing systems.
The article reflects Trapcode 15 and After Effects workflows from 2019. Verify current host support, GPU requirements and project compatibility and test converted simulations before production use.
