Particle System
Spawns and animates many small elements
Also known as: Particles · Emitter · Particle emitter · Shuriken · Niagara system · Particle effects
Definition
A particle system creates and animates large numbers of small elements, called particles, to make effects such as fire, smoke, sparks, rain, magic and explosions. An emitter spawns particles at a rate or in bursts, and each particle gets a lifetime, velocity, size, color and rotation that can change over time and respond to forces such as gravity and wind. Each particle is drawn as a sprite, a mesh or a ribbon. Unreal Engine uses Niagara, and Unity has the Particle System and the VFX Graph.
In production
Build effects in layers, such as a flash, a core, smoke and sparks, each with its own emitter, and control them with curves for size, color and opacity over life. Keep the particle count and screen coverage under control for performance. Learn what the engine simulates on the CPU and on the GPU, and what its modules and parameters do, since the same ideas carry over between tools.
Learn Particle System in
Tools that use Particle System
See also
Niagara
UE5 particle and VFX system
VFX Graph
Unity's GPU node-based particle system
Over-Life Curves
Changing size, color and opacity across a particle life
GPU vs CPU Particles
Where particle simulation runs
Flipbook (Sprite Sheet)
Animated texture made of a grid of frames
Overdraw
Redrawing same pixels
Animation Notifies and Events
Triggers placed on specific frames of an animation