Produce dazzling particle effects
Award-winning designer Adrien Ravelli explains how you can take your particle systems to the next level with Notch
Get creative in Notch
My name is Adrien Ravelli, and in this tutorial, I'm going to show you how easy it is to create particle-based visual effects in Notch.
Notch is a real-time motion graphics tool well known for creating brilliant particle systems in just a few clicks. I am going to explain how to create a goodlooking particle system in just four simple steps, and then show you ways to adapt this workflow for endlessly exciting results. Particle systems have huge potential when combined with other node families. They can drive all sorts of effects, and are fantastic at animating a scene without keyframes.
You will see how I have combined particles with modifiers, procedurals and video to create a suite of unique looks. The beauty of Notch’s real-time generated particle systems is that they will generate endlessly without looping, meaning you can build hours of original generative content in less than ten minutes. Working in real time allows me to create for many different canvases, whether that’s rendering out video for largeformat screens using Notchlc, or creating installations driven by human interaction.
I hope that by the end of this step-by-step you will see how endless the possibilities are when creating particle effects!
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01 CREATE A BASIC PARTICLE SYSTEM
Here I am going to explain how you can easily create a particle system that will run continuously. Particle systems are incredibly easy to generate in Notch, and the workflow gives you a great deal of parameter control. The best bit about creating particle systems is that they are so versatile and look fantastic on a range of canvases. The Notch community is always coming up with new ways of using particle systems. The best bit is that working in real time enables me to tweak and adjust settings and see the results instantly.
02 GET STARTED
I start by adding a Particle Root node to the node graph. The Particle Root node contains the particles themselves: their positions, velocities, colours and so on, in a pool waiting to be used. The number of particles in the pool is set within the node’s attributes. We're not going to need a lot of particles for this, so I’ve set the number of particles within the root to 64,000.
03 DEFINE YOUR PARTICLES
I have chosen a Primitive Emitter – this node emits particles in the form of a 3D primitive shape. There are more than ten different Emitter nodes to choose from in Notch and each will add a different personality to your particle system. Simply parent to the Particle root with Ctrl+r. Next the particles need to be rendered. I have chosen a simple Point Renderer which renders a point sprite for every particle. To create soft, circular sprites I have input a Gradient node into the Point Renderer’s Image input.
04 ADD MOTION
Get your ball of particles moving with Affector nodes. I have chosen a Turbulence Affector node which simulates a gust of wind. I combined Turbulence with a Curl Noise Affector to give the affected particles a fluidlike motion. Within the Properties panel, I can tweak the speed and motion of the animation. With Affectors, your particle system could run for hours without looping.
05 START DESIGNING
And in just four easy steps you have an animated particle system! Now you can add a bit of personality and flair. I chose to add a bit of colour to my particles using the Life Colour Shading node. The combination of Emitter, Affector and Renderer has endless possibilities. This is your time to experiment and explore the different nodes and their parameters.
06 ADD POST FX AND INTERACTIVITY
I’ve chosen my favourite post-effect node Glow for this scene. I simply plugged Glow into the Notch Root node to add dazzling shimmer to the scene. My final step was adding a Fog Scattering node. This transformed my black background into a dreamy gradient. Next I have chosen to make the X-axis of my Primitive Emitter interactive via Web GUI. I simply ticked the Expose button on the parameter and selected Web GUI Enabled in the Properties panel. I can now drive the animation of my particle system from any device on my network.
07 CREATE A DYNAMIC PARTICLE SYSTEM
The foundation of this next particle system is exactly the same as in part one, but with a few more tricks. In this scene, I’ve used moving Modifiers to create an intricate dynamic animation – all without keyframes! In these next steps, I will explain a few lighting and rendering nodes I have used to create this impressive particle system.
08 IT’S ALL ABOUT NULLS
A very simple technique to create dynamic animations is to combine various node families using Nulls. In this scene I have parented my Emitter to a Null node, which is then parented to another Null that is being affected by Modifier nodes. These Math Modifier nodes are using mathematics to change the position of the Nulls and the Emitter. Nulls can be used to control other nodes, but are not rendered themselves. I’ve created an image to visualise the path that the Emitter will take once affected by the Math Modifiers.
09 ADD REAL-TIME AFFECTORS
Now that the Primitive Emitter is moving, I’m going to add Affectors to add even more dynamism to my scene. Affectors are static when connected to the Particle Root. However, I can easily connect any number of Affectors to the same Null that my Primitive Emitter is parented to, to replicate this same motion. I’ve chosen to use three Turbulence Affectors with different Noise Scales and a Curl Noise Fluid Affector. I decided to parent one of the Turbulence Affectors to my Null and have the rest affect the whole scene.
10 SET UP DRAMATIC LIGHTING
I’ve used a combination of light nodes to bring my particle scene to life. I’ve used a For Voxel Cone Shading node in combination with a few Light nodes. I chose to set my Light nodes to omnidirectional, but you could try directional. I also decided to colour one of my lights blue. Again I’ve made use of the Null workflow, connecting one of my lights to the moving Null.
11 SHADING AND POST-PROCESSING SETUP
This is my favourite part of the process because Rendering and Shading nodes create such a dramatic change in the scene. I’ve used the Shading Image node with a Fractal Noise texture as an input, which results in a look where particle colours blend over time. You aren’t limited to fractal noise – you can use any type of image or video for this. I’ve used the Frame Difference node to blend the current and previous frame, creating more detail. I’ve added my favourite Glow effect and Light Scattering to create a sense of depth.
12 PLAY WITH PARTICLE SPEED
I’ve used Time Stretch, which stretches and adjusts the time being passed to all of its children and their respective subtrees. What’s fantastic is that I can affect the Time Stretch node using a Modifier to create more dynamism. I’ve added a Beat Pulse Modifier to this scene but you could also use a Sound Modifier to make your particle system move to your favourite songs.
13 CREATING AN ALIEN
I have created this floaty, alien deep-sea creature using a combination of particles and procedurals. This scene generates organic movement entirely in real time. Combining particle and procedurals is really easy in Notch. To create the creature’s tentacles in this scene, I’ve used a 3D object to emit particles which spawn further particles.
14 USE PARTICLES AS THE FRAMEWORK
The core of my alien was created with a simple 3D sphere generated in Notch and I’ve used the Mesh Emitter to emit one particle per vertex. To create the wavy tentacles I used a Vortex Affector and a Curl Noise Fluid Affector, which create the desired irregular motion. They are parented to the Mesh Emitter to affect this node only. I then added a Trail Emitter which creates particles according to the displacement of the particles of the Mesh Emitter.
15 COMBINE PARTICLES AND PROCEDURALS
To create my procedural surface I added a Procedural Root and a Particle Generator Node hooked up to the Particle Root System. Generator nodes generate a distance field for use in a procedural; the Particles Generator creates a shape based on the positions/movement of particles from a particle system. The 3D Primitive Generator creates a mesh around our sphere-shaped body. The Procedural Meshing nodes extract a surface from a procedural by first voxelising it and then constructing a smooth surface over the voxels.
16 LIGHT THE CREATURE
I’ve chosen to light using Voxel Cone Lighting which carefully calculates lighting using raymarching. I really love the results this node can produce. Voxel Cone Lighting needs a Bounding Box node to calculate where it should compute its lighting. I have simplified my workflow by linking the same bounding box to the Procedural Root.
17 ADJUST THE COLOUR
I’ve edited the material within the Procedural Meshing node’s properties panel. Within the Materials section, there are options to adjust the Metallicness, Roughness and Emissiveness. I’ve kept many of the parameters as default and have enabled rim lighting. I used a Colour Ramp node connected to both Emitters to colour my creature purple and blue.
18 ADD DETAILS WITH PARTICLES
Finally, to enhance the look, I’ve added some post effects. This was a very straightforward process – I simply dragged and dropped nodes straight into the scene. Because the node graph is hierarchical, whichever post-process is on top will be rendered first, then the others subsequently. The final touch was adding some animated geometry using a Point Renderer with the Mesh Emitter and adding a circle image. The Geometry Connection Renderer generates lines between Mesh Emitter particles.
19 PARTICLES AND GLASS PROCEDURALS
In these next steps, I am going to show you how to create a very different look using procedurals. To create this complex design I have used Emitters to create three tubes which carve through one central pillar. This may look complex, but it’s actually not too difficult to create once you are familiar with how particle and procedural systems in Notch combine. The transparency of the object was created using the Glass RT node, a basic glass material, similar to the default material node but with default raytraced glass settings.
20 AGAIN, WE START WITH PARTICLES
First, we build the particle system by dropping a Particle Root node into the graph. We're not going to need a lot of particles for this object so I’ve set the number of particles within the root to 16,000. We are going to add three Primitive Emitters to the scene and stagger their position within the viewport. A Velocity Affector drives the motion of the particles backwards.
21 ANIMATE USING A MATH MODIFIER
I am using the Math Modifier node, which generates numeric values on the basis of a mathematical function. You can easily combine Modifiers to get the motion you want. I have used a Range Remap to limit the range of values that can be output by the Math Modifier. I’ve used a Null to apply the same movement to all three Emitters and the Affector.
22 CREATE THE TUBES WITH PROCEDURALS
The Procedural Root node has a 1x1 unit cube as default, so I used a Bounding Box node to scale up my workspace. To generate an image I have used a 3D Primitive set to Cylinder and two Particles nodes. I have set the Particles CSG mode to Subtract which will indent the shapes into the main cylinder object. To render an image I use Procedural Meshing which generates polygons for the meshes. I have chosen to view as normals in my Viewport Shading Options.
23 RAY TRACING AND MATERIAL SETUP
I used ray-traced lighting to produce realistic lighting and glass materials within this scene. Turn on Ray Tracing in the Notch Root node. The Pathtracer node generates basic bounce lighting, refractions and reflections. To create the glass effect I used a Glass RT Material node and connected it to the Material input of the Procedural Meshing node. To produce different colours, you have to enable Generate Colours in the Procedural Meshing node, Affect Colour in 3D Primitive, and choose Colour in each generator node.
24 CLONE THE SPHERES
I have used the existing particle system to generate spheres that appear as though they are travelling through the tubes. The Clone To Particle node allows me to clone an object onto particles. I have cloned a sphere using the Shape 3D node. A Randomise Effector changes the position of each clone randomly, and the Colour Ramp Effector changes the colour of each clone randomly.
25 COMBINE PARTICLES AND VIDEO
In this section, I will demonstrate how to apply particle systems to 2D images or video. I have created this look using the Image Emitter node. This versatile node can make use of motion vectors to make particles track the motion of a video once emitted. It is a fantastic tool for creating dynamic real-time video effects. Combined with effectors and particle renderers, the possibilities are almost infinite. This is a powerful technique used in numerous music videos and live shows all over the world.
26 SET UP THE IMAGE EMITTER
To generate particles based on the make-up of a video, we need an Image Emitter and a Point Renderer to render the particles to screen. To make this image more interesting I have used an Optical Flow node which will make the particles follow the motion in the video. I’ve saved myself some processing power by downsampling the video feed using a Downsample node.
27 ADVANCED RENDERING TECHNIQUES
Now that the basics are in place we're going to make the scene more dynamic. The Curl Noise Fluid affector gives the particles fluid motion. A Kill Box removes any particles outside its region, which will save processing power by not drawing them. Attribute Shading will colour individual particles based on specific attributes. You can choose various input channels like ‘Life’, which shades the particles based on the remaining life of the particle. The Geometry Connection Renderer generates faces and lines based on particle position.
28 ADD FX TO THE SCENE
The Image Plane node enables you to create a 3D plane where the video will be viewed. The video is displayed in the background of the particles. I have applied my favourite posteffect Glow, along with Colour Correction and Edge Detect via a video Null. I have used a Null so that the post-processing will only be applied to the video. If we want to add some post-processing only for the particles, then we would need to use a Render Layer node. This node allows you to render all its child nodes and their subtrees to a separate composition.
29 THE UNIVERSE IS YOUR OYSTER!
Our final example combines many of these techniques to create a breathtaking nebula. Combining various particle-based workflows we can create intricately detailed animations that can be used on almost any canvas. I love watching this design generate endlessly and being able to change parameters like colour and velocity with the swipe of a finger when it’s connected to my phone over a Web GUI. In this last tutorial, I am going to explain how I bring all these particle systems together to create this nebula.
30 PARTICLE SETUPS ARE SECOND NATURE
This scene uses three Spline Emitters. Each Emitter has its own Turbulence Effector and Point Renderer, plus two Vortex Affector nodes connected to the Particle Root. To freeze the motion, I’ve added a Time Stretch and set the speed to 0. Click the Particle Root and change the pre-roll time to 30. This will simulate particles being emitted for 30 seconds prior to the scene starting.
31 PROCEDURAL VOLUME SETUP
We’ve previously used Procedurals to generate polygonal objects from particles. Here, I’ve used the same technique but instead of using a meshing renderer I have used the Volume Generator. This enabled me to generate volume for our particles.
32 IMPLEMENT RANDOM CLONERS
I have used two sets of clones to generate this look. The first are Clone To Particles clone spheres on the first emitter, to produce a look that simulates planets or constellations. The second cloner I used was a Random Cloner, connected to the second emitter. This created lots of smaller spheres which created the effect of distant stars and dust in the nebula.
33 THE FINISHING TOUCHES
I can’t emphasise enough how important post-processing is when finalising a scene and just how easy it is to do in Notch. Notch supports LUTS and has dedicated colour correction and image correction nodes. I have of course used Glow in this scene and I like how the effect has changed the way the stars look, and their brightness. As with everything else, this is done in real time and doesn’t require rendering to video, which makes adjusting the final image a breeze. •