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Participant
Apr 6, 2020 3:35 PM UTC
Answered

Trapcode Particular - my logo/layer wont emit particles

I have after effects 2020 with trapcode particular, I set my emitter type, to "layer"

and then I have linked the "layer emitter" to my layer/logo.

I expect my logo to emit particles but, its like the particles are not

recognizing or linking to my logo. The particles do not respect the "shape" of my logo.

It seems like such an easy step and process when I watch tutorials,

yet my logo is not connecting properly with the particular and emitting particles from my logo shape.

Is this a AFX 2020 problem with trapcode? It doesnt seem like it, everything else works fine.

I also start up after effects with "run as integrated driver" option, which i also dont believe

would be affecting this. 

 

Anyone have any suggestions or thoughts?
I just want to get my logo to emit particles with particular.

THANKYOU  : )

Michael5C09Correct answer
Inspiring
May 20, 2022 11:38 AM UTC

Hi! I just ran into this issue with Particular 4.0.0 on AE 22.3.0

Maybe this can help someone. I had my emitter layer prepared, then selected it as the emitter in the particular panel. No particles were spawned, but an alert appeared reminding me to switch the emitter layer to 3D. I did that but nothing happened. After that I read on here that a light layer should have appeared after selecting the emitter layer. I then just temporarily selected some other layer as the emitter and then switched back to my now 3D emitter layer. And that worked! The light appeared, particles started to spawn.

23 replies

Participating Frequently
Apr 24, 2023 1:29 PM UTC

You're layer emitter MUST be set to a 3D layer before selecting the layer as an emitter in Particular, if that makes sense. Hope this helps

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Participant
Oct 9, 2024 3:22 PM UTC

Love you bro

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Participant
Oct 11, 2022 3:48 PM UTC

Not sure if this will fix problems from people in this thread but I throw it in here anyway :
- work in Full resoltuon preview, any less will mess up particular

- if you have a mask on your emmiter, change your layer's source to "mask" like so

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Michael5C09Correct answer
Inspiring
May 20, 2022 11:38 AM UTC

Hi! I just ran into this issue with Particular 4.0.0 on AE 22.3.0

Maybe this can help someone. I had my emitter layer prepared, then selected it as the emitter in the particular panel. No particles were spawned, but an alert appeared reminding me to switch the emitter layer to 3D. I did that but nothing happened. After that I read on here that a light layer should have appeared after selecting the emitter layer. I then just temporarily selected some other layer as the emitter and then switched back to my now 3D emitter layer. And that worked! The light appeared, particles started to spawn.

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Participant
Nov 5, 2025 4:15 PM UTC

This one worked for me, thanks!

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Participant
Jan 4, 2021 12:16 PM UTC

I found a solution. It is trivial 🙂 You have to work at 'Full resolution'

 

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Participant
Jan 5, 2021 10:50 PM UTC

The layer you want to add Particular to has to be a composition. I tried adding it to a text layer and it didn't work even after precomposing. I had to remove the Particular layer, precompose, and then add it again. Then it worked. I am seeing a similar bottom right positioning issue when not in full resolution. FYI.

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Participating Frequently
Jan 6, 2021 6:55 PM UTC

I'll try that method as well with the comps 

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Participating Frequently
Dec 29, 2020 11:38 PM UTC

Did you ever get it to work?

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Community Expert
Dec 30, 2020 4:09 AM UTC

If you share the file or a simplified version I can look and see if I can help

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Kyle Hamrick
Community Expert
Community Expert
Apr 6, 2020 9:15 PM UTC

I agree with Rick that you should look up tutorials directly on Red Giant's site. There's a video tutorial on their site specifically for this. 

It doesn't sound like this is your issue, one of the biggest "gotchas" about layer emitters is that you typically need to turn the particle count MUCH higher to get visible results, so it's not uncommon for someone to get it linked up properly, but then see no particles (because they have too few) and think they've done something incorrectly.

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Participating Frequently
Dec 29, 2020 5:57 PM UTC

I watched their video and did it exactly how they said and it still didn't work. My particles are supposed to appear around the body. But appear in the corner. 

  

 

 

 

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Community Expert
Dec 29, 2020 7:08 PM UTC

You definitely did something wrong, if you select your layer as an emitter, particular should create a light layer as an emitter source, but there is no light in your timeline. I suggest that you set your layer source to none and reselect "Goku_edge" again, and this time a light emitter should be created by particular

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Community Expert
Apr 6, 2020 5:34 PM UTC

Have you checked the User Guide: https://www.redgiant.com/user-guide/trapcode-particular/emitter-layer-emitter/?

 

Did you properly set things up with your 3D logo layer?

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Participating Frequently
Dec 29, 2020 5:54 PM UTC

I watched their video and did it exactly how they said and it still didn't work. My particles are supposed to appear around the body. But appear in the corner. 

 

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Participating Frequently
Dec 29, 2020 5:58 PM UTC

Also it doesn't even add a layer light 

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