Superluminal Stardust: Magnet?

[Atte J.]

Is there a way to create a magnet to which particles would stick? I just cannot find this functionality and the online manual sucks so there's no help there.

[ShiveringCactus]

Not familiar with stardust, but with other particle systems I think you can fake it by having the magnet as the emitter, making this into a precomp and time reversing it.

[Rick Gerard]

I took a look at Stardust, and it is apparently not compatible with any version of After Effects after 2020. There is very little on the website. I'm afraid you'll need another 3rd party plugin to get a "magnetic" effect. 

[ShiveringCactus]

Hi Rick,

I think that's not correct.  AEScripts says it is compatible:

https://aescripts.com/stardust/?srsltid=AfmBOopKU8h5mRVoRFwCt0EDpzUmhEw0CT21zhvdN-I7KJny8WyX0_Jq

[Rick Gerard]

I did not look at AE Scripts. It did not come up in the search. The Stardust website (https://superluminal.tv/downloads/stardust ) lacks a compatible download and has not provided updates in the last 8 years. 

It also does not show up in the AE Scripts app:

I would guess that making particles move toward any surface and stick to it would require you to make them move away from the surface normally, then pre-compose and time-reverse the particle layer. I've done that several times with other particle systems to simulate gravity, sticky, or magnetic effects.

[Atte J.]

I use it every day so...

[Roland Kahlenberg]

It works well. It's one of the best AE plugins - it's Node-based too which works well as an Effect.

And instead of magnet, look at Attract - this is the usual terminology used in particle systems.

HTH