Tutorial: Images as Particles Transition in After Effects

Add a customisable chapter-type screen to your videos with this easy to reuse transition.

SortedFood are a food channel on YouTube producing high quality content and while food is their main focus, they are pretty slick with motion graphics. So when they started using a transition I'd never seen before, my VFX interest was piqued.  Copies of an image fall from above and stack up to fill the screen. They pause for a moment, before falling off the screen.

So I began an investigation to see if I could figure out how to reproduce this effect. And I discovered that while it was simple to acheive using Red Giant's Trapcode Particular, it wasn't possible to do using any of the native particle effects. But I kept going and eventually found a way to animation dozens (if not hundreds) of individual layers to animate themselves to cover the screen.

Expression saved in Text File (ZIP file): https://www.dropbox.com/s/yx4sjwvnur3qshh/Image%20Particle%20Transition%20-%20Arrange%20in%20Grid%20and%20Animate.zip?dl=1

Both Transitions Project (Zipped AEP file): https://www.dropbox.com/s/wyre3rod3icxq83/Image%20Particle%20Transition.zip?dl=1

Chris Zwar's article onProVideo Coalition: https://www.provideocoalition.com/automatic-grid-layouts-in-after-effects/