particleIllusion SE

particleIllusion is a standalone application that allows you to quickly and easily create amazing effects: explosions, smoke, fire, sparkles, motion graphics backgrounds, space effects, creatures, and abstract artistic effects -- literally hundreds of different types of effects.

particleIllusion SE is the low-cost introductory version of particleIllusion. It uses an older version of our particle engine, but can still create a huge number of effects.

The Interface

particleIllusion's interface has been highly praised as easy to learn, work with, and master.

We've done our best to create an interface that will be easy for an artist to use, yet not be so "artistic" that it is completely different from anything you've seen before. Our customers seem to feel that we've gotten it right.

Fast, Easy, and Powerful

Fast: particleIllusion uses OpenGL for real-time (or near real-time) previews of all effects, and ultra-fast rendering. Render times are always in Frames per second, not seconds (or minutes, or hours) per frame.
Easy: You can add an effect to your project with a single click of the mouse, or you can customize the effect by changing some of the easy-to-understand parameters (such as "size").
Powerful: The number of parameters that you can change and animate allow you to create a huge number of different effects, with almost endless variations.

Out-of-the-Box Effects

One of the great strengths of particleIllusion is the huge library of effects that is included. Over 950 particle emitters ("effects") are currently available for SE, with a new free library released every month.

What types of effects are included? Too many to list, and many that would be nearly impossible to describe with words, but a few include: explosions, fire, smoke, fog, waterfalls, sparks, sparkles, rain, snow, motion graphics backgrounds, magic effects, space warps, abstract lights, lava, flocks of birds, geometric shapes, bubbles, waves, rainbows, light beams -- dozens of different types, and hundreds of variations.

This large (and ever-growing) library of effects allows you to create immediately, with no learning curve and almost no effort. You can also customize these effects to create subtle variations or entirely new effects, then save your new presets.

Works with All Video Applications

Since particleIllusion is a standalone application, you can use it with any video editing or compositing software. Bring your movies or image sequences into particleIllusion, add the particle effects you want, then save the output movie or image sequence. You can also save just the particles with an alpha channel (transparency) so the rendered output can be loaded back into your compositing software.

Next: What can I do with particleIllusion SE?