The After Effects Illusionist, 2nd Edition

15The Simulation Effects

The Simulation effects are pound for pound the most powerful effects in After Effects. They attempt to create real-world circumstances and behaviors, such as explosions, caustics, and other particle effects. The Simulation effects have a learning curve (and render time) that is usually steeper than most effects in other categories, but these effects can take the art that you produce in After Effects to a whole new level. Because of their overwhelming complexity, we’re not going to cover these effects in extreme detail. Effects like Particle Playground could probably have an entire book written about them alone. My attempt here is to spark your creativity, give you a solid foundation, and give you enough information to ...