When discussing particle systems for After Effects, you will find that there are more than a few choices available. They range from Ae’s bundled particle effects, to Trapcode Particular, all the way up to much more modern 3rd party tools like Plexus and Stardust.
Superluminal’s Stardust was designed to take on a more modular approach to creating particle effects in After Effects. It features a node based user interface, making it possible to string together some neat effects in a logical way. You can use Emitters, particle, replicators, forces, deformers, 3D models, text, masks and maps as elements to create your next fantastical particle effect.
There are a few tutorials out there that really show the power of using Stardust in Ae. More recently Eran Stern from SternFX has been doing some “getting started” vids that can get you up to speed quickly with Stardust, and really show off how easy it is to use and the possibilities.
