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Many of the particle nodes found in the Particles bin of the Effects Library are “forces” that enhance a particle simulation by simulating the effect of various forces acting upon the particles generated by an emitter.
Some forces, including pDirectionalForce, pFlock, pFriction, pTurbulence, and pVortex, are rules that act upon particles without the need for any other input. These are simply “acts of nature” that cause particles to behave in different ways.
Other forces, such as pAvoid, pBounce, pFollow, and pKill, work in conjunction with 3D geometry in a scene such as shapes or planes to cause things to happen when a particle interacts or comes near that geometry. Note that some of the particles described previously can also use geometry to direct their actions, so these two categories of forces are not always that clear-cut.
Compositing
The pMerge node is a simple way to combine multiple emitters so that different types of particles work together to create a sophisticated result. The pMerge node has no parameters; you simply connect emitters to it, and they’re automatically combined.
Rendering
The pRender node is required whether you’re connecting a particle system’s output to a 2D Merge node or to a Merge3D node for integration into a 3D scene. Along with the pEmitter node, this is the only other node that’s absolutely required to create a particle system.
— Controls: The main controls that let you choose whether to output 2D or 3D image data, and whether to add blur or glow effects to the particle systems, along with a host of other details controlling how particles will be rendered.
— Scene: These controls let you transform the overall particle scene all at once.
— Grid: The grid is a helpful, non-rendering guide used to orient 2D particles in 3D space. The grid is never output in renders. The width, depth, number of lines, and grid color can be set using the controls found in this tab.
— Image: Controls the output of the pRender node, with controls over the process mode, resolution, and color space settings of the output.