Particle overlay composer guide

Three looks

Each scene below was drawn by the tool with no picture underneath. Each starts from Reset; the table under it is the whole recipe, and everything not listed stays as the page opens.

Rows named for a panel section, such as Layer kind or Layer gradient, are buttons to press in that section. Slider rows give the slider's own value: where the tool shows a smaller number beside the slider, it is this one divided by 10 or 100, so a Bloom intensity of 150 reads 1.50.

The particles are scattered at random and keep moving, so your frame will differ in the detail.

A meteor shower

Meteoric runs from blue-white at the head of each streak to orange at the end of its tail. Trail lag at full strength swings each tail off the line of travel, so the streaks cross at slightly different angles.

Fewer, longer streaks read better than many short ones; at thousands they merge into a haze.

Raise Head boost under Meteor shape for hotter tips, or turn Angle to send the shower another way.

A nebula with dust

The first layer becomes large, soft clouds that drift and swirl. The dust layer adds thousands of white motes that twinkle in front.

Fewer stars, a stronger vignette and a little less exposure keep the clouds from washing out to white.

The dust sliders only show while the dust layer is the chosen one. Press the Nebula row under Layers to go back to the clouds.

Firework sparks

Each emitter throws its sparks out in every direction, and Gravity pulls them down as they fly. Prism colours each spark by its age, from red when it is born through yellow and green to violet as it fades.

Bloom gathers the dense middle of each burst into a warm glow.

Lower Emitters to 1 for a single large burst, or raise Gravity for sparks that fall like rain.