1. Install
- Close After Effects.
- Copy the whole Particle Party folder from the zip into
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects <version>\Support Files\Plug-ins\
Windows asks for permission; click Continue. - Start After Effects.
You need: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) and After Effects 2024 or later. The preset browser uses Microsoft's WebView2, which comes with Windows 11. On Windows 10, if the preset browser won't open, install the free Evergreen WebView2 Runtime from Microsoft. A Mac version is the first update after launch.
2. Activate
Until you activate, Particle Party works fully, with a faint tiled "TRIAL" watermark on the render.
- Open your purchase email and copy the whole licence key. It starts with
PP1. - In After Effects, select a layer with Particle Party on it.
- In Effect Controls, next to Licence, click Activate. Particle Party reads the key straight from your clipboard; there's nothing to paste.
- A message confirms who it's licensed to, and the watermark is gone. If old trial frames still show, use Edit > Purge > All Memory & Disk Cache.
No internet connection is needed. The key is saved in your user folder (%APPDATA%\Meanwhile Media\Particle Party\), so you only activate once per computer. Click the (?) button at the top of the effect to check who it's licensed to.
3. Your first particles
- Make a new solid: Layer > New > Solid.
- Apply Effect > Meanwhile Media > Particle Party. You'll see particles straight away.
- Next to Presets, click Browse… and pick a look.
- Change anything you like. A preset only sets values, so every control stays yours to edit.
4. The controls that matter most
- Emitter Position is where particles come from. Keyframe it and they follow.
- Emitter Control Null: Create adds a 3D null that drives the emitter's position and tilt. Parent it to anything.
- Birth Rate and Velocity set how many particles there are and how fast they go.
- Gravity, Wind and Turbulence shape the motion. Turbulence Style changes the character: Flow swirls, Smoke tears, Vortex spins.
- Gradient Library gives you 29 ready-made colour ramps. Every stop stays editable.
- Disintegrate (for logos and text): put the effect on the logo layer, turn Disintegrate on, then keyframe Dissolve Amount from 0 to 1. Or pick a Reveal preset.
The Help button inside the effect opens the full reference.
5. Keeping playback smooth
- Keyframe the controls that animate cleanly: Emitter Position and Z, Emitter Tilt, Birth Rate, Velocity, Gravity, Wind, Turbulence Amount and Dissolve Amount.
- Most other sliders are read once for the whole simulation. Keyframing them still works, but every frame re-runs the history, which costs playback speed. Set those once.
- Burst Time is in simulation time, and Warm-up moves it earlier. With Warm-up 2 and Burst Time 0, the burst fires before frame 0 and you never see it.
6. Worth knowing (known limits)
- Picked layers are seen without their masks and effects. That applies to the Layer emitter, Sprite Layer and Gradient Layer. After Effects hands plug-ins the raw layer, so pre-compose anything with masks or effects first.
- Sprites need a real alpha channel. Use artwork with transparency, or a pre-comp. A text layer can't be a sprite; pre-compose it and crop the pre-comp to the text.
- Flow needs a mask. Draw a path on the layer and pick it as Flow Path. Without one, the Flow controls do nothing.
- Comp Camera needs a camera. With no camera, or an orthographic one, Particle Party quietly uses its built-in camera.
- Show Field Guide renders. The force-field wireframe bakes into your output, so switch it off before exporting.
- Aspect Ratio 1.0 means round. It's a width-to-height ratio, so the slider stops at 0.1 rather than 0. Set it back to 1.0 for normal particles.
- Surface (liquid) looks need more particles than the same look without it, about 2–3 times the density.
- 32-bit projects work in linear colour, so Additive blending and Glow look stronger than at 8 or 16 bpc. That's expected.
7. Still stuck?
Email hello@meanwhilemotion.com.au with your After Effects version and the build number from the effect's Info button. A screenshot helps a lot.