[Andrei Firtich]

Try using the range selector…First make the text layer, open up properties, now you should see animate triangle in your switches/modes panel,click on that and select to animate whatever property you want…now open up your animator1(default name)Now you can see the range selector with Start,End and offset sliders. To animate you letters individually select whatever character you want to animate with your start and end sliders…Animate it with the offset slider. Use multiple animators to do some neat animation…Check out the animation presets, there are some cool effects that you can customize with minimal effort.
Hope that helps
BTW how is combustion is it comparable to AE as far as the structure?

[Andrei Firtich]

Yeah you can use 3d stroke to get something like the effect of trapcode particular’s organic line preset…The trick is shown in Creating Liquid LIght by David Zandnerg: https://www.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/page_wrapper.cgi?forumid=2&page=/articles/script_gen/productsort/aftereffects_shinestroke_script.html
Now as far $ for the value, it all depends on what you are trying to get out of the package, Trapcode Particular is kick ass but is pricey and has more of learning curve. The Triple S is easy to use,less expensive, and it will enhance your already existing animation techniques
BTW I can’t wait till Wondertouch puts out PI as plugin for AE, it will kick the crap out of Particular

[Andrei Firtich]

As far as film like look, you might wanna check out Digital Film Tools’ Filter Bundle. It comes with a crapload of 55mm filters, some of them pretty cool and from my experience they are not heavy on rendering time…Unless you are running on a slow machine…As far a popular plugins..I’d say Trapcode Shine is probably the best bang for your buck…If you have money to dishout than Cycore FX HD,Boris Effects,Tinderbox,GenArts release is a good bet…Personally I don’t like TinderBox because you can’t apply a mask to it, you have to precompose…If you are looking for a particle generator look no further than Trapcode Particular. Particle Illusion is a pretty powerfull standalone paricle generation.
For 3d stuff in AE Zawerks 3d Invigorator is a good bet…Even though you are probably better off spending extra 500 bucks and getting a full fledged 3d program…
I hope this helps