[Moira Elefson]

You’re right — Blender seems promising, but it’s definitely a steeper learning curve if you’re just aiming for that one effect. I might give it a shot anyway just to see how far I can get with Geometry Nodes or shader-based motion.

That said, I totally get the appeal of going the plugin route. Tools like Trapcode Form or Particular really streamline this kind of effect. I’ll check out the tutorial you linked — appreciate it!

[Moira Elefson]

Hey Mads,

Totally hear you on that. It’s frustrating when solid long-term users get brushed aside by sales teams that are late to the table. It’s a shame because Maxon, Red Giant, and the whole Trapcode suite used to feel more connected to the creative community — not just a subscription machine.

I agree that Blender and other open tools have really stepped up lately. When you combine that with solid tutorials and a bit of trial-and-error, you can get stunning results without being locked into an expensive ecosystem. The flexibility (and community support) is refreshing, especially when you’re on tight deadlines or budgets.

Also, you nailed it — sometimes it just takes that one great plugin or workflow to save a project. But like you said, “not interested, until I am” — perfectly put. We all go where the tools and respect are.

Appreciate your perspective!

All the best,

[Moira Elefson]

Hi Bahadir,

You’re not alone—this type of animation can definitely be tricky to recreate without third-party plugins, but it’s absolutely possible to achieve a similar look in After Effects using built-in tools (just takes some layering and patience).

The key to that “wave-like particle motion” is combining Fractal Noise or Turbulent Displace with Particle World or CC Particle Systems II — both are native to AE. You’ll need to animate the emitter and play with velocity and gravity to get that flowing trail effect. Adding a subtle Turbulent Displace to the layer can give you the organic swirl you’re after.

Since you already tried with Fractal Noise, you’re halfway there. Try precomposing your fractal shape and using it as a displacement map or mask for a particle layer. Also experiment with time remapping and motion blur to smooth out the motion.

If you’re familiar with Blender, that’s a solid plan B. Blender’s particle system with force fields could give you very fluid results — plus it’s free and much more flexible for 3D motion.

Keep pushing, you’re close! These kinds of effects often come from trial and error. And don’t worry, your post is totally fine — searching “particles” always turns into a black hole! 😊

Good luck!

[Moira Elefson]

Hi! Was facing the same issue a few days ago.

Hope this isn’t t late, but here is how I was able to mirror the weight:

If you go to the weight manager in your rigged mesh. On the top left, you should be able to see the option to save and load weights.

Save your completed weight of the completed side, and open the saved .txt with something like notepad++ (You only need the option to change specific words on the whole doc)
In the .txt, you should be able to see the different weights and where those are. Just change the left to right or right to left, and you should be ready to go.

Finally, back in the program, load the new weight for the mirrored mesh.

That’s how I completed it. Hope this helps!

[Moira Elefson]

hi, many thanks for your kind reply and the video

apologies for the very long delay in thanking you

[Moira Elefson]

hi hector,

just to clear it out… preview off is only for the rendering process… since it give me some shorten rendering times

soon i hope i will build my new pc

thanks

[Moira Elefson]

hi hector,

i thank you so much for your kind reply

i have tried some different settings for my candid videos and it seems that the follow settings work pretty good on my pc…

windows media video – video bitrate 12 M cbr (two pass)

audio @ 192 kbps 48 khz

project settings – render quality best

dynamic ram – 25% (i have 6 gb of ram ddr2 800)

no preview

i am happy with the results, good video quality and small video size

my amd athlon a6 3650 was a decent computer but unfortunately the motherboard, an asrock a55 avs was so good

after two years of use the motherboard couldn’t see the ram

i kept the cpu and i bought another motherboard so i have to build again my very trusty amd a6 dekstop

thanks

[Moira Elefson]

Hi.
The 2019 version of Adobe Media Encoder will allow you to export up to 8192 pixels wide. However, its touchy when it comes to the aspect ratio. For instance, I can export an MP4 that is 8192×1536, but when I’ve tried to export an MP4 that is 5760×1080, it reduces it down to 4096 pixels wide.
I have to export videos for large screen arrays, and if anyone can suggest a resource that has more info in that area, it would be helpful.

[Moira Elefson]

all right should have updaded the optical flares plugin

[Moira Elefson]

Same thing