Examples of what we're going to be creating:
Blender's particle system is really fun to fool around with. Usually particles are used to simulate rain, fire, or smoke - but they offer a lot more possibilities if you're not interested in realism. For these clips, I was going for a motion graphicy feel.
To download, right-click and Save As.
This
tutorial will cover:
1. Creating
an emitter
2. Applying the particle effect.
3. A basic overview of particle settings and properties
4. Basic animation techniques (we'll be animating the emitter object
and the camera, although there are a number of other ways to control
Blender's particles)
5. Applying a halo material.
6. Modifying and animating the material properties.
Hope this proves useful to some of you!
--Colin