Grid controls for the Particle Playground effect (Pro only)

The Grid creates a continuous plane of particles from a set of grid intersections. The movement of Grid particles is completely determined by the Gravity, Repel, Wall, and Property Mapper settings. By default, the Force control of Gravity is on, so Grid particles fall toward the bottom of the frame.

With the Grid, a new particle appears on every frame at each grid intersection. You can't adjust this frequency, but if you want to turn off the Grid or make the Grid stop generating particles at specific times, set the Particle Radius/Font Size control to 0, or use keyframes to animate the value of the Particles Across and Particles Down controls. To make more particles appear each frame, increase the values for Particles Across and Particles Down.

Note: By default, the Cannon is on and the Grid is off. If you are using the Grid and want to stop the Cannon from generating particles, turn off the Cannon by setting its Particles Per Second value to 0.

You can adjust the following Grid controls:

Position

Specifies the x, y coordinates of the grid center. When a grid particle is created, it is centered over its grid intersection, regardless of whether it is a dot, a layer, or a text character. If you're using text characters as particles, the Use Grid option in the Edit Grid Text dialog box is on by default, placing each character on its own grid intersection, so normal character spacing, word spacing, and kerning do not apply. If you want text characters to appear at the grid position with normal spacing, use a text alignment other than the Use Grid option. (See Replacing default particles with text (Pro only).)

Width, Height

Specify the dimensions of the grid, in pixels.

Particles Across, Particles Down

Specify the number of particles to distribute horizontally and vertically across the grid area. Particles are generated only when the value is 1 or more.

Note: If the Width, Height, Particles Across, and Particles Down controls are not available, the Use Grid option has been turned off in the Edit Grid Text dialog box. (See Replacing default particles with text (Pro only).)

Color

Sets the color of dots or text characters. This control has no effect if you use a layer as the particle source.

Particle Radius/Font Size

Sets the radius of dots in pixels or the size of text characters in points. This control has no effect if you use a layer as the particle source. (See Replacing default particles with text (Pro only).)