Creating a Particle Emitter

After you choose a particle system type to add, you create the particle system icon in the scene. The icon serves different purposes depending on the type of particle system.

As an emitter: The icon defines the starting location and direction of the particles. Spray, Snow, Super Spray, Blizzard, and Particle Cloud use the icon as the particle emitter.

As a placeholder: The icon serves only to hold the parameters for the particle system. The particles are emitted from another selected object. Particle Array and Particle Cloud use the icon as a placeholder.

You can choose whether Particle Cloud uses its icon or another selected object as the emitter.

Procedures

To create emitter icons:

Drag in a viewport to set the size and orientation of the particle emitter icon for Spray, Snow, Super Spray, Blizzard, and Particle Cloud.
Spray, Snow, Blizzard, and Particle Cloud use the icon size as the area of particle emission. Super Spray emits particles from its center regardless of its icon size.

All particle systems align the particle direction with the Z axis of the creation grid.

To create placeholder icons:

Drag in a viewport to set the size of the placeholder icon for Particle Array and Particle Cloud.
The size and location of the particle system icon has no effect on the particles.
After placing the particle system icon, click Pick Object on the Basic Parameters rollout to select the object to use as the particle emitter.