Particles are points that display as dots, streaks, spheres, or other shapes. Particles can have attributes applied to them so they animate and render to simulate natural phenomena.

You can create particles by clicking positions in the scene view, or you can create them with an emitter that shoots particles into view.

To animate particles, you typically apply fields such as gravity or wind. By combining emitters, particles, and fields, you can create natural phenomena such as smoke, fireworks, or rain.

In this lesson, you will be introduced to some of the basic concepts of particles and use particles, emitters, and volume fields to create a fountain-like effect. In this lesson, you learn how to:

• Create a particle emitter in your scene.
• Create a field to direct the movement of particles.
• Use a volume shape to control the movement of particles.
• Work with particle attributes.
• Color particles.
• Use a color ramp to add colors to the particles.
• Render the particles using mental ray for Maya rendering.