This page covers two cards of a particle layer. Draw holds the drawing: a path for the particles to travel along, or a mask for them to fill. Follow / Emit holds what the drawing does: the particles follow the path, or are thrown off either shape with Emit. The page ends with hiding the drawing so only the motion is left in the ad. Use them when the particles need to go somewhere specific rather than drift: a comet that streaks across a banner, a spray that rises off a line, or a cloud of dots that holds the shape of a tree while the headline lands.
Drawing works on a Vector layer with particles. If you have not made a particle field yet, start with Particles and Count.
#Draw
How to draw: pick a tool above, then drag on the canvas. Release to finish. A mask fills itself with particles the moment you let go, and a path switches Follow path on the moment you let go - draw again to replace it, neither ever stacks. Click the active button to exit draw mode.
The guide line tracks the layer: move, scale or rotate the layer and the drawn stroke moves with the particles it describes, so what you see is what you get.
A layer carries one drawing. Picking the other tool clears the one already there and everything it produced (the mask fill, or the follow-path geometry), so the two never fight over the same particles. Undo brings it straight back.
The drawing is a guide, not artwork - switch Show guide off above to keep it out of the finished ad while Follow path and the mask fill carry on using it.
Draw is a card of its own. Add it from + Add Component once the layer has Count; it sits under Layout, after Shape. It has two buttons, Draw path and Draw mask, and a status line under them that shows how many points each drawing has, with a Clear button beside it. Show guide sits at the top of the card.
A path is about movement: an open line the particles travel along or spray off. A mask is about placement: a closed region the particles are born inside, or walk around the edge of. Pick the one that matches the job, because a layer only ever holds one of them.
How to draw
- Select the particle layer and open the Draw card (add it from + Add Component if it is not there yet).
- Click Draw path or Draw mask. The button changes to "Drawing path… (click to finish)" (or mask) and the status line asks you to drag on the canvas.
- Press and drag on the canvas. The stroke you are drawing is dashed. A path shows in purple with a dot at the start and an arrow at the end; a mask shows as a green outline with a light fill.
- Release. A mask fills with particles straight away. A path switches Follow path on straight away, and the Follow / Emit card appears with Follow picked.
- Click the active button again, or pick a tab in Shape, to stop drawing.
A tiny accidental tap is ignored, so a stray click will not replace your drawing. Drawing and the fill (or the follow) it triggers are one undo step, so a single undo takes you back to where you were.
Smoothness
Once a drawing exists, a Smoothness slider appears (0 to 100, 50 by default). Raise it to turn a shaky mouse stroke into a clean curve; lower it to keep the corners you drew. It always works from the stroke you actually drew, so you can drag it up and back down without wearing the shape away. Letting go of the slider re-runs the fill or the follow, and your next stroke on the layer starts with the same Smoothness.
Gotchas
- Removing the card removes the drawing. Closing Draw deletes the drawing, the fill a mask made (Fill canvas and Fan out go back to what they were) and the Follow / Emit card with it, as one undo step. Add Draw again in the same session and the drawing comes back.
- One drawing per layer. Drawing again replaces the drawing. Switching to the other tool clears the old drawing and what it produced. Undo brings it back. For a path and a mask in the same ad, use two particle layers.
- The drawing tracks the layer. Wildfield records the layer's position, scale and rotation when you release, so the particles land exactly where you drew. After that, the guide moves with the layer. A 3D Transform is not compensated, so on a layer tilted in 3D the field may not sit exactly on the stroke.
#Follow path
Strength is how hard the path pulls them off the physics pose. Direction runs the stroke forward (start to end) or in reverse.
Speed is a share of this layer's own Speed (the Animate Physics globals row), so the stroke and the rest of the layer stay in step: 100% matches it exactly, 50% is half as fast, 150% half again. Turn the layer's Speed up or down and the path follows. 0% means it does not move: the particles spread evenly along the whole stroke and hold it, which is how you say "keep this shape".
For a slow drift the bottom of that scale is still too quick, so click the number beside the slider and pick a division: /2, /4 or /8 divides every stop on the scale, which takes it down to 0.6% without costing the slider any of its travel at normal speeds. The percentage itself never changes, so the readout shows both (25% /4), and 1x puts it back exactly as it was.
Spread is how much of the stroke the field occupies: 100 lays them along the whole line, lower gathers them into a comet tail behind the leader. Distribution is how they sit inside that: evenly, crowded toward the start, the end, both ends or the middle, or seeded-random. Bias is how pronounced the weighting is, and at 0 every option is Even again. The count is never touched, so 40 stays 40 whichever you pick.
Orient around path turns each particle to face the direction it is travelling, so they rotate as the path turns. Leave it off and they keep their own rotation.
Follow path is what turns a drawn line into motion. Every particle is placed on the stroke and carried along it, so you decide the route instead of the forces. You never need to switch it on yourself: it is Follow in the Follow / Emit card, which offers one job for the drawing at a time: Follow, Emit or Off. Picking Emit or Off keeps all your Follow settings, and picking Follow again brings them back exactly, so it is safe to switch while you compare. Redrawing the path keeps your settings too.
The controls, beyond the help card
- Strength starts at 100, where the path is in full control. The forces it overrides (Wind, Gravity, Orbit, Wave, Float and Motion's Displace among them) are greyed out with a note; lower Strength to let Motion and its Displace pull the particles off the line. Turbulence and Swirl still spin them at full strength.
- Speed steps through 0, 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 200, 300 and 400%. A new path starts on the stop closest to one full lap per scene, and the line under the slider says how many laps you will get. At 0 the readout says hold. With the /8 division the scale reaches down to 0.625%, and the division survives a redraw.
- Direction is Forward (start → end) or Reverse (end → start); the arrow on the drawn line marks the end.
- Travel ease is Linear (constant) or one of the Material 3 curves. It bends only the travel along the path, separate from the particles' Particle ease in Ease.
- Spread starts at 100 on a new path. Distribution offers Even (whole line), Weighted to start, Weighted to end, Weighted to both ends, Weighted to centre and Random (seeded); Bias is greyed out while it is Even.
- Orient around path suits particles with a front, such as arrows, planes or fish.
- Time text to the path drives string expressions from each particle's place on the stroke instead of the scene clock, so particles along the line show different values at once. At Speed 0 each one freezes on its own value.
Linked scenes
Each linked scene can carry its own drawn path. With two or more, the path's shape blends across each cut, so a line that is straight on scene one can curl into a loop on scene two. The Follow path settings themselves (Strength, Speed and the rest) come from the first scene in the chain; on later scenes those controls say so.
Worked example
A 9:16 story ad where a comet of 60 particles loops the product and settles.
- Add a particle layer and set its Count to 60.
- Add Draw, click Draw path and draw one loose loop around the product shot. Release, and the particles are already riding it.
- Drop Spread to about 25 so the field bunches into a head and a tail instead of covering the whole loop.
- Try Weighted to start and Weighted to end with Bias around 70, and keep whichever gives a dense head and a thin tail.
- Check the line under Speed reads one lap per scene, then switch on Perfect loop so the comet wraps without a jump.
- Turn Show guide off so the purple line stays out of the ad.
Ideas
- A travel ad where a dotted route arcs from the origin city to the destination: Speed 0 and Spread 100, so the dots hold the arc evenly instead of moving.
- A running shoe launch where arrow-shaped particles race around a drawn track with Orient around path on.
- The brand's signature drawn as a path, with a short Spread so a bright comet writes it out across the scene.
- A price ladder: text particles showing
{0-100|$}with Time text to the path on and Speed 0, so each one reads a different price along a rising line. - A two-scene link where the path is a straight line on scene one and the product outline on scene two, so the stream bends into the product shape at the cut.
#Emit
Aim is the whole choice. Perpendicular to the line takes the direction from the drawing itself at every particle, so the spray follows the shape you drew; Flip side sends it the other way. Fixed angle ignores the shape and fires the whole field one way. A mask starts pointing OUTWARD whichever way round you drew it.
Strength is how hard the emitter pulls the particles off the physics pose. Distance is how far they get by the end of the scene. Spray widens the fan. Launch delay delays each particle by its own place along the drawing, so the spray develops along it instead of leaving as one sheet.
Distribution and Bias choose WHERE along the drawing the particles are born. The count never changes: this is a fixed set of particles launched once, not a continuous stream.
Emit uses the drawing as a launcher instead of a rail. Pick Emit in the Follow / Emit card: its rows read Emit off the line on a path and Emit off the edge on a mask, and it is the only one of these jobs that works with both. On a mask, add Follow / Emit from + Add Component; it offers Emit and Off only, because a mask has no route to follow. A drawing has one job at a time, so picking Emit switches Follow off and keeps its settings for when you pick it again. Off switches both off.
Aim and the throw
Aim has two settings. Perpendicular to the line (the default) takes its direction from the drawing at every particle, so a curve fans out the way it bends and a mask bursts outward all the way round. Which side a path sprays from depends on the direction you drew it: a stroke drawn left to right starts spraying up the screen. Flip side is a separate checkbox that sends the spray the other way. On a mask it turns the outward burst into an implosion. Fixed angle ignores the drawing's direction and fires the whole field one way, set by Angle (0 to 359). Flip side is greyed out under Fixed angle, and Angle is greyed out under Perpendicular.
The rest of the throw:
- Strength starts at 100, and at full strength greys out the forces it overrides, as Follow path does.
- Distance (60 by default) is how far the particles get by the end of the scene. 100 is half the shorter side of the frame. The slider stops at 200; click the number to type up to 2000. At 0 nothing leaves the line, and the panel says so.
- Spray (0 to 180, 20 by default) widens the fan, with the particles spread evenly across it.
- Launch delay (0 to 100, 0 by default) delays each particle by its place along the drawing, so the spray ripples along the line instead of leaving as one sheet. It is not Motion's Stagger or Order: it only times the throw.
- Travel ease, Distribution and Bias use the same options as Follow path. Distribution and Bias choose where along the drawing the particles are born.
Emit launches the layer's Count once over the scene; it is not a continuous stream. For a denser spray raise the Count, and for a longer throw raise Distance.
Worked example
A 1:1 launch ad where sparks lift off a horizon line under the headline.
- Set the particle layer's Count to 300.
- Add Draw, click Draw path and draw a gentle line across the lower third, left to right. Release.
- In Follow / Emit, pick Emit. Follow switches off.
- Leave Aim on Perpendicular to the line. If the sparks head down, tick Flip side.
- Set Distance to 120, Spray to 40 and Launch delay to 60, so the sparks rise progressively from one end of the line to the other.
- Pick a Travel ease from the Decelerate family so the sparks slow as they reach the headline, then turn Show guide off.
Ideas
- A reveal where a mask drawn around the product has Flip side on, so the particles pour inward and gather on the product as the price appears.
- A celebration ad with a round mask, Emit off the edge and Spray near 180, so a firework opens around the offer.
- Steam off a coffee cup: a short path along the rim, Fixed angle pointing up, low Spray and a high Stagger.
- A rain curtain: a path along the top edge, Fixed angle pointing down, Distribution Random (seeded) so the drops do not fall in a row.
#Fill mask
Filling neutralises Fill canvas and Fan out (they scale and rotate the formation, which is what used to throw the fit off) and compensates for the layer's own position, scale and rotation, so the field lands on the shape first time. Change any of them afterwards and the field moves with them - redraw to snap it back.
Fill is the two-way choice of where the particles go. Inside scatters them through the region. Outline walks them around the drawn edge instead, spaced evenly by distance the whole way round with no doubled point where the shape closes - the same even walk Follow path uses along an open stroke.
Points and Fill re-fill the shape as soon as you let go of them.
Fill mask places particles inside a shape you draw by hand. They are generated inside the region, not cropped to it, so no dot is ever cut in half or fades out at the edge. The mask section appears once a mask exists, and it fills on release. The status line then reads "Filled · N particles born inside the shape."
The controls
- Points (20 to 800, 200 by default) is how many positions are placed in the shape.
- Fill is Inside (fill the shape), the default, or Outline (evenly around the edge). Outline is the way to trace a shape with a dotted line.
- Both re-fill the shape when you let go of the control, not while you drag, so you can scrub without waiting.
To land the field on the drawing first time, filling sets Fill canvas to 100 and Fan out to 0 and remembers what they were. Switching the layer to the path tool, or removing the Draw card, puts them back. You can still change them after filling, and the field scales or turns with them. Redraw to snap it back onto the shape. A Displace you already set on Motion stays on through a fill, so a mask can shimmer or drift from the start. The fill becomes the layer's shape: the Shape card says it came from the drawn mask, and generating a shape there replaces it. On linked scenes the mask is shared by the whole chain; it does not change shape between scenes the way a path can.
Worked example
A 4:5 feed ad for a garden centre where 400 particles form a tree.
- On a particle layer, add Draw, click Draw mask and draw a tree outline: a trunk and a rounded canopy in one stroke. Release, and it fills.
- Raise Points to 400 for a dense canopy.
- Add Motion and set its Displace to Drift at a low Strength so the leaves stir without losing the shape.
- Turn Show guide off and export.
Ideas
- A national sale where a country outline fills with dots in the brand colour, with Gradient Morph running the palette across it.
- A Valentine's offer inside a hand-drawn heart, switched to Outline for a dotted border around the price.
- A speech bubble drawn as a mask with Outline fill, so a dotted bubble frames a customer quote.
- A product silhouette traced by hand when the photo cutout is too busy to trace cleanly with Image.
#Show guide
Nothing is deleted. Follow path and the mask fill keep reading the hidden drawing exactly as before, so you can hide the guide and still keep the motion it drives.
Show guide is a switch at the top of the Draw card, and it is on by default. It covers the three kinds of guide a layer can carry: the drawn path, the drawn mask and the guide image from Image or SVG tracing. Of those, the guide image is part of the composition, so it is the one to watch for in an export.
Leave it on while you build, because seeing the line is how you judge Spread, Distribution and the fit of a mask. Turn it off before you export or share a review link. A stroke you are in the middle of drawing still shows while Show guide is off, so you can redraw without turning it back on. The switch is one undo step either way.