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20 Jan

Written by on .

Does your next video need some dazzling special effects, such as magic particles, sparkles, or fairy dust? Or perhaps another type of particle animation? Normally, this type of effect is added in a 3D animation package or a compositing application, and later included in a video editor for the final assembly.


However, OpenShot has the power of Blender (an open-source 3D animation package) under it's belt, and uses Blender's powerful Python API to automate and script animations such as a particle simulation.

Which brings me to the main point of this article. I am proud to announce the new "Magic Wand" feature in OpenShot! Found on our "Animated Titles" screen, this new animation has dozens of parameters, including where it starts and ends (i.e. X,Y,Z), size of particles, number of particles, shape, alpha, colors, direction, and even the gravity affecting the particles.


[Animated Title screen with new Magic Wand animation]

Adjusting just a few parameters can create entirely different looking particle simulations. Here are a couple examples of what you can create.


[Green particles with zero gravity]


[Small transparent particles shooting up in the air]

Once you have generated your particle simulation, it will be added to your "Project Files" in OpenShot as a clip, and can then be dragged and dropped onto your timeline. Also, these particles have a transparent background, which means you can mix and overlay many different particle simulations, or even overlay them on top of a video (if desired).

I am very excited about this feature, as it's another exclusive for OpenShot that you will not find in other video editors, and it's really fun to play with! I'd love to hear what kinds of particle effects come to mind after seeing these examples?