The basics of particle systems
Objects such as clouds and fire have no distinct shape, so it is hard to draw them using polygons. The novel method for drawing such objects was proposed by William T. Reeves in his article, Particle Systems—a Technique for Modeling a Class of Fuzzy Objects (ACM Transactions on Graphics, April 1983). The idea is in using particle systems, which are controllable sets of particles—small independently moving objects, considered as elementary components of the rendered object.
Today, particle systems play an important role in 2D and 3D computer graphics as a tool for photorealistic rendering of real-world fuzzy objects. Also, they are widely used for experimental and creative coding graphics.
Particles are independent objects that move according to some rules such as gravity, force, and friction. Each particle has a number of attributes such as position, velocity, lifetime, size, and color that changes with time.
The most important property of each particle system...
