Depth of Field (new in 1.5)
With the addition of Depth of Field in version 1.5 you can now make even more realistic effects with Trapcode Particular. Depth of Field mimics the way a real camera cannot maintain sharp focus in all depths of a scene. Let's look at how to use it!

Start by creating a new NTSC D1 Square pixel comp.
Create a new comp sized solid and apply Trapcode Particular.
Select the preset "Grid Across"

Now create a camera (Layer>New>Camera), use the 28mm preset.
Go to time 04:00 (4 seconds into the comp) so you can see some particles.

Now, let's make the particles shoot even closer to the camera:
Set Emitter>Y Rotation to 44 degrees (was 55 in the preset).

You should see this:



Now, turn on the DOF in Trapcode Particular by setting Render Mode to Full Render + DOF Square (AE):
(When using the simple particle type Sphere as we do here, it does not matter if Square or Smooth DOF mode is used)




Then you need to enable DOF on the AE camera.
Twirl open the "Options" part in the timeline:



Set Depth of Field to On.
Set Focus Distance to 150 pixels.
Set Aperture to 100 pixels (this is totally unrealisticly high, but useful for quickly understanding how it works).

Now you should see this:



Now try and drag around the Focus Distance slider a bit and see how the focus plane moves in and out if the image.