Color

Color Mapping

Velocity

Lifetime

Y-Depth

What the gradient is indexed by: Velocity (fastest particles use the hot end), Lifetime (old at top, young at bottom), or Y-Depth (bottom-to-top mapping).

Color Gradient

Cool gradient (blue to white)

Fire gradient (black to red to yellow)

Inline gradient editor. Click the strip to add a stop, double-click to open color picker, drag to reposition, Alt-click to delete (minimum 2 stops). Keyframeable.

Color Speed Range

Speed Range at 0 (auto-ranged)

Speed Range at 10 (fixed reference)

Only in Velocity mapping mode (0 to 50, default 5). The velocity at which particles hit the hottest end of the gradient. 0 = auto-range.

Color Map Layer

No Color Map assigned

Color Map driven from layer

Optional AE layer whose pixel color is sampled at each particle's position and overrides the gradient. Pixel-perfect sampling, alpha-weighted.

Lock Color at Birth

Lock Color at Birth off (live resample)

Lock Color at Birth on (fixed at spawn)

When on, each particle samples the Color Map once when spawned and keeps that color forever. When off, particles continuously re-sample. On = "paint splat"; Off = "flag waving in a color field".