I am here…just kidding. I am not Aharon but Sean Safreed, Product Director at Red Giant Software. I want to share a few details about the upcoming Particular v2 and our policy regarding upgrades.

Particular v2 is coming along nicely and Peder has added some killer features. But before I lift the veil on one of the many features in this new version, I want to let our customers and the community know our upgrade policy. If you buy Particular 1.5.1 after April 7th, 2009, you are entitled to a free upgrade. In fact, our policy across the board is to give a free upgrade to users that purchases a Red Giant product when the next major version has been announced but hasn’t shipped. In general, we only charge for major updates that involve significant development effort. The upgrade to the new version of Particular will be $99.

Now, I can’t say exactly when Particular v2 is going to ship because Peder is still busy adding features and fixing bugs but I expect that this version will be out in the summer, maybe sooner. I can say that Peder has listened carefully to a group of beta testers and users to push the boundaries of what is possible in After Effects (as he always does .

Here is a taste of one of the features in v2. The feature is natural particle shading and it responds to After Effects lights in 3D space:

Particular v2 offers much more realistic shading of particles

I know users are going to love this feature along with the vastly expanded controls. For the rest, please come to NAB to get the full scoop and see Peder Norrby demo in person.

Tags: Trapcode Particular Upgrade