particleIllusion

particleIllusion is a standalone application that allows you to quickly and easily create amazing effects: explosions, smoke, fire, sparkles, motion graphics backgrounds, space effects, creatures, and abstract artistic effects literally hundreds of different types of effects. particleIllusion uses OpenGL for real-time (or near real-time) previews of all effects, and ultra-fast rendering. Render times are always in Frames per second, not seconds (or minutes, or hours) per frame.

You can add an effect to your project with a single click of the mouse, or you can customize the effect by changing some of the easy-to-understand parameters (such as "size"). The number of parameters that you can change, coupled with some of the advanced features such as "Super Emitters" (particle emitters that create other particle emitters automatically), allow some of the most complex and realistic effects available anywhere.