The manual doesn't really cover the subject on particle emitters very well. It describes how to add an emitter to the scene and some brief information on how to use the particle emitter shaders.

But I'd like some more practical examples of how to use the particle emitter. I managed to add an emitter to the scene and have it to spray balls, squares and diamonds all over the scene. But I want to be able to do some really cool stuff. Like smoke. I've seen some really cool smoke trails rendered in Carrara and they look nothing like my bouncing diamonds.

And second, I'm really into Poser content. I tried to make a rain like effect in a scene with Victoria and a particle emitter. The smallest size available on particles seems to be 0,01 ft. That is not small enough to simulate water drops, it more look like golfballs raining on Victoria. Is there really no way to make smaller particles?

And third, even though I set the +/- value for the particle size to zero the size still seem to vary between the particles. Actually, it seems like they get smaller by animation time. Does this make sense?

There's a lot of these basics I don't get. Is there a nifty tutorial or a more in depth instruction anywhere on the Internet that covers the basics of particle emitters?

Ravenous; I'd imagine the Mark Bremmer will answer fairly soon, but he has a tutorial for free on his Dark Art's site, it's not a beginers tutorial, but it has a lot of good information in it, also his series of tutorials at www.vtc.com are well worth a months membership. Plus if you sign up you can study any tutorial they have for the whole month.
    Now for the disclaimer, I have no commercial interest in either site, other than being a very happy customer.

Ravenous; additional information can be found over on DAZ forums,  topic 46544 and 42466 have a lot of info on how particles work and how to shade them.  Topic 37596 is a long list of tutorials available.  Another source is Polyloop, you have to sign up but it's free.
    I hope this helps..

 Hey ravenous...my latest tutorial covers that very subject

[www.youtube.com/user/cripeman

m](http://www.youtube.com/user/cripeman)issteps aside it might be one of my more useful tutorials.