Three reference timelines are used to animate particle effects.
The following figure shows the timelines used when animating particle effects.
The emitter time is the amount of time since the emitter began emitting particles.
This has no effect on any animation of particles emitted by the emitter.
This is the model and material time axis. Even if the particle lifespan is one frame, color can be gradually changed by using the material to animate the particle color.
The particle lifespan is the amount of time between the emission of a particle from an emitter and its expiration.
It can be used to animate individual particles.
When animating particle effects, you can control particle color, alpha, and texture coordinate animation separately from that for materials.
CONFIDENTIAL