Use a particle system (they're friendly).

While each Geomancy plugin specializes in different imagery, all three plugins have a common setup. A particle system generates the shapes. Then a Grid system controls how the particles look and behave. This allows you to set up a structured composition, then easily break the structure, which gives you a lot of flexibility when designing. Our very fun 'Randomness' parameters are especially useful for this as well.

Particles are simple to generate.

Because they are generated from a particle system, Geomancy shapes are easy to create and animate. Who wants to sit around and keyframe 50 or 60 lines or boxes? The greatness of particle systems is they do most of the work for you.

A GridLines layer overlays a GridSquares layer [play]

In GridLines and GridSquares, particles are generated from their 'Producer Point'. As you adjust the 'PP', you change the way the particles spurt out from their birth point. In HairLines, you set 'Line Compression' options to affect the generation point.

Particles are simple to design.

In Geomancy plugins, you can easily change the look of particles, their movement, and their grid constraint. The two GridLines animations below started with the same green lines. The designs were quickly made distinct by adjusting particle attributes like Speed, Vertical Line direction, Horizontal Line direction and the particle's LifeSpan.

Line particles move around horizontally and fade quickly [play]

Line particles move upwards and stay onscreen [play]

Particles are simple to animate.

All of the plugins couple their particles to a grid. This underlying grid sets up how the particles move around and behave. The 'Grid' controls the movement and behavior of the shape particles, with a lot of variation built in. Constrain the particles to a specific location; have them loosely follow the grid system; or just ignore the grid completely.

The Grid has general setup controls like overall Height and Width and number of Rows or Columns. It also has an option of matching its size to the layer the plugin is applied to. You can Show Grid visibility for an easier setup. By default, the particles move in a constrained path along the grid. If you don't want the grid to be obvious, however, it's easy to deviate your particles. In GridLines and GridSquares, you can use Grid Adherence. These controls specify how far off the lines should be, and what percentage of them should do so. In HairLines, you can set a Displacement factor.