Creating Particle Effects Without Particles

The beginning area of my game is planned to be set in a forest environment, so I've been working on assets and effects for filling out that space. I took some time out of the dev schedule to record a little trick I've been using for particle effects that's been quite effective for me so far, and probably pretty applicable to other projects as well. Also seen in the video are some preliminary character work, and a dithered see-through shader. Note: in the tutorial segment, I forgot to indicate that you need to create an orthographic camera in the comp with the particles in order to prevent particles from moving out of the plane they were born in. Either that or use a 2D particle system. This is an issue because the particle effect I was using (particular) does not support per-axis particle velocities (to my knowledge). music: lofi hip hop to [chill/dance/study/relax/rage/party/sleep] to by Virtual Boy is licensed under a Creative Commons License. https://soundcloud.com/virtualboymusic/lofi-hip-hop-to-chilldancestudyrelaxragepartysleep-to