A lot of tiny particles moving around and interacting with each other—or with you—have a certain appeal to them. If you are ever in a situation where you need to work with a lot of particles, Particles.js will serve you well. As is evident from the name, it is a JavaScript library that can help you create particle systems. Moreover, it is lightweight, easy to use, and gives you a lot of control.
In this tutorial, I will cover all the features of the library and help you get started. This tutorial is the first part of the series and will cover just the basics.
First, you need to host the library. You can either upload it on your own server or use jsdeliver CDN like me.
<script src="//cdn.jsdelivr.net/particles.js/2.0.0/particles.min.js"></script>
You also need to create a DOM element where Particles.js will create the particles. Give it an easily identifiable id
to refer to later.
<div id="particles-js"></div>
Now, to create a basic system of particles with default settings, you just need a single line of JavaScript to initialize the library.
particlesJS();
The particles are white by default. They are also interconnected with thin white lines. So, if you are not seeing anything right now, just change the background to something else. Here is my CSS for styling the particle div
:
#particles-js { background: cornflowerblue; }
Try clicking somewhere inside the demo below. After each click, Particles.js will generate four more new particles.
Even though it took just four lines of code to create the previous demo, the end result might not be what you are looking for. To me, the particles seem to be a little too big and densely packed. Maybe you want the particles to be of a different shape or have a random size. Particles.js allows you to set all these and many more properties in JSON which you can refer to during the initialization. The general syntax for calling the function will look like this:
particlesJS(dom-id, path-json, callback (optional));
Here, dom-id
is the id of the element where you want the particles to appear. path-json
is the path to the JSON file with all the configuration options, and callback
is an optional callback function. Instead of a path, you can directly put your JSON code in the second parameter.
Let's try to create falling snow using this awesome library. At first, our function will look like this:
particlesJS("snowfall", 'assets/snowflakes.json');
I have removed the callback function and changed the DOM Id
to a more specific name. The snowflakes will mostly have a spherical shape. They will fall downwards and have a non-uniform size. Also, unlike in our first demo, they won't be connected by lines.
In the beginning, our snowflakes.json
file will have the following code:
{ "particles": { }, "interactivity": { } }
All our configuration options related to physical properties like shape, size, and motion will go inside particles
. All the configuration options that determine the interaction behavior will go inside interactivity
.
I am setting the number of particles to 100. This will generally depend on the available space. As previously discussed, I will also set the shape to circle
. At this point, your file should look like this:
{ "particles": { "number": { "value": 100 }, "shape": { "type": "circle" } }, "interactivity": { } }
I am using a value of 10 to set the size of snowflakes. Since snowflakes vary in size, I will set random
to true
. This way, the snowflakes can have any size between zero and the maximum limit that we specified. To disable or remove all the lines that link these particles together, you can set enable
to false
for line_linked
.
To move particles around, you will have to set the enable
property to true
. Without any other setting, the particles will move haphazardly as if they are in space. You can set the direction of these particles with a string value like "bottom"
. Even though the general motion of particles is downwards, they still need to move a bit randomly to look natural. This can be achieved by setting straight
to false
. At this point, snowflakes.json
will have the following code:
{ "particles": { "number": { "value": 100 }, "shape": { "type": "circle" }, "size": { "value": 10, "random": true }, "line_linked": { "enable": false }, "move": { "enable": true, "speed": 2, "direction": "bottom", "straight": false } }, "interactivity": { } }
With the JSON code above, you will get the following result:
If you hover over the demo above, you will notice that the lines still exist but only show up temporarily during hover. To remove them completely, you can set the enable
property for the onhover
event to false
. Try clicking inside the demo above, and you will notice that each click generates four particles. This is the default behavior. You can also change the number of particles using the particles_nb
property under push
. I have set this number to 12 in this case.
You can also determine whether to detect the events on the window or canvas using the detect_on
option.
Here is the complete code for the JSON file:
{ "particles": { "number": { "value": 100 }, "shape": { "type": "circle" }, "size": { "value": 10, "random": true }, "line_linked": { "enable": false }, "move": { "enable": true, "speed": 2, "direction": "bottom", "straight": false } }, "interactivity": { "detect_on": "canvas", "events": { "onhover": { "enable": false } }, "modes": { "push": { "particles_nb": 12 } } } }
As you can see, I did not have to specifically enable the onclick
event. It is enabled by default. Similarly, I could remove other options like "detect_on": "canvas"
under interactivity
and "straight": false
under move
. I have kept them so that beginners don't get confused about things like why the particles are not moving in straight lines.
You can try out different values to modify the snowflakes in the CodePen above. Just click the JS tab to edit the JSON.
Getting started with Particles.js is easy. If you've never worked with particle systems before, this library will get you started in no time. This tutorial was just a basic introduction to the library. In the next two tutorials of this series, I will cover all the aspects of this library in much more detail.
If you have any questions regarding this tutorial, please let me know on the forum.
The Best Small Business Web Designs by DesignRush
/Create Modern Vue Apps Using Create-Vue and Vite
/Pros and Cons of Using WordPress
/How to Fix the “There Has Been a Critical Error in Your Website” Error in WordPress
/How To Fix The “There Has Been A Critical Error in Your Website” Error in WordPress
/How to Create a Privacy Policy Page in WordPress
/How Long Does It Take to Learn JavaScript?
/The Best Way to Deep Copy an Object in JavaScript
/Adding and Removing Elements From Arrays in JavaScript
/Create a JavaScript AJAX Post Request: With and Without jQuery
/5 Real-Life Uses for the JavaScript reduce() Method
/How to Enable or Disable a Button With JavaScript: jQuery vs. Vanilla
/How to Enable or Disable a Button With JavaScript: jQuery vs Vanilla
/Confirm Yes or No With JavaScript
/How to Change the URL in JavaScript: Redirecting
/15+ Best WordPress Twitter Widgets
/27 Best Tab and Accordion Widget Plugins for WordPress (Free & Premium)
/21 Best Tab and Accordion Widget Plugins for WordPress (Free & Premium)
/30 HTML Best Practices for Beginners
/31 Best WordPress Calendar Plugins and Widgets (With 5 Free Plugins)
/25 Ridiculously Impressive HTML5 Canvas Experiments
/How to Implement Email Verification for New Members
/How to Create a Simple Web-Based Chat Application
/30 Popular WordPress User Interface Elements
/Top 18 Best Practices for Writing Super Readable Code
/Best Affiliate WooCommerce Plugins Compared
/18 Best WordPress Star Rating Plugins
/10+ Best WordPress Twitter Widgets
/20+ Best WordPress Booking and Reservation Plugins
/Working With Tables in React: Part Two
/Best CSS Animations and Effects on CodeCanyon
/30 CSS Best Practices for Beginners
/How to Create a Custom WordPress Plugin From Scratch
/10 Best Responsive HTML5 Sliders for Images and Text… and 3 Free Options
/16 Best Tab and Accordion Widget Plugins for WordPress
/18 Best WordPress Membership Plugins and 5 Free Plugins
/25 Best WooCommerce Plugins for Products, Pricing, Payments and More
/10 Best WordPress Twitter Widgets
1 /12 Best Contact Form PHP Scripts for 2020
/20 Popular WordPress User Interface Elements
/10 Best WordPress Star Rating Plugins
/12 Best CSS Animations on CodeCanyon
/12 Best WordPress Booking and Reservation Plugins
/12 Elegant CSS Pricing Tables for Your Latest Web Project
/24 Best WordPress Form Plugins for 2020
/14 Best PHP Event Calendar and Booking Scripts
/Create a Blog for Each Category or Department in Your WooCommerce Store
/8 Best WordPress Booking and Reservation Plugins
/Best Exit Popups for WordPress Compared
/Best Exit Popups for WordPress Compared
/11 Best Tab & Accordion WordPress Widgets & Plugins
/12 Best Tab & Accordion WordPress Widgets & Plugins
1 /New Course: Practical React Fundamentals
/Preview Our New Course on Angular Material
/Build Your Own CAPTCHA and Contact Form in PHP
/Object-Oriented PHP With Classes and Objects
/Best Practices for ARIA Implementation
/Accessible Apps: Barriers to Access and Getting Started With Accessibility
/Dramatically Speed Up Your React Front-End App Using Lazy Loading
/15 Best Modern JavaScript Admin Templates for React, Angular, and Vue.js
/15 Best Modern JavaScript Admin Templates for React, Angular and Vue.js
/19 Best JavaScript Admin Templates for React, Angular, and Vue.js
/New Course: Build an App With JavaScript and the MEAN Stack
/Hands-on With ARIA: Accessibility Recipes for Web Apps
/10 Best WordPress Facebook Widgets
13 /Hands-on With ARIA: Accessibility for eCommerce
/New eBooks Available for Subscribers
/Hands-on With ARIA: Homepage Elements and Standard Navigation
/Site Accessibility: Getting Started With ARIA
/How Secure Are Your JavaScript Open-Source Dependencies?
/New Course: Secure Your WordPress Site With SSL
/Testing Components in React Using Jest and Enzyme
/Testing Components in React Using Jest: The Basics
/15 Best PHP Event Calendar and Booking Scripts
/Create Interactive Gradient Animations Using Granim.js
/How to Build Complex, Large-Scale Vue.js Apps With Vuex
1 /Examples of Dependency Injection in PHP With Symfony Components
/Set Up Routing in PHP Applications Using the Symfony Routing Component
1 /A Beginner’s Guide to Regular Expressions in JavaScript
/Introduction to Popmotion: Custom Animation Scrubber
/Introduction to Popmotion: Pointers and Physics
/New Course: Connect to a Database With Laravel’s Eloquent ORM
/How to Create a Custom Settings Panel in WooCommerce
/Building the DOM faster: speculative parsing, async, defer and preload
1 /20 Useful PHP Scripts Available on CodeCanyon
3 /How to Find and Fix Poor Page Load Times With Raygun
/Introduction to the Stimulus Framework
/Single-Page React Applications With the React-Router and React-Transition-Group Modules
12 Best Contact Form PHP Scripts
1 /Getting Started With the Mojs Animation Library: The ShapeSwirl and Stagger Modules
/Getting Started With the Mojs Animation Library: The Shape Module
/Getting Started With the Mojs Animation Library: The HTML Module
/Project Management Considerations for Your WordPress Project
/8 Things That Make Jest the Best React Testing Framework
/Creating an Image Editor Using CamanJS: Layers, Blend Modes, and Events
/New Short Course: Code a Front-End App With GraphQL and React
/Creating an Image Editor Using CamanJS: Applying Basic Filters
/Creating an Image Editor Using CamanJS: Creating Custom Filters and Blend Modes
/Modern Web Scraping With BeautifulSoup and Selenium
/Challenge: Create a To-Do List in React
1 /Deploy PHP Web Applications Using Laravel Forge
/Getting Started With the Mojs Animation Library: The Burst Module
/10 Things Men Can Do to Support Women in Tech
/A Gentle Introduction to Higher-Order Components in React: Best Practices
/Challenge: Build a React Component
/A Gentle Introduction to HOC in React: Learn by Example
/A Gentle Introduction to Higher-Order Components in React
/Creating Pretty Popup Messages Using SweetAlert2
/Creating Stylish and Responsive Progress Bars Using ProgressBar.js
/18 Best Contact Form PHP Scripts for 2022
/How to Make a Real-Time Sports Application Using Node.js
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Delete Post
/Set Up an OAuth2 Server Using Passport in Laravel
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Edit Post
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Add Post
/Introduction to Mocking in Python
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Show Post
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Home
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Login
/Creating Your First Angular App: Implement Routing
/Persisted WordPress Admin Notices: Part 4
/Creating Your First Angular App: Components, Part 2
/Persisted WordPress Admin Notices: Part 3
/Creating Your First Angular App: Components, Part 1
/How Laravel Broadcasting Works
/Persisted WordPress Admin Notices: Part 2
/Create Your First Angular App: Storing and Accessing Data
/Persisted WordPress Admin Notices: Part 1
/Error and Performance Monitoring for Web & Mobile Apps Using Raygun
/Using Luxon for Date and Time in JavaScript
7 /How to Create an Audio Oscillator With the Web Audio API
/How to Cache Using Redis in Django Applications
/20 Essential WordPress Utilities to Manage Your Site
/Introduction to API Calls With React and Axios
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular 4: HTTP
/Rapid Web Deployment for Laravel With GitHub, Linode, and RunCloud.io
/Beginners Guide to Angular 4: Routing
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular 4: Services
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular 4: Components
/Creating a Drop-Down Menu for Mobile Pages
/Introduction to Forms in Angular 4: Writing Custom Form Validators
/10 Best WordPress Booking & Reservation Plugins
/Getting Started With Redux: Connecting Redux With React
/Getting Started With Redux: Learn by Example
/Getting Started With Redux: Why Redux?
/Understanding Recursion With JavaScript
/How to Auto Update WordPress Salts
/How to Download Files in Python
/Eloquent Mutators and Accessors in Laravel
1 /10 Best HTML5 Sliders for Images and Text
/Site Authentication in Node.js: User Signup
/Creating a Task Manager App Using Ionic: Part 2
/Creating a Task Manager App Using Ionic: Part 1
/Introduction to Forms in Angular 4: Reactive Forms
/Introduction to Forms in Angular 4: Template-Driven Forms
/24 Essential WordPress Utilities to Manage Your Site
/25 Essential WordPress Utilities to Manage Your Site
/Get Rid of Bugs Quickly Using BugReplay
1 /Manipulating HTML5 Canvas Using Konva: Part 1, Getting Started
/10 Must-See Easy Digital Downloads Extensions for Your WordPress Site
/22 Best WordPress Booking and Reservation Plugins
/Understanding ExpressJS Routing
/15 Best WordPress Star Rating Plugins
/Creating Your First Angular App: Basics
/Inheritance and Extending Objects With JavaScript
/Introduction to the CSS Grid Layout With Examples
1Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 5, Easing Functions and Attributes
Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 4, Animating Text
/Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 3, Animating SVG
/New Course: Code a Quiz App With Vue.js
/Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 2, Animating CSS Properties
Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 1, Getting Started
/10 Best Responsive HTML5 Sliders for Images and Text (Plus 3 Free Options)
/Single-Page Applications With ngRoute and ngAnimate in AngularJS
/Deferring Tasks in Laravel Using Queues
/Site Authentication in Node.js: User Signup and Login
/Working With Tables in React, Part Two
/Working With Tables in React, Part One
/How to Set Up a Scalable, E-Commerce-Ready WordPress Site Using ClusterCS
/New Course on WordPress Conditional Tags
/TypeScript for Beginners, Part 5: Generics
/Building With Vue.js 2 and Firebase
6 /Best Unique Bootstrap JavaScript Plugins
/Essential JavaScript Libraries and Frameworks You Should Know About
/Vue.js Crash Course: Create a Simple Blog Using Vue.js
/Build a React App With a Laravel RESTful Back End: Part 1, Laravel 5.5 API
/API Authentication With Node.js
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular: Routing
/Beginners Guide to Angular: Routing
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular: Services
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular: Components
/How to Create a Custom Authentication Guard in Laravel
/Learn Computer Science With JavaScript: Part 3, Loops
/Build Web Applications Using Node.js
/Learn Computer Science With JavaScript: Part 4, Functions
/Learn Computer Science With JavaScript: Part 2, Conditionals
/Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 5: Pie and Gauge Charts
/Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 4: Bubble and Dot Charts
Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 3: Bar Charts
/Awesome JavaScript Libraries and Frameworks You Should Know About
/Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 2: Line Charts
/Bulk Import a CSV File Into MongoDB Using Mongoose With Node.js
/Build a To-Do API With Node, Express, and MongoDB
/Getting Started With End-to-End Testing in Angular Using Protractor
/TypeScript for Beginners, Part 4: Classes
/Object-Oriented Programming With JavaScript
/10 Best Affiliate WooCommerce Plugins Compared
/Stateful vs. Stateless Functional Components in React
/Make Your JavaScript Code Robust With Flow
/Build a To-Do API With Node and Restify
/Testing Components in Angular Using Jasmine: Part 2, Services
/Testing Components in Angular Using Jasmine: Part 1
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 6: Tags
/React Crash Course for Beginners, Part 3
/React Crash Course for Beginners, Part 2
/React Crash Course for Beginners, Part 1
/Set Up a React Environment, Part 4
1 /Set Up a React Environment, Part 3
/New Course: Get Started With Phoenix
/Set Up a React Environment, Part 2
/Set Up a React Environment, Part 1
/Command Line Basics and Useful Tricks With the Terminal
/How to Create a Real-Time Feed Using Phoenix and React
/Build a React App With a Laravel Back End: Part 2, React
/Build a React App With a Laravel RESTful Back End: Part 1, Laravel 9 API
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 5: Profile Page
/Pagination in CodeIgniter: The Complete Guide
/JavaScript-Based Animations Using Anime.js, Part 4: Callbacks, Easings, and SVG
/JavaScript-Based Animations Using Anime.js, Part 3: Values, Timeline, and Playback
/Learn to Code With JavaScript: Part 1, The Basics
/10 Elegant CSS Pricing Tables for Your Latest Web Project
/Getting Started With the Flux Architecture in React
/Getting Started With Matter.js: The Composites and Composite Modules
Getting Started With Matter.js: The Engine and World Modules
/10 More Popular HTML5 Projects for You to Use and Study
/Understand the Basics of Laravel Middleware
/Iterating Fast With Django & Heroku
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 4: Update & Delete Posts
/Creating a jQuery Plugin for Long Shadow Design
/How to Register & Use Laravel Service Providers
2 /Unit Testing in React: Shallow vs. Static Testing
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 3: Add & Display Post
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 2: User Sign-Up
20 /Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 1: User Sign-In
/Creating a Grocery List Manager Using Angular, Part 2: Managing Items
/9 Elegant CSS Pricing Tables for Your Latest Web Project
/Dynamic Page Templates in WordPress, Part 3
/Angular vs. React: 7 Key Features Compared
/Creating a Grocery List Manager Using Angular, Part 1: Add & Display Items
New eBooks Available for Subscribers in June 2017
/Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 1: Getting Started
/The 5 Best IDEs for WordPress Development (And Why)
/33 Popular WordPress User Interface Elements
/New Course: How to Hack Your Own App
/How to Install Yii on Windows or a Mac
/What Is a JavaScript Operator?
/How to Register and Use Laravel Service Providers
/
waly Good blog post. I absolutely love this…