Iron Filings
A particle animation drawn on magnetic field lines
Fine iron-filing strokes snap into the field lines of a horizontal dipole and keep drifting along them, around a bar magnet carrying one display word. Monochrome on near-black, six seconds.
- 6s
- duration
- 4
- aspect ratios
- 5
- controls
- 720p
- free, no watermark
Motion Background · 6s · 9:16
Particles · Field lines · Monochrome
Particles with a rule instead of a random drift
Most particle backgrounds are noise: dots moving in directions that mean nothing. This one is governed by a field. Up to 2,000 short strokes are placed and oriented along the field lines of a horizontal dipole, then flowed along those lines, which is why the pattern reads as physics rather than as decoration — the density concentrates at the poles and thins in the middle exactly as it should.
In the centre sits the magnet itself: a bar with an inner plate, an S pole and an N pole marked at either end, and one display word running across it. A lab kicker sits above and a caption below. Density runs 400–2,000 strokes and flow runs 0.2–3, so the same document goes from a sparse diagram to a dense metallic swirl.
6 seconds, three beats
What is on screen, and when. Every element named here is a layer in the document — you can click any of them on the canvas and change it.
Beat 1 · 1.1s
The field forms
The strokes have snapped into the dipole's field lines and the magnet bar is in the centre with its S and N poles marked and the word across it.
Beat 2 · 2.6s
Kicker and caption
The LAB 04 kicker has landed above and the dipole caption below, with the filings at their densest around the poles — the poster frame.
Beat 3 · 5.2s
Flowing
The filings are drifting steadily along the field lines with the kicker and caption settled top and bottom.
Three steps to a field-line particle loop
- 01
Type the magnet word
One word runs across the bar between the two poles. Short and uppercase suits the treatment — it is set in a condensed display face.
- 02
Set density and flow
Density from 400 to 2,000 strokes decides how metallic it looks; flow from 0.2 to 3 decides how fast they travel along the lines.
- 03
Recolour and export
The filings colour is a single control. Keep it grey for the lab look or take it to your brand colour. Then pick an aspect and export.
A real field
Strokes oriented by a dipole, not scattered
Every filing is aligned to the field at its position, which produces the loops and the pole concentrations you would see on a bench. That structure is what makes the frame look considered at any density setting.
Flow, not twinkle
The particles travel along the lines
Rather than fading in and out, the strokes drift along the curves they sit on. The motion has a direction, which is far calmer to look at than random opacity noise and much better behind type.
Two thousand strokes
Density is a slider, not a re-render
Push it to 2,000 for a dense metallic swirl or drop it to 400 for a clean physics diagram. The composition holds at both ends because the field, not the count, is what shapes it.
What you can change
Five controls. The lab kicker, the pole markers and the caption underneath are authored layers you can restyle on the canvas.
- Click any element on the canvas to edit it directly
- Or describe the change in a sentence and let the assistant make it
- Export 9:16, 16:9, 1:1, 4:5 from the same document
Studio controls
5 named
- Magnet wordTextMAGNET
- Filings colourColour#8A8A93
- DensitySlider 400–20001500
- FlowSlider 0.2–31
- SpeedSlider 0.5–21
Why a field instead of a particle preset
Particle presets give you a look; a field gives you a structure. The difference shows up when you put type over it — random particles cross the copy at random moments and pull the eye, while field-aligned filings move along fixed curves that the reader learns to ignore in about a second. It is a background that stays a background.
Iron Filings: questions, answered
Is the particle animation template free?+
Free to open and edit, with 3 free 720p exports a day with no watermark. 1080p is a paid export.
What aspect ratios can I export?+
9:16, 16:9, 1:1 and 4:5. The dipole is horizontal, so 16:9 shows the widest field; the vertical export keeps the magnet centred with the poles closer in.
Can I change the word and the colours?+
The magnet word and the filings colour are controls, along with density and flow. The pole letters and the caption are canvas-editable text.
Do I need After Effects?+
No particle plugin and no install. The emitter is part of the document and renders in your browser.
How long is the clip?+
Six seconds. Drop the speed to 0.5× if you want a slower drift for a background loop.
More gradient & particle backgrounds
All backgrounds
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Ambient GlowPink and orange light drifts and breathes across the whole frame while a soft glowing square pulses at the centre — minimal, seamless 8-second loop.
Fractal GlassBlue and amber colour flows behind a wall of vertical reeded glass — each rib refracts the gradient into shifted slices. One thin caption line, seamless 8-second loop.
Mesh GradientA four-point mesh gradient drifting on a seamless 8-second loop, with a grotesk headline, a lede and a dark pill button sitting on top of it.
Iridescent TorusA big holographic 3D torus tumbles slowly on two axes over near-black, cyan and magenta bands sliding across its glossy surface — a seamless loop with a tiny mono caption.Give your particles a field.
One word, one colour, two sliders — and two thousand strokes that know where to go.