Particles can be generated within seconds. The result is an amazingly vivid animation without a single keyframe. However, if you want to refine the particle geometry, you need to convert the particles to polygons.
That’s a straightforward process with, well, a flaw: Often you don’t see any geometry at all, and the particles seem to be all gone, too. This tutorial deals with this easy to solve problem. Finally we convert the ex-particles which have become polygon meshes to a MASH network.
For a nice lighting setup of this complex object, see https://youtu.be/tdJmy-2tNk0