jQuery Random Particles Overlay on Element?

Question

I'm wondering is it possible to achieve following effect via jQuery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlb6o_R_WoI

So particles overlay image, are random fade in and out etc? I've looked for plugins or experiments, but wasn't able to find anything closely similar.

Another question that appears is how big of an impact would such effect have in a browser? e.g if there are 8 images each has particle effect, however only one particle effect is displayed at a time others are hidden, lets say with Display None.

Answer 1

Here's a little something to get you started on HTML5 animation and changing the opacity over time (fade in/fade out). You can mess around with getting the random movement and stuff going, and feel free to ask me questions if you can't figure out what I did.

http://jsfiddle.net/eW6BB/