iOS Sprite Kit particles or video

Hello,


I was wondering if someone could help me with following problem. I want to create something like this http://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-4668353-stock-footage-flickering-particles-loop-blue.html but only 2 options crossed my mind:

1. with sprite kit it's probably impossible. If there is too many particles, frame rate is killed, and if there's too few it doesn't look good. Another problem is that I want to scale up and then scale down particles, but particle editor offers only one direction at a time.

2. with video it is possible but I don't know if it's a good idea. Also don't know which resolution to choose for both iPhone and iPad, which format and size. It can drain battery quickly probably and use too much space.


Every advice is appreciated and I would love to hear some suggestions.
Thanks.

Yeah, that's how I did it. But it won't work. I'm probably going to use video or simplify particles with editor.

Sure. Using SKEmitterNode is probably best (and proper ) way to do it, but since I use too many particles and movement, frame rate is low and everything is choppy. With firefly particles only, it works fine, but adding smoke to whole screen kills everything.

At that time it was simulator I even managed to freeze my mac in one iteration.

I decided to use video at the end.