I started by setting the heart spline as a particle emitter in Realflow for Cinema4D. By tweaking the parameters, I could give the emitter a linear direction and give the birthrate a slow pace so it would emit only once every second approximately (60 pulsations per minute).
I realized I needed two simulations to be composited later, one center part and one outer part. For the center part, I set a positive attractor further from the source so the particles would come closer to the center with the camera facing the ground. For the outer part, I set a negative attractor so it would push the particles away from the source, camera facing downwards. I rendered both of these simulations with a reflective material and a studio HDRi.

For the composit part, I imported the renders in After Effects and applied the "Displacer Pro" plugin from Plugin Everything. At this point, I'm playing intensely with the parameters to find a sweet looking spot. Once it was looking good enough, I animated the displacement offset, map softness and scale parameters to give the animation a start, a middle and an end.

I started by setting the heart spline as a particle emitter in Realflow for Cinema4D. By tweaking the parameters, I could give the emitter a linear direction and give the birthrate a slow pace so it would emit only once every second approximately (60 pulsations per minute).
I realized I needed two simulations to be composited later, one center part and one outer part. For the center part, I set a positive attractor further from the source so the particles would come closer to the center with the camera facing the ground. For the outer part, I set a negative attractor so it would push the particles away from the source, camera facing downwards. I rendered both of these simulations with a reflective material and a studio HDRi.

For the composit part, I imported the renders in After Effects and applied the "Displacer Pro" plugin from Plugin Everything. At this point, I'm playing intensely with the parameters to find a sweet looking spot. Once it was looking good enough, I animated the displacement offset, map softness and scale parameters to give the animation a start, a middle and an end.