Creating a lipid bilayer can be a daunting and computationally intensive task. You may need to present thousands of lipids. Even if they are simplified the polygon count in your scene can explode very quickly. Below are a few different methods of creating a lipid bilayer, each has their advantages and disadvantages.

Created with PFlow, instanced geometry, and a position object.

Pros: Fast to set up. Lots of variables and flexibility. Tons of tutorials. Geometry can be instanced and animated.

Cons: Single-threaded and slow. Can be hard to preview.

Created with the Lattice modifier.

Pros: Very fast and easy to set up. Fast to visualize, can be animated, but distortion is possible, actual poly count can be hard to determine.

Cons: Lots of geometry, not a ton of flexibility

Created with the Scatter Compound Object.

Pros: Fast to set up, easy to visualize, can bring in and offset animation.

Cons: Lots of geometry, not a ton of flexibility, can only scatter one object (easily). Actual poly count is not immediately available.

Created with TyFlow.

Pros: Multi-threaded and extremely fast updating and viewport performance. Lots of variables and flexibility. Geometry can be instanced and animated. Great documentation.

Cons: New, in Beta. Limited tutorials available, but growing rapidly.