For anyone doing these kinds of random, but structured "particles" on a regular basis, take a look at Element 3D.
Element 3D is a plug-in for Adobe After Effects. It's a particle array system using 3D objects.
I've been using it with my MoI models exported as OBJ.
Although it handles arrays, it is used a lot for animating just a single 3D model in a faster, simpler way than using a full blown 3D system like Cinema 4D.
After Effects is of course primarily for motion graphics, but because it has so much overlap with Photoshop it gets used for still images as well.
