Realistic looking flame effect?

Render · Post by **Render** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:17 pm

HI, this is my first post here. i've been playing around with Anime Studio Pro 5 in my free time for some time now...im not yet framiliar with all of its features but i have developed the skills to create realitively complex animations.

me and several freinds are working on a little animation series...u can check out a preview here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsWo3LL1w14

most of this video is allot of our first animations...so their not the best, yet...we've since gotten a bit better

but recently ive run into a few problems...ive been working on an animation of a dragon...fairly detailed in style, and was trying to figure out a good, fairly realistic flame effect...i wasnt really getting the look i wanted from the 'Smoke' particles preloaded in the software

im looking for a billowing plume of flame type look...any suggestions?

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:09 am

I don't know about the fire effect, but that preview was damn cool! I liked the voice work especially.

Render · Post by **Render** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:33 am

Thanks...yeah that was something we just kinda threw together with some animations we had lying around

we are currently assembeling a full trailer with some more dynamic animations...

but, this is kinda what i need the fire effect for lol

this is the shot i needed the flame for...as u can see, the 'smoke' really dosent do the trick...i still have to adjust the lighting for the flame yet, but i was hoping to get the flame itself down first

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:57 am

viewtopic.php?t=1956&highlight=waterfall

This might help.

-G

toonertime · Post by **toonertime** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 6:24 am

this is related to special effects

some freeware to play around with:

http://www.xiberpix.net/SqirlzReflect.html

Render · Post by **Render** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:17 pm

that technique looks like it might work, Genete, ill give it a try. Thanks!

also, thanks toonertime...ill be sure to check out the freeware

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:03 am

Here's my attempt:

http://www.lowrestv.com/anime_studio/particles/fire.mov
http://www.lowrestv.com/anime_studio/particles/fire.zip

One thing I found is that you can make the animation of the particles fit the "timing" of the particle emitter. So if you get the particles streaming out the way you want you can then customize the point motion of the vector layer so it "changes" over time to match the action you want.

In this example I have the flames get bigger and "spread" at the base as if it is "hitting" something.

There is also a second particle layer of smaller flames that have a velocity set to make the particles flow "back" and "up" creating the illusion of flames shooting out after hitting. They have a wider direction spread and the layer is lower down so they start later in the cycle.

-vern

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:18 am

Wow, that's cool Vern!

ulrik · Post by **ulrik** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:26 pm

Great flames Vern, and thanks for the file as well!!

Render · Post by **Render** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:50 pm

thanks Vern!

i gave ur method a try and it works but i was having difficulty getting it to look good with my animation style

however, i was experimenting around with a few ideas i had and i think i found a simple solution, for this shot, anyway.

i drew out the plume of flame in 4 vector layers: blue, orange, yellow, and white.

then i adjusted the blur radii on all of them and increasing the opacity slightly on the blue, yellow and white vectors

then i simply added noise to these vectors individualy to get the flame to animate. i also used the preloaded 'smoke' particle effect overlaying this to give it an added subtle effect

this solution worked for this shot, but it may not in more dynamic shots

heres a rendered frame of the final effect:

ill post the link here to the vid containing the final animation, as soon as i post it

thanks again =)

ulrik · Post by **ulrik** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 2:02 pm

Hi Render, it looks great with blue added, really nice effect, but I think it's a bit missplaced, it looks like it's coming a little bit from the side of the dragons mouth.

Render · Post by **Render** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:16 pm

hmm, ok yeah...i see what ur saying

i can fix that by slightly adjusting the angle of the head...or i could do the lazy thing and just shift the lower blue jet up a little closer to the other one lol

either way, ill fix it lol

thanks for pointing it out, ulrik

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:42 pm

Oh coool!

Render, your flames are much better than mine. I went with a more "cartoony" effect. The blur is an excellent choice. I was thinking of adding in more colors etc... but I was only goofing around anyway so I didn't put my full brain behind the task.

-------

Here's an idea you might like that I just figured out today:

I wanted a blur that "fades". So it would be less blur at one end and more on the other. Using a soft edge or blur can't do that. Thin lines blur the same and "vanish". So I used a very very blurry ball for a custom brush. Added it to a stroke shape and then tapered the end where there would be less blur and made it very large width at the other end (I should have lowered the spacing value as you can see the separation of the brushes at the thin end).

So this could be another way to do flames using a stroke along with particles possibly. Maybe bind particle layers and the stroke to a chain of bones so the flame can be animated... moved around.

-vern

Render · Post by **Render** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:15 pm

that's a really cool effect, Vern, i hadn't thought of that...that would be really useful for future fire shots...ones where the flames not in the foreground and slightly out of focus like my shot above lol

Ive never worked with custom brushes before...i know i saw a thread about them tho somewhere here...ill defiantly have to give it a closer look

adding bones to the flame would help in the future aswell...i have allot of highly dynamic animations for the dragons floating around in my head

.... But this four-second long animation for our trailer didnt require anything more than adding noise and changing the scale

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 10:07 pm

Thanks for bringing this up. It inspired me to come up with an interesting new idea for particles. Using single stroke shapes to animate things like water and flames.

In the particle you could animate the width and length of a particle "stroke" to create all kinds of cool things much easier than trying to warp shapes. For instance in my flame example I was trying to make "curly" flames using shapes. By using strokes it would be much easier.

-vern