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How to make candle flames, fire, etc

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:31 am
by adamwade
Hey guys,

I can't seam to locate any info on fire flames. Particularly the 3D model setup and construction. The MXM I can download.

I know this was a topic many years ago, but can someone point out the thread.

Thanks,

Adam

Re: How to make candle flames, fire, etc

Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 4:46 am
by JDHill
I found an old thread, but it was from 2006, and fairly meaningless due to missing images. Personally, I always just use simple planes with clip-mapped MXI emitters for those. Not sure exactly what you're after, though, do you have a reference?

Re: How to make candle flames, fire, etc

Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 7:39 pm
by adamwade
Thanks JD,

Yes, I found the same thread with missing pictures.

Specifically, I need to make a stove burner which sounds much more difficult than a candle flame since it's very dimensional.

Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Thanks,

Adam

Re: How to make candle flames, fire, etc

Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 9:21 pm
by JDHill
Yes, that's a bit trickier, especially depending on the camera's proximity. Not sure which host application you're using, but in some, I might still use single planes (one per flame), hooked up to always face the camera. If that's not an option, and it is too cumbersome to manually rotate them to suit each shot, I might try using two or three planes per flame, each rotated 90° or 60° from the last as viewed from above, but as I say, it depends on whether the camera will be too close for that to be believable.

Re: How to make candle flames, fire, etc

Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 2:26 am
by rusteberg
here's a possibility....

Image

Re: How to make candle flames, fire, etc

Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 7:33 am
by eric nixon
Cool, liking the burner objects concept. Thanks for making this useful diagram.

I have made volume flames before using a special spinning shape and MB, but its a fiddly business getting the look right. Used it to get a jet thruster look.

Re: How to make candle flames, fire, etc

Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 7:06 pm
by philip99
very clever & cool
-Philip

Re: How to make candle flames, fire, etc

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 6:31 am
by rusteberg
eric nixon wrote:I have made volume flames before using a special spinning shape and MB, but its a fiddly business getting the look right. Used it to get a jet thruster look.
hadn't thought of that.... depends what type of flame you are going after i guess.... i made that from a quick google search..... i have an old mid 60's Coleman stove (425c model) that I use when we go camping and it throws a completely different flame from a hex/honeycomb vent. even the stove in the house throws more "burner" on high and collects to more "volume" when on low since it vents from beneath a cap......... depends on the type of vent/burner/stove i guess....

greater question is how do you animate something like that with maxwell.......?

Re: How to make candle flames, fire, etc

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 3:58 pm
by polynurb
rusteberg wrote: greater question is how do you animate something like that with maxwell.......?
i think with particles it should be possible;
maybe you don't even need special fields of influence, just the right heat/fuel and initial direction/speed and a realistic particle death.

saying that i actually never tried to render particles with maxwell yet :)

Re: How to make candle flames, fire, etc

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 8:19 pm
by eric nixon
greater question is how do you animate something like that with maxwell.......?
Well these thrusters are animated!
They are spinning and scaling in-out at twice the frame rate, with the length of scaling and speed of rotation, adjusted by the car throttle ;), but it was mind bending kind of workaround getting it to work, the maps also scale and rotate with related frequency... you can see its really hard to describe, was an 'exploratory afternoon' kind of process getting the look right.. bear in mind the geo needs to be lowpoly to render quickly and always clip mapped to get a nice fade.
And also consider that the emitter animations craziness / fine detail in flame emitter can slow down the render, its too much detail for the motion blur effect to work efficiently....

Image Image

Re: How to make candle flames, fire, etc

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:31 am
by adamwade
Thanks for the ideas ! :D I appreciate all the effort. let me do some tests. Maxwell users always come through !

Adam

Re: How to make candle flames, fire, etc

Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:35 am
by adamwade
Thanks JD,

It will be for only one or two views, so rotating planes for each is no big deal. I'm using Solidworks and Rhino, so there are some limitations. Worst case is a photo overlay, but I want to give it a try. We'll see if we get the project.