How can one do a fx like this ?

[skinnylizard]

hi,
newbie here, great forum. We are working on a shot that is similar to this in angle. ideally its a fire effect and will need to look almost similar.

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/526/dragonheart5nh3.jpg

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6459/dragonheart005xe4.jpg

a better picture
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/728/dragonheart005gb2.jpg
the project is a 2d creature (not a dragon) and he breathes fire at a character. we are trying not to work with 2d fire.

Would love any help, ideas, guide.

thanks.


http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/728/dragonheart005gb2.jpg

[Hugh]

Considering when that film was made (1996), I'd imagine that the fire effects were probably practical - in a black studio with some kind of flame thrower pointing in the right direction for the shot.

[johnc]

As Hugh said, probably all practical. Try hunting down stock footage (such as artbeats, etc.) with an angle that matches your shot.

http://www.fotosearch.com/artbeats/ultra-fire/ATB263/
http://www.detonationfilms.com/free_stuff.htm

Otherwise a can of hairspray, a lighter & a camera will get you a good looking flamethrower for cheap.

[ShadowMaker SdR]

Otherwise a can of hairspray, a lighter & a camera will get you a good looking flamethrower for cheap.
Not to mention some water, a fire extuingisher and health insurance to be safe.

[johnc]

Not to mention some water, a fire extuingisher and health insurance to be safe.

Spoilsport :D

[hype]

here's some AE-capable ideas, but seriously, if you want something that realistic looking, I agree with everyone, shoot some real fire elements.

http://www.trapcode.com/products_particular.html

http://www.wondertouch.com/

There's also a host of 3D solutions, but again, if you shoot real stuff, you're already guaranteed it's going to look real. :)

http://www.afterworks.com/FumeFX.asp?ID=13

http://www.amazon.com/Deconstructing-Elements-3ds-Max-Second/dp/book-citations/024052019X

[floatingrunner]

>gasp< you mean... you don't like use maya fire effects or use some tools that render for weeks to get the fire effect? o.O oh my... it has to be awesomest and cool and multimillion dollar expensive. we have to use some computer render!! we have to model our own particles!! frame by frame!!

...
oh wait.

[skinnylizard]

thanks guys.

part of the problem is that we cant decide which way we want to go. might do some test shot with stock footage even if it is force fitted and think bout it.

get back to you guys with what happens.

cheers.

[Fly_Molo]

I've tried to fake fire for shots before and it just never works out. Either shoot your own fire or get some stock footage.

[ejd.vfx]

Unfortunately, fire effects are easier said than done. I use maya myself, and for my fire I use either a cloud particleshape with a ton of expressions and fields to modify the particle behavior, or more recently, maya fluids. Fluids are very nice looking but expensive(both in terms of rendering and in the license itself)

Not sure how well versed you are with maya's particles, but I can try to give some pointers.

with the cloud particle shape, you'd have to assign textures to life color, transparency, and incandescence. Typically I use ramp nodes with different textures assigned to parts of the ramp. Incandescence is dependent upon how bright you want the fire and for how long. Life color textures would be how you want your fire to look. Typically for fire I also put a map on the Blob Map attribute, as well as turn down the density to a small value.

You'll also want to put in fields to affect the behavior. I usually use turbulence fields
and a uniform field for the particles to rise(gravity with reverse magnitude is fine if you're not putting in mass for the particles.) If you do use mass, the uniform field will ensure that particles of different mass will be affected differently.

hope this helps!
Eric :)

[skinnylizard]

still dont have an answer on this but def decided to shoot it real or take some stock footage. one alternative is to not use fire at all, change the colors to something else, make it look other worldly.

[skinnylizard]

hey,

you guys, we tried a few different things out, on a similar shot. One of them is a flaming ball, it came out allright. Another is where fire is being thrown shot in a pan. This one has been harder. The effect comes out sort of flaky, looks too much like a cloud but the culprit i reckon is the colour and the way the shot ends (i.e. the end of the fire)

we need to marry some 2d art to it maybe to make it work or add some glow.

we thought about actually doing the blow torch thing but again it would have been TOO realistic as its for a 2d project.

just thought id drop in an update. ill put in some pics or screenshots the moment i get clearances.

cheers.
skinny