Explosions & Fires
handyman4545
Posts: 408
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Post edited by handyman4545 on
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Still or animated? Single or multi-angle? 3DL or Iray? There are a lot of ways to do the electrical fire and smoke, but which way to go really depends upon your needs and assets. As for the burns and clothing, the best results will require decent photoshop skills, but there are some shader and decal packs that can do an effective job.
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Grab a photo you like and make a billboard for it. Basically the photo placed on a primative plane, plus an opacity map and you are good to go!
You could use a primitive sphere or cone, create an opacity map in PS/GIMP with a bottom black layer with a top layer with white sparks. This map could be used both as an opacity- and ambient map on any 3DL shader. It could be made emissive using Omnifreakers arealight shader or Marshian's Reflective Radience3 product or the aweSurface arealight shader, if you don't want to fake it using some other light source. With 3DL you could also utilize motion blur to add some life to the sparks. You have to use the timeline: Have the sparks prop scaled down to 0% at frame 0, scale it up as much as you need on say frame 10 (1000%). Go to frame 5, go to rendersettings/advanced and enable motion blur, samples at 4 or more, amount 100% (?), testrender. To make it look more complex, experiment with rotating/moving the prop also. Or simply add motion blur to the map inside the image editor.
Or create a single spark object, make it ambient/emissive, use ultrascatter or ssimilar to create a cloud of sparks, you can still use the motion blur if you parent all instances to a null/group, then scale/translate the group.
Those sparks could be combined with a smoke/fire prop There are a number of products available in the store, if you don't want to create it yourself.
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The EASIEST solution will be to use one of Jepes older effects sets if you want to do it in Render, or to make your own using Ron's Explosions, a collection of 350 different fire, smoke and spark effefts on premade PSD, the advatage of that product being that you can also use it to add additional enhancements in post. (It's also on sale right now.) As to how to make a billboard... there are a lot of tutorials on how to make one for iray, but I couldn't find one for specifically for 3DL, but the process is basically the same. - https://www.sharecg.com/v/90284/browse/3/PDF-Tutorial/Creating-Billboards-in-DAZ ;
The simplest way to get a 3D effect you're looking for is NOT to use spheres, but to make a couple of billboards from transparent planes and pace the in an x-shape, as the keystoneing of an angled plane is generally far less noticable than the curved distortion of an image applied over the surface of a sphere.
The most important part of the whole illusion, however, is lighting. Fortunately this is something that's fairly easy to do in 3DL. Just creat a bunch of point lights and place them in the area where your explosion/electrical fire is supposed to be and adjust their color so that it matches the effect. Using multiple small lights instead of one large one will cast far more realistic shadows and interactive lights than a spotlight.
As for the burned clothing and wounds on people, there are a couple of 3DL shader packs that will dirty down an existing outfit and add tears in the fabric - the Rragerator and grimonizer from the Ultimate Hybrid Grunge pack from Draagonstorm & Marieh will be enough to simulate minor damage and the same pack also includes set of bloody effects overlays that will help make the skin look wounded. For more severe burned clothes and skin damage effects, the quckets way is to grab a zombie and some raggy zombie clothes and darken them by adding a dark grey to the diffuse channels of the textures in the surface panel.
Look up action essentials 2, it's a bundle of different explosions, muzzle flashes, smoke, etcetera. I've combined it with things in Daz before because it's all alpha channel so you can key it out in Final Cut or Premiere (or DaVinci Resolve if you have neither and want a free editing software). I don't know how to key things out in photoshop because I'm a film guy and just know how to do things in editing software, but I'm sure you can do it in Photoshop too. But definitely look into those programs and just pull a single frame from the .mov file and place it in your render!
If I was doing it, I'd place one or more point lights in the space where the explosion happens in order to cast light on the surrounding area. Then I'd use some of Ron's brushes (or similar) to paint the explosion into the finished render in post. I wouldn't attempt to create a 3D object for the explosion, not even a billboard.
Yes I agree that postwork would be the easiest way, not ruling out instancing and using emissives, though:)
I'd normally agree, but the sample scene the OP posted shows a set with a lot of highly reflective surfaces. Even if you're going to re-paint the entire the entire thing in post, getting the palcement of all those reflections right is a lot easier when there're already at least refections of the right type to begin with.
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DAZ has a 30 day return policy. If it's not what you need, you can return it, so there's really very little risk as long as you don't abuse that privelege. As to what's in Ron's sets, they're not billboards, they're ready to use photoshop elements or brushes. The Explosions set is 350 different explosion elements presented on 7 groups of 50 elements as .PSD layers. That's 50 different sets of sparks, 50 different sets of flames, etc. etc. .
Maybe one of those?
https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/shower-of-sparks-e-g-from-blowtorch-or-grinder-/7570
http://www.sharecg.com/v/50788/browse/5/3D-Model/Fireworks-Fire-Burst
There's some explosions mixed into this pack. https://www.daz3d.com/jepes-flamez
comes in a larger bundle too
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I have a dragon fire prop for 3DL with a lot of mat presets, electric, plasma etc, but can't find it now. Tried searching the store, but you know how that goes, ending up with all kinds of campfires:( Anyone remembers what the product is called?
Found it:) https://www.daz3d.com/raw-energy-effects
Played around a little with two dragonfire props, used built in motion blur on the sparks. Scaled down to 0% on frame 0 and 200% + some rotation on frame 2. Rendered frame 1: (3Delight render)
Muzzle flash for 3-d-c- Combat might also be useful in a pinch.
Here is another muzzle-flash / explosion prop on sharecg
http://www.sharecg.com/v/48515/browse/11/Poser/3D-Explosion-and-Muzzleflash-Kit
At the risk of overloading you with options, here is another freebie that might be useful:
https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/fx-daz-studio/74959
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If you have kept those effects on a seperate later, you'd be able to change the blending to "Lighten" or "Color Dodge" to get a better integration with the rest of the scene. Should help reduce those black outlines, and it's an easy way to make a scene pop. It's always worth planning to put FX on their own layers so you can adjust the blending.
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Following your progress with Great Interest:) What is LP lighting?
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Tks for clarifying...well it seems you are pushing the right buttons, mate...making progress
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Try parenting to a null, or if he was posed using the hip adjust using the figure or vice versa.