Seamless Looping Fire
Storyteller
Posts: 80
Trying to make seamless fire. Just setting the last frame to the same as the first is giving me a 'yo-yo' effect
any pointers, I only need about 12-24 frames here. I want to get the technique down for other things
Comments
Lord Midnight
I'm not at my computer, but if I remember correctly, set the first frame at a high number and set the last frame at a low number.
That should get you a non yo-yo flame.
Best of luck!
well, you can see what I came up with on my own here
http://manastar.net/WebPlayer.html
Ill try that next time, its 'ok' for now, but I do think it could use some work
Hi,
I created a set of HD animated looping textures with alpha maps. I have them here with free samples that include a good fire effect.
http://www.3dtreehouse.com/FXtextures.html
you could use this to render at the resolution you need.
Cheers
Graeme
can you describe the process you used to create them?
Hi,
I used a 2d particle effects program called Timeline FX which has some great effects. It can output PNG sequences at any resolition with their alpha maps. I then used Carrara to texture a plane with the animated sequence with alpha maps. This plane can be used in any 3d scene. I used a high resolution output of 2k so the effects can be used in HD work.
I also subdivided the plane on some effects and inseted a simple bone structure so I could animate the effects shape in Carrara.
If you download the sample and go in to the texture editor you'll see how it is made up.
Using animated textures is a lot faster than using Carraras particles as some shots don't need the full 3D particle effect.
Hope this helps
Graeme
I have a selection of looped gif animations of fire and smoke. Carrara doesn't have a clue what a looped gif is.
Unless that has changed in C8.5.
I had planed to make several generic looped gifs for TVs, comp screens, control panels.
Keep in mind you can always get out your video camera (or cellphone) and videotape a real flame and project that onto a plane or whatever. You can also find tons of videos online of fire you can use if it's not for commercial use.
Nothin' like the real thing.... :)
The nice thing about Carrara is that if you have a png, Photoshop file, etc. with a transparency, you can use it directly without having to set up a separate alpha channel in the shader.
I'd try a simple 2 or 3 keyframed fire with an oscillating tweener.
Should work, but I haven't tested...