candle light

[Pate]

Hi!

Your question reminded me of an image on the Renderosity gallery I saw a while ago. The comments included some tips about how to make a flame, perhaps this would help you?

http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=223899&Start=85&Sectionid=19&WhatsNew=Yes

Pate

[LucentDreams]

check deepshade, I believe there was a sample lighter file there, though it may have been somewhere else, it was done in 5 or 6 and is quite convincing using lights and renders quite fast.

[derwolpertinger]

thx for the replies guys! :)
@pate: hmm..i already modelled a candlelight and textured it but the result wasn't that great. i think it would be better to use some lights. well i'll test it now and then tell you if am happy or not. :D

@kaiskai: i didn't find a candle light file over at deepshade. :(

[Grey]

Maybe I should make this my next project :D

I'm wondering if a gradiant with Chanlum might help...

[Grey]

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/candle/candle.html

here's something interesting...

[derwolpertinger]

just wanted to post what i finally came up with. i'm quite satisfied with it now. :D
i modelled the candle light with hypernurbs. and made this candle shader with thesla channel shaders. maybe i'll try to animate it somehow. :)

http://www.derwolpertinger.de/cgpics/flamme.jpg

[LucentDreams]

use bhodinut NICKL to animate it should work quite nicely and be quite random

[Grey]

that's pretty amazing... can you tell us what shader settings you used?

[derwolpertinger]

Small Candle Light Tutorial:

colour channel:

a 2d gradient with a blueish white at the bottom, then yellow white and in the top there a slightly darker more saturated orange. this gradient is distorted mainly on the y axis by a 3d noise that is stretched along the y axis.
mix is set to multiply with some sort of yellow/orange colour.


luminance channel:

just copy the distorter mentioned above to this channel but with mix mode set to normal.


transparency channel:

ok here is a bhodinut fusion shader that contains a 2d gradient to get that transparency at the bottom and a fair bit at the top of the flame. the shader it is mixed with is a fresnel to get the edges feathered overall.
these two shaders are mixed with overlay mode set to 40 %(fresnel at the bottom). the mix mode is set to add. the color is a 22% grey that gives the flame the bit of overall transparency. fresnel is also enabled.


alpha channel:

well i first thought that you don't need it because of the transparency channel but i tried it out and recognized that you get even better results with that.
it is a bhodinut fusion containing a distorter with a 2d gradient distorted on the y axis by a 3d noise stretched on the y axis at the bottom. and a fresnel that is much softer than the one in the transparency channel at the top. these are mixed with after-expose(?) mode set to 100%.
soft, alpha image and premultiplied are enabled.



well i hope that helps you guys out at some time when you gotta create a candle. :) if anyone has some suggestions or improvements feel free to tell me.
and if someone got some questions i'll answer them, too. (hmm..when i know the answer...:D)

[kiwi]

Very nice job :thumbsup:



I modelled a candle once but couldnt get a decent flame happening.For the candle I used a cylinder and the magnet tool to make nice wax runs down the sides of it.


Cheers for the tute as well :thumbsup:



Stu.

[derwolpertinger]

yeah for the candle model i started with metaballs-then converted to polys and thew it into a hypernurbs object. finally i also made the wax that runs down with the magnet tool. but my candle is far from perfect at that stage cause i quickly modelled it. there are too much hard edges.

[Grey]

derwolpertinger, you RAWK! :D

[Grey]

okay, I'm uploading a basic candle which is completely unshaded...

If I'm successful, I'll replace this file with one that is shaded according to derwolpertinger's tutorial (and try doing Chanlum WAX in the process.. :D

[Grey]

I don't seem to be getting it...

[derwolpertinger]

ok grey, i'll have a look at your file this evening.

[Grey]

Thanks man, I was hoping you would :D

[derwolpertinger]

ok i managed to hav a look at your candle file.
first i gotta say that i suggest you to model the flame more alive and not so static.
that adds a lot of realism to it. ok now here are your faults:

-you've applied the flame shader by using shrink wrapping. you should use zylindrical mapping and then coose fit to object. that way the 2d gradient can work properly.

-you gotta put a red/yellowish point light right into the flame. and add a rendertag to the flame itself and disable cast and receive shadows.

-you did not have alpha-image, soft and premultiplied buttons activated in the alpha channel. and you have just put a 3d noise in the fusion with the 2d gradient. so you forgot to add the fresnel. that's why your edges on the flame have not been feathered and looked too hard. additionally the gradient was at the top in the fusion and not in the bottom. the 2d gradient has to be at the bottom and the fresnel at the top position in the fusion. and you have also set the blending mode to normal. you gotta set it to "afterexpose".

-you did not have fresnel button enabled in the transparency channel and the blending mode in this fusion has to be set to overlay.

-and finally i would ply with the 2d gradient which is in the colour and luminance channel. pull the white a bit down and make the colours not so much saturated.

that's it. hope this helps you out. :D
and you know, if you have any additional questions don't mind to ask them! :)

[Grey]

thanks man... I was just going to use a deformer for shape.

I'll implement those fixes tonight...

[Grey]

I want to post the results, but the C4D file zips down to over 100K... so no go :(

Anway, I did succeed :D

Thanks derwolpertinger

[derwolpertinger]

hey looks really great. i'm glad you made it at least. :D

[Grey]

I'm gonna play with Nickl see if I can't get it to deform right...

I tried using the flag deformer on it, but it wasn't cooperating...

[Grey]

hey all...


Nickle, the free deformation plugin from Bhodinut works wondurful for flame :D

One thing, I varied the position of the internal light as well...

The size of the deformer was about four times the size of the light spherical, with the inner zone set to almost nothing.

Rotated Deformer B=-90 Degrees and moved it vertically over 30 frames

Function:
100% Wavy Turbulance

Atributes
Space: deformer
Direction: Planar
Strenght 50%

Falloff: sperical

I posted the file in the Bhodinut forum, BTW:
http://forum.bhodinut.com/viewtopic.php?p=1585#1585

DiVX AVI file :D

[derwolpertinger]

cool grey, thanks for the file. i'll examine it later tomorrow. :)

[kiwi]

Excellent work guys :thumbsup:



Seeing as we are on the subject of SLA,what the hell does Buffy do,I cant find anything on this shader anywhere :hmm:



Stu.

[derwolpertinger]

this questions was answered very good over at the bhodinut forum. basically it hides stuff that is facing the camera. you could use it as a mask in fusion to avoid the specular highlights at the inside polys of a bubble for example. or for some sort of special effect. i think it creates a black and white mask. but honestly i gotta say that i yet have never used buffy.

[kiwi]

Thanks :thumbsup:


I will cruise on over to Bhodinutt and check it out.



Stu.

[Grey]

it's supposed to be very good to use in the Specular Colour channel for transparent objects like glass.

[kiwi]

Thanks bud.


I dont think I have ever thought of putting a pic the color spec channel.Come to think of it the SLA shaders rock so seriously and there are so many of them that it makes my head hurt most days along with the myriad of settings :D



I can also reccomend Praline as well :thumbsup:



Stu.

[Grey]

A thought occured to me!

What if instead of a standard light we experimented with a tube light with the length animated?

I won't get to this for at least a few days... but if anyone else does :D

[LucentDreams]

why not five lights in a chain (say connected to points on a spline) so that you can get nice swooshing action on the flickers and such? may not be the fastest way but should look nice, I am still up for the modeled object and texture illumination but the renders would be insanely long :)

[Grey]

hmmm... that's another great idea!

Now I have to figure out how to do that with a spline curve...

[derwolpertinger]

hey kai great idea, too. but btw. my candle flame does not use texture illumination. there's a point light in the middle of it. but i think i'll try it out with several point lights attached to a spline to get that flackering effect. really cool idea!:thumbsup:

[kiwi]

That is a good idea :thumbsup:



How about an inverse spot with a noise gel animated as well,and the spot waving a little from side to side?.....would that work :)



Stu.

[derwolpertinger]

...and another good idea. :) i think we have enough ideas to animate a candle flame perfectly now. :D although i am still workin' on my comic character i'll try my best on this flame animation. i think it's for me to get a bit into animation principles cause i've never ever animated anything yet. :(

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