Creating heat distortion effect?

[Martijn Wijmer]

You can create that fx with particles and use a refract map. I don't have time to explain it now, but i tried this method myself a while back, and it worked great.

[gaggle]

A good while back the solution suggested to me was using a 2D plugin, ie. adding the effect via. Adobe After Effects, Combustion, Digital Fusion, whatever-software-of-choice.

My specific project had a rather stylized simplified style to it so I ended up using a reflective material I think, applied to a wall far away on the horizon that was only capable of reflecting the sand and the sky, with a Noise modifier applied to it.

The reflections were faded out at its top by use of a gradiant ramp. The result was a wavery odd heat-ish effect.

Really though, I think bothering to find a 2d plugin to do it is the clever way to do this. I was lazy and wanted a slightly off-looking effect, so unless the same applies to you...

:)

.. I realise I haven't really helped you any. I hope someone else will provide you with specifics.

[edaddy]

i've never done this, but i remember someone saying something about a bunch of animated (renderable ofcourse) splines moving randomly w/ massive motion blur


i am of no help what so ever .. . i know:D

[Reality3D]

Create a Bunch of "random" splines
Make them rendereable
Apply to them a Noise modifier and check "animate Noise"
Right Click properties
Activate Image motion blur
Apply a material to the splines
Turn down to 0 the opacity of this map
Render
Play with the splines and their's multiplayer value
check the .max included

http://www.telefonica.net/web/r3d/heat.zip

[holosynthetic]

theres a plugin avalible that i own that does just that actually...

also does other things like ripples in water..but does cool heat wave effects

look here for details on plugin:
http://www.digimation.com/software/asp/product.asp?product_id=43&category_id=1

[Dave Black]

Or, you could just use a ratrace material on a waving plane. A bit of refraction would do nicely.

-3DZ

:D

[Aaron Moore]

refraction seems to be a good method if the rendering speed is compatible with your project... however for a more practical approach, you might consider using some kind of 2d compositing app...

[Dave Black]

Well, you could render out the animation, and then set it as your enviroment background. Then do the refraction thing over that so you don't waste all that computing time.

Just a thought.

-3DZ

:D

[Jusas]

Thanks for the ideas, will have to try them out this weekend :)

[googlo]

Put an animated map into the refraction slot of a raytrace material (never tried it with a raytrace map). Like a black and white noise map. This works really well and you can deform the mesh to encapsulate things for other kinds of effects like heat distortions around engines or whatever.

[Harrad]

Place a partical emitter where you want the heat to come from (ie. jet engine) and have it emit lots of little facing planes and colour them green and red. then get the animation right so they are all wavy.

when it comes to rendering out. render the rest of the image as a seperate pass to the particals.

then take the two elements into something such as after effects. and use the partical pass as a displacement map. using reds as up/down and green as left/right movement. (using blur to help soften the look).

this will create the proper look and it'll be a 3d element so you can move the camera and it still looks good.

Matt :surprised

[Aaron Moore]

Harrad -> Thats an excellent method for compositing!

Perhaps a tutorial on something like this is in order... I'll look into it more.

[WarrenNoelPowell]

I've noticed the Red/Green particle effect being used before on various occasions to create heat blur. I'm actually trying this effect for the first time but have a couple of questions regarding it.

1. What are the reasons for using red and green particles?

2. I have rendered the red/green particle system and have placed it into after effects. I have applied a displacement map and played with the verticals and horizontals. I have also applied a blur. There is also an image in the background to test the blur. This might sound stupid to some but how do you change the displaced blurred red/green particle system so that it appears to be blurring the background? All i can see is a red/green particle system.

Thanks

The_Dude

[loqutos]

Sometimes, seeking a solution in the 3D app is not really the best solution. In this case, using a package like combustion or AfterFX would be the better way to go. There are several ways to get this very effect using either Combustion or AfterFX.
Get used to doing some things in the post process, you will have to do that if and when you ever expect to work professionally in either television or motion pictures.
I realize that maybe you are trying to get Max to do everything, if that is the case, then there is probably a viable solution for this effect....however, you are going through a lot of extra headache to do something that is very easy to do in post.

Just my two cents
Loqutos

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.