Texturing and Creating Muzzle Flares

[gringer]

Hi,

There are a number of ways you could do it. Perhaps the easiest would be to use 'combustion' , a seperate program. It has muzzle flashes you can just stick into a frame or animation and they're customizable.

Another way would be with the atmospheric aparatus as tutorialised below:

http://www.csnation.net/morph/tut_muzzleflashesin3dsmax.php

There are other ways too, using particles, alpha channeled bitmaps on small planes that alternate in visibility... etc.

Try the tutorial.

Cheers :D

[ciaranb]

this looks promising gringer, i will try tutorial thanks alot :)

[Ghostscape]

What? You can use an alpha channel for any type of transparency. I've used alpha on muzzle flashes plenty of time.

[soulburn3d]

Another thing to try is this, make 3d geometry the shape of whatever sort of muzzle flash you want, use morph targets or something as simple as an animated noise modifier to give the flashes a different shape for each frame they're visible, then use glows and blurs inside of a piece of compositing software to achieve the color and intensity you want.

- Neil

[ciaranb]

right, if you look at this picture. the muzzle flares are great but theyre not particle effects, theyre a plane with an alpha mapped texture on it. what im trying to say is how do you create something like this in p'shop and save as an alpha?

i know how to create hard-edged alpha maps but sumthing like fire where it blends off at the edges is what i am needing to know

thanks again guys the help is much appreciated!

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/132/926497_20050513_screen004.jpg

[blank]

ciaranb Quote:
i know how to create hard-edged alpha maps but sumthing like fire where it blends off at the edges is what i am needing to know
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if its hard edged you must be only using 'black and white' in your opacity try using grayscale instead on the alpha channel,

experiment using photoshop :

1.make a 256x256 new file and colour it in orange for example.
2.click on channels and create 'new channel'
3.use a soft brush and paint white onto the alpha channel to make a muzzle flash looking shape in the middle notice you get greys around the edge, this will give you a soft edge that blends out, the more the gradient the softer the edge.
4. save as a .tga (or file format with an alpha channel)

with this you can see the alpha channel.

or

1. make a new 256x256 file
2. make a new layer and delete the background layer
3. paint a muzzel flash/fire whatever on the layer
4. go to file > save for web > change preset to 'PNG-24' with transparency checked > save
5. use the .png in the diffuse and opacity channels.

In the opacity channel for the texture make sure you check
Bitmap Parameters > Mono channel Output > Alpha

I think this answers your question as i read it :-)

[ciaranb]

thanks very much man, this works and its exactly what i wanted and needed!

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