Afterburn Question

#1

Hi everyone,
Im pretty new to Afterburn and Im having some troubles creating an effect.
Im trying to create a thick steam look, like a billowing plume.
The bulk of the effect should appear very flat looking, but still be tendril like on the outside.
Here is a reference shot: http://www.framepool.com/video/mov/download/framepool_02000028403020.mov

I cant seem to get this effect with AB though. If I play with the gain/bias I can get a flat look but I lose the edge noise and am left with big white puffs

Changing the opacity doest affect overall, but based on density so I get a splotchy effect.

I know it can be done, because the effect is similar to Blurs Warhammer explosions.

Can anyone give me a hint or point me in the right direction.

Thanks

#2

Firstly, you might want to check the sticky Afterburn thread under 3ds Max resources at the top of this forum as you are more likely to get hits.

Secondly (and this is without having max/AB open), are you using the AFC curves at all? If you want AB, or particles, to look halfway decent, you have to animate their properties over time. For example, you will want to animate the density over time from thick to transparent (say, 2.0–>0) so the steam is thick and billowy to start with but then dissapates. With the AFC you can specify a non-linear decrease as well, so you can have a curve which is initially steep and then tailes off (ie it is thick for a short time and slowly fades.)

You will also want to use some kind of falloff for the opacity. I can’t remember the exact button name, but I think there is “none/linear/cubic” buttons. These control how the edges fade.

You will want to animate the noise over time, so it is quite chunky to start with changing to wispy as it disappears (high noise to low noise values).

Also check out animating the phase. A very high number will give you a lot of turbulence near your source and you can reduce this by particle age.

#3

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