FumeFX

[Cryptite]

Welcome to the too-large Fume FX thread on CGtalk. Throughout this thread you’ll find a wealth of information about Fume FX, scripts, methodologies, tricks, tips, general shenanigans, and more.

On the rare occasion that I get the chance to update this post, you’ll find a general list of links to random topics about Fume. For the most part, until I update this list again, you’re probably better off searching through the forum with the search tool.

In the meantime, feel free to browse below for links to off-site pages about Fume and in-thread posts. Happy fuming!

                            [color=Cyan]
                      [b][color=PaleTurquoise]Quick Links[/b]
                        [/color]    [/color][color=PaleTurquoise][size=1]■ [Fume FX Site](http://www.afterworks.com/FumeFX.asp?ID=11) - Homepage

[/color][/size][color=PaleTurquoise][size=1] ■ Fume CGWiki Page - Wiki-page for all things FumeFX. Soon to be a good source for Fume examples, gradients etc.[/color][/size]
[color=PaleTurquoise][size=1]■ Fume FX Properties - Great demo of Fume parameters and what they do[/color][/size]
[color=PaleTurquoise] [font=Verdana][color=Orange]
[color=LemonChiffon][size=1]Table of Contents for the thread:
[/color][/color][/color][/size][/font][font=Verdana][color=Orange][color=#fffffe][size=1]Format
Topic
Post Number (Link to Page)[/color][/color][/size][/font][size=3][size=2]

-General-

            [/size][/size][font=Verdana]■ [/font][size=3][size=2]About Fume: [31](http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=183&t=488822&page=3&pp=15), [181](http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=183&t=488822&page=13&pp=15)
             
           [/size][/size][font=Verdana]■ [/font][size=3][size=2] Using with PFlow: [42](http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=183&t=488822&page=3&pp=15)
            
           [/size][/size][font=Verdana]■ [/font][size=3][size=2] Network Simulations: [152](http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=183&t=488822&page=11&pp=15)
            
           [/size][/size][font=Verdana]■ [/font][size=3][size=2] Fume Sources Script:    [460](http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=183&t=488822&page=31&pp=15)
            
           [b] -Effects-[/b]
            
           [/size][/size][font=Verdana]■ [/font][size=3][size=2] Jet of Smoke: [126](http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=183&t=488822&page=9&pp=15)[/size][/size]
  
  [font=Verdana]■ [/font][size=3][size=2]Man on Fire: [242](http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=183&t=488822&page=17&pp=15), [253](http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=183&t=488822&page=17&pp=15)
            
      [/size][/size][font=Verdana]■ [/font][size=3][size=2]      Plane on Fire: [312](http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=183&t=488822&page=21&pp=15)
            
           [/size][/size][font=Verdana]■ [/font][size=3][size=2] Asteroid in Space: [349](http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=183&t=488822&page=24&pp=15)
            
           [/size][/size][font=Verdana]■ [/font][size=3][size=2] Fire Extinguisher: [401](http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=183&t=488822&page=27&pp=15)[/size][/size][font=Verdana][color=Orange][color=#fffffe]
                    
                         -Cryptite
                         [/color][/color][/font]

[Glacierise]

Man, this looks sweet! It’s a bummer they still don’t have a demo out

Could you guys that post smokey stuff, not use black backgrounds? It hides the smoke details.

[Cryptite]

Normally I do use greyer backgrounds when smoke is present. I forgot to mention that there are no smoke channels in that animation, just fire. I’ll make sure I don’t use black bg’s though.

[feldy]

i had brought this up when fume was first release that we should have a thread but i got shot down by a greedy moderator anyways i was on the demo before it was released testing it. Im sure you could give them a email and still get the dl for it. i acutally tried to make a fire tornado out of it didnt turn out like i thought and was not as easy as aftureburn in terms of ease of use and things like that but defintly a good buy when dumb particles wont work - J

[Cryptite]

It surely does seem to have a steeper learning curve, but when you want to do wispy fire/smoke, and even once you learn it well enough, detailed explosions, It really becomes handy.

[rebolt]

Nice explosion Cryptite :). It would be good if we could discuss every possibilities for fumefx here in this thread and make this an official thread for the fluid engine. In this explosion what all parameters you have worked on ?

[jigu]

well that seems, with fumefx we can do cool fluid fx explosions.
my question is : what is better in terms of controls and setup? fumefx or AB?

[TimWoods]

good idea on the thread, although please consider imputting into the CGFluids forum too, as its official support and its for registered users only.

I think demo users can get temp access, you will have to ask.

Maybe you can copy any useful stuff over there, so others can benefit?

[Cryptite]

@rebolt: Virtually all the settings were changed around from, say, the default ones for that explosion. I’ll try to have an example downloadable scene up for it within a couple of days. I’m still working on it though, so I might have a better looking one by then.

@jigu: Comparing AB and Fume FX is kind of apples and oranges. Each certainly has its use and the only real blurred line between the two, i’d say, would be explosions and smoke. Go figure that’s a major part of the two, but the thickness and scale of things are good things to consider, unless you have a powerful renderfarm in which scale means nothing. Thick smoke tends to do better in AB and so do super-huge explosions, but I have seen clips from Roman Schmidt that rival AB explosions easily, so it’s really up to the end-user. Personally, I haven’t touched AB since I started using Fume.

@TimWoods: I included a link to CGFluids on my initial post just for that reason. I understand it has a lot more valuable information, but more public threads like these, in my opinion, can stem interest in a plugin because people can see the kind of work being done with it. The CGFluids community, while valuable, is totally private to Fume FX users only, and even though there’s a gallery to the public on the forums, they rarely showcase much. The Afterburn thread worked in the same way, I know a couple people who actually purchased it after seeing more in-depth look at how it works and what it does. At any rate, i’ll be more informative about that link so that others know more about it.

[rebolt]

@cryptite: Yeah that would be great if you could post the scene by which we can get an idea.
I completely agree with you after watching Roman Schimdt showreel in which he showcases all his explosions and fire tests fumefx is coming in a big time competing afterburn and i think it will beat afterburn specially where real simulation is concerned.

[SoLiTuDe]

I love the idea of this thread… the cgfluids forum is great and has helped me tons, but cgtalk is my home I’ll glady post up help and all sorts of stuff up here as soon as I get a break at work. Woody is the man just so you all know – majorly smart!

I find that fume is great for fire/smoke, but really hard to get the big fireball style explosions. Like you guys mentioned Roman has some really good examples, and hopefully he’ll step in some time and let us know the secret. I had to skip using fume for explosions for the time being at work because it’s simply too slow (damn deadlines)… at least for what I was attempting. In 1 day I got with pflow/aburn what it took me a week NOT to get in fume. It’s not quite the same, but either way I unfortunately can’t show you guys that stuff yet I promise though that I’ll start doing more stuff on my own time!

–hope this becomes a sticky and hope the aura thread un-stickies

[Glacierise]

I think demo users can get temp access, you will have to ask.

Demo users? I thought that there is no FumeFx demo yet?

[JohnnyRandom]

Demo users? I thought that there is no FumeFx demo yet?

There is a demo version in my account on the “files” page. I seem to remeber Sitni Sati released it quite some time ago. Maybe email them to get a demo.

[jigu]

@jigu: Comparing AB and Fume FX is kind of apples and oranges. Each certainly has its use and the only real blurred line between the two, i’d say, would be explosions and smoke. Go figure that’s a major part of the two, but the thickness and scale of things are good things to consider, unless you have a powerful renderfarm in which scale means nothing. Thick smoke tends to do better in AB and so do super-huge explosions, but I have seen clips from Roman Schmidt that rival AB explosions easily, so it’s really up to the end-user. Personally, I haven’t touched AB since I started using Fume.

Thanks for the info.so at the larger scale, for bigger and thicker smoke puffs/ explosions, AB is cool and for smaller scale fumefx could be good.

[Glacierise]

Sweet! Will write them!

[feldy]

As far as the demo goes i wish it woulda just been a timed lic instead of not being able to save and so on. at the time it was casueing problems with my ab lic at work and casueing it not to work right so I eventually had to un install it. Now if we can get the magical mr mckay here to do a new dvd since it was released finally maybe we can could get a better understanding of it.

[SoLiTuDe]

Thanks for the info.so at the larger scale, for bigger and thicker smoke puffs/ explosions, AB is cool and for smaller scale fumefx could be good.

Absolutely correct here guys! --I’ve been trying to do a big explosion for days and it acts like it’s a small explosion anyway, there’s A LOT of tweaking involved to get it right… or even close for that matter.

PS: I would love to do some tutorials soon… hopefully better than the ones that fume came with. I feel like I"m getting a much better understanding of it now that I’m working with it daily.

[TimWoods]

@TimWoods: I included a link to CGFluids on my initial post just for that reason. I understand it has a lot more valuable information, but more public threads like these, in my opinion, can stem interest in a plugin because people can see the kind of work being done with it. The CGFluids community, while valuable, is totally private to Fume FX users only, and even though there’s a gallery to the public on the forums, they rarely showcase much. The Afterburn thread worked in the same way, I know a couple people who actually purchased it after seeing more in-depth look at how it works and what it does. At any rate, i’ll be more informative about that link so that others know more about it.

sure. I know what you mean. info about the product is in short supply. Sorry to sound like i’m always going on about it, LOL, but just trying to get more people posting on there. Keep this one going tho.

as for large scale stuff. fume can do well there too. much more realistic, but as mentioned it depends on your setup really. RAM and sim times are all a factor.

I love the idea of this thread… the cgfluids forum is great and has helped me tons, but cgtalk is my home I’ll glady post up help and all sorts of stuff up here as soon as I get a break at work. Woody is the man just so you all know – majorly smart!

i would disagree on that point, the dude is an ass!

[Cryptite]

as for large scale stuff. fume can do well there too. much more realistic, but as mentioned it depends on your setup really. RAM and sim times are all a factor.

Agreed. I’ve been tackling large-scale stuff recently. It’s definitely a load on my cpu, but Fume is doing quite nicely. I’m especially trying to the kind of stuff i’d normally do in AB; thick smoke, large explosions and the like. My computer is, however, less than happy with me.

I will say that there is thing i’m kind of annoyed with regarding Fume, and it’s how the small tweaking of one setting can send your simulation off into oblivion. Almost too many settings that rely on each other to be proportional to get what you want in my opinion.

[TimWoods]

yeah. you need lots of RAM and lots of patience. but the effects are worth it. One rule of thumb I always work to is not letting my grid reach more than 1000 cubic, so 300x300x300. it seems like thats the golden number for me with a full 4gb of RAM. A nice idea would be a RAM usuage estimator, I have asked if that could be implimented. To give an idea before you hit go.

yes the tweaking of settings is painful, another thing is quality, that really effects the sim effect. smoke only, with low quality moves alot, crank the quality and grid size up, it moves alot slower. So simmin with low settings to get an idea is a pain, as the final outcome is alot different in many cases.