I want to create a starship flying really close to the camera, and in another shot the camera follows the starship for a few seconds.
I want to add the Heat effect of the turbine (or engine) of the ship.
How can i create this effect?
I was also wondering if this is done in maya or in a composition program like shake. And how to create it.
cheers
GFX
You could create a bunch of Cloud particles then apply a raytraced material to them. With enough particles and the right refraction index, it should give you the look you want.
G’day,
Do the particle thing, then apply the distortion you need in comp; it’ll be way easier than trying to render it all at once.
also you can make something like that with paintFX ?
I haven’t tested but it should work!
Here’s a good heat ripple effect video tutorial. It’s relatively general but should be easy enough to follow.
Just a note on the logical point of view. Maybe I am wrong but the distortion we see over a BBQ for exemple is caused by the heated air. In space there are no gaz, its the void (well, not exactly but almost), so there wouldnt be any gaz to heat and no distorsion.
Of course, if the engine of the ship isnt efficient and doesnt burn all the full it take, there would be some left overs that dissipate into space but no good space engeneer would allow that!
Its a common misconception that the same law of physics that we experience on earth can be seen in space. Ex: sound some engine, laser, etc… There is not enough matter in space to carry sound.
Of course, all these comments have nothing to do with your project and you can do what ever please you! Good luck!
You could bind an emitter to your engine, emitting spheres -> render particles only- take only the alpha in your compositing software (shake). Duplicate your engine layer apply particle alpha to upper layer with ripple displacement ->fade down.
a suggestion
thanks for the comments and suggestions 
Sorry i didnt reply earlyer but ive been really bussy with work and coudnt get into this till now.
Pyromania: a good point… should try something like that soon thanks for taht tip.
CornFielD: how do you do somethinglike this with paintfx?
Mantat: lol, yes, a very good point of view… though a spaceship isnt allways in space ;), the scene i need the heat is inside the earth atmosphere
mrE: i made a composition in shake with something simmilar, tough ill try your idea to see if i get a better result
Houkah: im downloading the video tutorial, i will see it tonight (hopefully)
Quoted for agreement. Raytraced particles and the time it takes to tweak and render is a waste for a simple effect like this. Do a simple particle system and use it as an alpha in your composoting software. Its a million times fast to tweak distorition in post than it is to play with mayas settings.
Paint FX is another choice, its faster than raytracing, but harder to work with.
m
What Houkah has is the best idea. Do it in post. Also theres a book called After FX in Production that has it in there too. THats if your into AFx?
Create a bunch of random greyscale particles hardware, and render these out with geometry mask.
Use this sequence in your comp. package, as the driving sequence for a 2d displacement effect, on your existing comp.
That’s it.
There is a nice set of plugins for After effects called image lounge that contains a nice heat haze effect. Never used it yet but it looks like it offers enough control to get most jobs done.
Cheers 
Hi there,
The heat effect is based on the ripple algorithm
SO i`d basicaly go for MrE suggestion.
Render some hardware particles,not to many
then use them as a displacement effect for heat
You can also frame blending them if you want expand them or shrink them
based on how big or small you want them.
If you want more particles for your heat effect you can duplicate the
particle layer in post.
If you want a trail too, check the feedback effect.
.
Sorry for the noob question, but how do you render out the particles as a geometry mask? Is it a normal render or is there some settings to use in Maya or just when you import into After effects or whatever you use? I want to do this effect as well.
Thanks!
Shayder: in maya in the render atributes you have the option about rendering the alpha channel and Z depth You check on that and you have the alpha channel added to your render…BUT, if you need only a mask made out of the particles you can make the particles white against the black background and in composition you use it as the alpha.
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