Elemental Combat Series: Flamethrower

Elemental Combat Series: Flamethrower

on Jun 29th 2011 with 20 comments
Tutorial Details
Download Source Files

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

This entry is part 11 of 20 in the Keying and Rotoscoping Session
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This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series Elemental Combat

Elemental Combat

Using stock footage from a flamethrower and multiple camera shots stitched together, create a dynamically animated scene that sees the ability to shoot fire in slow motion as it progresses across a scene.

Tutorial

Download Tutorial .mp4

File size: 421.1 MB

Series Navigation«Elemental Combat Series: Earth BreakthroughElemental Combat Series: Interrupted Earth Jump»
 
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I'm a VFX compositor currently living in LA making videos for youtube. I graduated college in 2011 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Portland. Hit me up on Twitter!  

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  • Ralph

    1st! i like your videos dude. one of your supporters!

  • mohyass

    The fire is yours!!……………..lol
    very realistic effect of fire ,good tutorial thank you so much

  • Mike

    Wren,

    Thanks for the tutorial, great stuff. I really liked the set extension/panorama setup for a more interesting camera move. If I may suggest one thing…fire has more opacity and body to it. Using the add transfer mode without any dark layer underneath it makes it look a bit odd and washed out. I like to duplicate the flamethrower footage, then use levels or curves to make it mostly white in the flame area, then using it as a luma matte for the original flame thrower footage. Then normal or overlay should give a more realistic flame look. If the edges are too sharp, you can shrink the matte down and apply a small blur. Just a suggestion. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with the community.

    • Zark

      Would you be willing to post a link to an example on how you would make it look? I’m curious to see how the effect would compare.

      • Mike

        I would be happy to, but unfortunately, I dont have a premium membership and cant download the program files. Fire effects depend greatly on the background and it would not be fair to Wren to post a different file or result to compare to his since this may be a particularly problematic lighting situation. If someone were to send me the file, I would gladly tweak it and show how I would do it….or show myself to be a complete idiot if it looks bad…….it is a 50/50 shot.

      • Mike

        Zark and Wren,

        I downloaded the project file and reworked the scene abit to show you what I meant with regard to the dark under the light making the fire pop. I also did a couple of other minor things like blend the background plate a bit more.

        I always get a little upset when people critique my stuff or tutorials and then never back up what they say, so I decided to put my money where my mouth was and show what I would have done personally.

        Like I said Wren, I loved the tutorial and concept. Keep up the good work and learning and teaching others.

        Here is the link to the video I reworked. I hope you dont mind Wren.
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hePum-iMDkM

        Best,

        Mike

      • http://www.wrenthereaper.com Wren Weichman
        Author

        To all,

        Ok, so Daniel (if you ever read this), I completely agree about the fact that with Gamma 1.0, the fire blends better than without it. However, I feel that that method begins to fail when fire begins to have legitimate volume to it, as is the case with a flamethrower. Light can’t penetrate the whole thing, so there’s nothing to blend. It’s simply, normal. However, I do respect your opinion greatly because it was your tutorial itself that taught me about the blending differences for fire in the first place.

        And Mike, Ahh!!!! You beat me to the punch! I was hoping to post my video before you did. Haha, oh well. I must say though, maddddd props for actually doing something to back up what you say! I like that, it’s commendable. In the end, this website is all about helping anyone and everyone improve their VFX skills. That includes me, even as an author. I saw a lot of responses about how the fire shouldn’t be as translucent as it was. When i first published it, I was aware of that fact, but didn’t think it was a big deal. I’ve since learned that apparently it is, so I put in the time to make it better. Here’s my improved effect. (yeah I know, edges could use some work, but it was difficult). I hope people learned something!

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-8VS3n0ErQ

      • Mike

        Wren,

        Mad props to an author who is willing to admit he/she still has the ability to learn. Too many people get so high on themselves and react defensively to constuctive criticism or advice. I agree that these forums are to help people of all levels get better. I teach this stuff and I still watch tutorials to see if I can pick up any little nugget of info that I may have missed or see a technique or combo of effects which I have not thought of or used before. Thanks for bringing this cool tutorial to us newbies and advanced users alike. I look forward to more of your stuff in the future.

        Best,

        Mike

    • http://www.wrenthereaper.com Wren Weichman
      Author

      Mike,

      Thanks for the suggestion. And you’re very right. I think I address that in the tutorial (momentarily) by saying that the black levels that go transparent because of the add transfer mode should remain black to give it some volume. Otherwise it kind of looks 2D and flat.

      However, I did actually try a few methods very similar to what you mentioned. Ultimately when it came down to it, I just didn’t like any of the looks of it. I managed to get a flame with decent edges and proper “non” transparency, but there were a couple things that just seemed off about it to me. I ended up just liking the effect enough the way I originally made it that I kept it. It is something I’m aware of and will probably do differently next time though.

    • Daniel Broadway

      Actually, I would not recommend this method for compositing fire. If you are compositing real fire elements shot on black, the only proper way to composite them is to you use a Blending Gamma of 1.0, or to be compositing in a linear workspace and using the Add transfer mode to comp it. I have an article on the matter here…

      http://danielbroadway.blogspot.com/2008/04/vfx-tip-1-hunk-of-burning-love.html

      I also did a video tutorial about linear workspace and compositing fire right here on AE Tuts…

      http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/workflow/understanding-linear-workflow/

      • Mike

        Daniel,

        While I understand your comment, I disagree with the premise the the only “proper” way is the way you described. Using the add mode on this fire footage over a light background such as this plate, even in linear space, leaves it looking very washed out and way too transparent. The idea was to emulate the look of a flamethrower. My humble opinion is as visual artists, we are tasked with making things look visually interesting and correct, not physically correct. I always look up source material for the look I want to create from real world examples, when possible, and then tailor the effect to match the look, even if it is not absolutely physically accurate.

        Personally, I think the method I described looks much better in this instance than using the add mode in linear space. In case you were wondering, yes, I know what linear space is and yes, I tried using add first before looking for an alternative method.

  • Hugo

    I really like the shot but I think there’s two things you can do to improve it: first, add some displacement around the fire itself, and secondly, use some decent sound FX. Other than that, really nice composition work being done here :)

    • http://www.wrenthereaper.com Wren Weichman
      Author

      Haha yeah I’ve actually made a tutorial on this site on how to make the displacement map. I honestly have no idea why I didn’t do it.
      And I’m rubbish as far as sound effects go, so I try to use what I can.

      • Piero

        Hello Wren! wha camera do you use for the footage?

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/sierkkanis?feature=mhee Sierk

    Thanks a lot dude! You’ve got a nice youtube account too. Want to box for box? Here is my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/sierkkanis
    See ya

  • http://ninjaeffects.com/ Markus Gustafsson

    I dont know… I dont trust firebenders… Great tutorial though!

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/leonbenlolo Leon Benlolo

    I used several tutorials on this site to make this video of my holiday in Manicore, a small town in Amazon, Brazil
    http://youtu.be/Jcxb_7_su_Y

  • Ailton Bechaire

    very realistic effect of fire ,good tutorial thank you so much! AWESOME AE TUTS +
    http://vfxab.blogspot.com.br/

  • Ailton Bechaire

    very realistic effect of fire ,good tutorial thank you so much!
    http://vfxab.blogspot.com.br/
    INTRO VIDEO FÃN AE TUTS +
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jfWKEKgwRE&feature=youtu.be
    AWESOME AE TUTS +

  • http://www.epicera.org beatyofeetking

    I download the files, but it seems i missing some of the footage like the dirt sequences and stuff?