Blender Tutorial: Fire Smoke Text Animation

in this blender video I'll be demonstrating how to make this animation of text being created out of fire I'll be using blender version 2.7 9b let's start by creating a new project so from the file menu select new and then click on reload startup file to make it easier to see the scale and location of the objects that we'll be adding switch from perspective to orthographic view by pressing 5 on the number pad when we render the final animation it will be in perspective view now delete the cube by right-clicking it to make sure that it's selected and then press X to delete now we're going to add some text we'll start by centering the 3d cursor in case it moved so press shift S and select cursor to center then press shift a and add some text now rotate it on the x-axis by pressing R then X then 90 then enter next we'll change the text so press tab for edit mode then delete the default text and add your own then press tab to return to object mode now we'll give it some depth so select the object data panel and set the extrude value to point 1 then round off the edges by setting the bevel depth value to point zero 2 and the resolution to 2 next we'll add a floor for the text to sit on so Center the 3d cursor in case it moved by pressing shift S and select cursor to Center now press shift a and add a mesh plane then scale it up in size by pressing s then 100 then enter now we'll move it into position so press 1 on the number pad for front view then do fluor down until it's even with the bottom of the text next we'll set up the lighting so press three on the number pad for right side view then right click the lamp to select it then press G to move and drag it until it's five large grid divisions from the center of the text and one large grid division above the bottom of the text now press one on the number pad for front view then drag the lamp to the center of the text next we'll set up the size and brightness of the lamp so select the object data panel if it's not already selected then come up here and change this from blender render to cycles render then make sure the point lamp is selected and set the size to 3 now click the use nodes button and set the strength to 2000 the brightness of the background also affects the lighting so we're going to set it to black to do that switch to the world panel then set the color to black we're going to be adding a particle system to the text but for this to work we need to convert the text into a mesh first so right click the text to select it then press alt C and select mesh from curve meta surf text now let's add a remesh modifier to the text to even out the mesh a little so switch to the object modifiers panel and add a remesh modifier then remove the checkmark that's next to remove disconnected pieces so that the modifier will be applied to all of the letters then add a check mark next to smooth shading now set the octree depth value to 8 you may need to set this value slightly differently depending on how many letters are in your text the more letters you have the higher you'll want to set it but don't set it too high because we want there to some imperfections along the edges of the text now let's set up the materials for the floor M text so right-click the floor to select it then switch to the material panel and click the new button we'll keep all of the default values now right-click the text to select it then click the new button set the surface type to the principal shader then set the base color to a hex value of a B zero zero zero zero this is going to be a glossy material with a small amount of roughness so set the roughness value to point zero five I'll switch to rendered view so that we can see what this looks like we're going to use the node editor to give the text a charred or burned look along the edges so switch to the compositing screen layout then click the shader nodes button now and select shader and then mix shader' drop it on the connection going into the material output node now press shift a and select shader and then diffuse connect it to the bottom mix shader' input set the color to a hex value of 2 D 0 0 0 0 this is the color that will be used for the darker color along the edges of the text now we're going to add 3 nodes that will control the factor input of the mix shader' after the nodes are added I'll describe how they work so press shift a and select input and then geometry then press shift a again and select converter and then math then press shift D to duplicate the math node change the first math node to multiply change the second math node to subtract then connect the pointyness output to the input of the multiply node then connect the output of the multiply node to the top subtraction node input then connect the output of the subtraction node to the mix shaders factor input set the multiply then set the subtract value to 10 the pointyness output detects curvatures in the mesh but the effect is not strong enough for this project so a multiply node is added to make the effect stronger however when we multiply it by this amount the range of values coming out of the multiply node is too large for the factor inputs the factor input once values between 0 & 1 so we need to subtract something from the multiply node so why did I choose to subtract 10 it's because the pointyness values that were actually interested in are around 0.5 when 0.5 is multiplied by 20 we get 10 so now when the pointyness output is 0.5 the multiply output will be 10 and the factor input will be 0 when the factor input is 0 then only the principal shader is used then when the curves are detected the pointyness output increases above 0.5 which increases the values that the factor input and the diffuse color starts to mix in I'll switch to rendered view so that we can see what this looks like you can see that the edges and the imperfections in the text are highlighted with the darker color which gives it a charred look now switch to the object modifiers panel this is the remesh modifier that we added earlier currently the octree depth value is set to 8 you can use this value to fine-tune the look of the text if I increase it to 9 you'll notice that a lot of the highlighting goes away if I reduce it to 7 then there is too much highlighting you can experiment with this value but I'm going to use 8 now return to the default screen layout now is a good time to save what I have so far so I'll select save as I'm going to name the project smoke dot blend now we're ready to add a particle system to the text the particles will be the source of the smoke and they will also be used to paint the text which will make it visible to add a particle system switch to the particles panel you may need to expand the panel on the right to bring the particles button into view now click the new button set the number of particles to 10,000 we're going to set things up to emit particles for the first 65 frames so verify that the start value is set to 1 and change the end value to 65 then set the lifetime value to 10 so that the particles will disappear shortly after being created then set the random value to 0.7 so that there will be some variation and how long it takes for the particles to disappear now add a checkmark next to use modifier stack so that the remesh modifier that we added earlier will be used we don't want the particles to move after they've been created so set the emitter geometry normal value zero this will prevent them from moving away from the text set the particle size 2.02 now open the field weight section set the gravity value to zero to prevent the particles from falling down we want to control where the particles are added the particles should start being added on the left side of the text and finished being added on the right to do this we're going to add a blend texture to the particle system so open the texture section then click the new button now switch to the texture panel make sure that particle system is selected and then for the type select blend now open the color section and add a check mark next to ramp which will give us more control over the blend texture in this project the particles will be created starting on the left side if you want them to start on the right then click this double arrow to reverse the direction of the blend texture next make sure that the horizontal button is selected so that the particles will be created from side to side if vertical were selected then the particles would be created in the up-and-down direction now go down to the influence section and make sure that there is a check mark next to time so that the blend texture will affect the particle emission time the reason I'm using this blend texture is because I want to control the location where the particles are added the particles will start being added on the left side of the text and finished being added on the right but I also want them to be added smoothly with the current mapping settings this process may not be smooth so instead of using the coordinates of the text we're going to use the coordinates of another object to do that press shift a and add a mesh plane then Center it under the text then press s to scale and scale it up in size until it's a little wider than the text then move it down under the floor so that it can't be seen now find it in the outliner and look at its name in my case it's plane 0 0 1 now right-click the text to select it then change the coordinates value to object then for the object select the plane that we just added with this setup the particles will be added to the text smoothly to see this I'll press the play button I'm also going to speed up the video because this is a little slow in real-time you can see that the particles are being added to the text smoothly from left to right in our animation the text will start out as transparent then it will become visible from left to right as the particles are added to accomplish this we're going to use dynamic paints to use dynamic paints objects are set up as brushes and canvases in our case the particles will be the brush and the text will be the canvas after dynamic paint is set up we'll be able to use some nodes to make the text visible as it's painted with the particles to make the particles a brush make sure that the text is still selected and then switch to the physics panel now click the dynamic paint button then click the brush button and then the add brush button set the dynamic paint source to particle system then click in the entry box and select particle system then add a checkmark next to use particles radius so that the particle size this defined in the particle system will be used now let's set up the text to be a canvas so click the canvas button and then the add canvas button verify that the surface type is set to paint the animation is going to be 150 frames long so set the end frame value to 150 now we're going to bake the dynamic pains so open the dynamic paint cache section then click the bake button you can see the progress up here I'm going to pause the video while it bakes the baking is finished if you need to make any changes after you've baked the dynamic paints then click the free bake button make the changes and then click the bake button again now I'll set the frame number to 1 and press the play button so that we can see what this looks like I'll also speed up the video for this part you can see that the particles are painting the text now set the frame number to a spot where the text is only partially painted we're going to set up the material nodes for the text now so switch to the compositing screen layout this is the material that we set up earlier we're going to be making some modifications to it so move the material output node to the right we're going to add four nodes in front of this node so press shift a and select shader and then mix shader' drop it on the connection going into the material output node then press shift a again and select shader and then transparent connect it to the bottom mix shader' input make sure that the color is set to the maximum whites color which will allow it to become completely transparent now we're going to add an attribute node so that we can control where the text will be transparent so press shift a and select inputs and then attribute connect your output to the mix shader' factor input now open the physics panel this is the dynamic paint setup for the text open the dynamic paint output section we're going to be using the paint map layer in the attribute node so click this plus button to add it now we need to copy this name to the attribute node entry box you can just type the name if you'd like but I'm going to select it and use ctrl C to copy it and ctrl V to paste it now we have one more note to add so press shift a and select converter and then math drop it on the connection going into the mix shader' factor input change the math type to less than and set the value to 0.1 this node lets us select a specific point where the text will switch from being completely transparent to completely visible you can see that the text is now visible where it has been painted with the particles sometimes when you're using the transparent shader you can end up with areas that are not completely transparent it doesn't look like there's a problem now but when the smoke is added there may be areas of the text that will look like a shadow instead of being transparent this can happen because the number of transparent bounces is limited so we're going to increase the number of transparent bounces that are used to do this open the render panel and then open the light path section increase the max transparency value to 100 which should be more than enough now we shouldn't have any problems with transparent areas not looking transparent next return to the default screen layout I'm going to save what I have so far next we're going to add the fire and smoke by using the quick smoke operator but make sure that cycles render is selected first because if cycles render is slow when we run the quick smoke operator then some material nodes will be set up for us automatically to use the quick smoke operator make sure that the text is still selected then from the object menu select quick effects and then quick smoke there should now be a new cube that was added which is named smoke domain all of this smoke will be contained within this cube I'll set the frame number to 1 and press the play button to show you what the default smoke settings look like you can see that the smoke doesn't have much detail so we're going to increase the resolution so make sure the smoke domain cube is selected and then change the resolution from 32 to 100 divisions raising this value makes your computer work harder and so some computers may have trouble with a value this high it's ok to lower it but you will lose some resolution if you do this is what it looks like now I'll speed up the video for this part because when I changed the resolution to 100 it slowed down the playback you can see that the smoke has a lot more detail now now change the time scale to 0.5 which will make the smoke move more slowly next add a check mark next to smoke adaptive domain this will shrink the domain to fit the size of the smoke which will speed things up now add a check mark next to smoke high resolution and open the section set the noise strength value to 5 this will make this smoke look more turbulent next right-click the text to select it currently we're only generating smoke to add fire to it change the flow type to fire plus smoke now change the flow source to particle system and then select the particle system that we previously setup this will cause the smoke to be generated from the particles instead of the whole text I'm going to press 5 on the number pad to switch to perspective view and switch to front view next I'll set the frame number to one and press play to see what this looks like now I'll speed up the video for this part you can see that the fire and smoke are now generated from the particles as they appear from left to right when you're happy with how the fire and smoke are looking you can bake it to do that right click the smoke domain cube to select it then open the smoke cache section the animation is going to be 150 frames long so set the end value to 150 by the way the size of the data files that will be stored when you bake the smoke can be very large for this project the total size of my baked files will be about one and a half gigabytes since these files are so large after I render the final animation I'm going to free all of the bakes and delete the files from my hard drive I'll demonstrate how to do this at the end of the video so now to bake the fire and smoke click the bake button you can see the progress up here I'm going to pause the video while it bakes the baking is finished if you need to make any changes to the fire and smoke after baking is done then click the free bake button make the changes and then click the bake button again if I switch to render view now you'll notice that the smoke is visible but the flames are not so we're going to use the node editor to make the flames visible to do that switch to the compositing screen layout these nodes were automatically set up for us when we use the quick smoke operator to create the smoke but these nodes are for the smoke and not the flames so we're going to add three nodes to make the flames visible but first we'll make one quick change to the existing nodes increase this multiply value to 100 which will give more definition to the smoke and flames and make the smoke look thicker now let's add the three nodes so press shift a and select inputs and then attribute for the name type flame in all lowercase letters now press shift a and select converter and then math set the math type to multiply then press shift a and select shader and then emission set the color to a hex value of ff9 zero to zero when the attribute node is set to flame it provides flame density information we're going to multiply this value so connect the factor output to the input of the math node I'm going to set the multiply but you might want to experiment with this value now connect the output of the multiply node to the strength input of the emission shader this is how we'll control the intensity of the flame then connect the output of the emission shader to this shader input now the flames are visible in rendered view switch back to the default screen layout now this is a good time to save what I have so far next we'll set the camera view so press zero on the number pad for camera view this is the view looking through the camera I'll zoom in a little now I'm going to lock the camera to the view to do that press n to open the properties panel and put a check mark next to lock camera to view then press in again to close the properties panel now I can zoom pan and rotate while looking through the camera now I'll set up the view that I'd like to use now we'll finish setting up the animation the animation is going to be 150 frames long so set the end frame value to 150 then switch to the render panel and then open the sampling section I'm going to set the number of render samples to 50 the larger this value is the better the final animation will look but the longer it will take to render now come up to the output section this is where you set the directory where your animation will be saved click on this button and then navigate to the directory that you want to use then click this button to create a subdirectory I'm going to name it smoke now select the new directory and click accept next click here to set the file format if you select an image format then each frame will be rendered as an individual image if you select a movie format then the animation will be rendered as a single movie file I'm going to select the PNG format which will render each frame as an individual image now we're ready to render the animation but I'm going to save the project first it's a good idea to save the project before rendering in case something goes wrong during the rendering process to render the animation go to the render menu and select render animation if you want to stop the rendering process before it's done you can press the Escape key or click the X next to the render progress bar now I'll pause the video until it's done the animation is done rendering now it took my computer about 2 hours and 45 minutes to render the animation this is the final frame that was rendered if you want to return to the previous view you can click this button and select 3d view to view the animation go to the render menu and click on play rendered animation or you can press ctrl f11 the animation will play through to the end and then start back at the beginning again if you would like to convert your animation into a single movie file then you can watch my video on rendering and animation you can find a link to it in the video description in that video I explain why it can be a good idea to render your animation as individual images since I finished rendering the video and I'm happy with the result I'm going to free all of the bakes and delete the large files that I talked about earlier this step is not required but I like to do it to free up space on my hard drive so make sure that the smoke domain cube is selected and switched to the physics panel then click the free all bakes button then save the project since we just made changes to it now I'll use Windows File Explorer and navigate to the directory where I saved the project the directory name that starts with blend cache is the directory where my baked files are located so I'll delete this directory along with its contents if you want to recreate these files again then click the bake all dynamics button when it's finished baking then save your project again well that concludes this video thanks for watching and please subscribe and leave a comment

Channel: tutor4u

Views: 66,291

Keywords: blender, fire, smoke, text, animation, modeling, 3d, cycles, cycles render, blender version 2.79, how to, tutorial, tutorials, tips, tricks, beginner, intermediate, Blender (Software), 3D Modeling

Id: 9AV_ikY_Gss

Length: 29min 49sec (1789 seconds)

Published: Mon May 21 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/seemon22]

Does 2.82 supports dynamic paint ? I mean is it working in this latest version from Blender?