Adventure Game Studio

Creative Production => Critics' Lounge => Topic started by: Remco on Sun 02/05/2004 14:42:51

Title: Realistic fire
Post by: Remco on Sun 02/05/2004 14:42:51
Im now trying for 2 days to make a realistic fire and i am still not satisfied, this is what i have now: (http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/fireintro.gif)

Could someone give me a tip or a remake how to get it better?
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Privateer Puddin' on Sun 02/05/2004 14:46:12
I would think animation would be quite important?

More reds and yellow, looks a bit like burnt grass? :o
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Remco on Sun 02/05/2004 15:00:07
ofcours i am going to animate it, but i wanted to know first if the start was good or not.
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Erwin_Br on Sun 02/05/2004 15:01:45
Fire is very difficult, especially to animate it. (At least, for me it is).

A technique I'm currently trying is using filters in PaintShop pro. As you can see on the image below, I started with a very simple drawing of some flames. To make it more realistic, I applied some filters.

I first apply a Motion blur (angle: 45, intensity 40). After that, I applied a Gaussian blur (radius: 3).

(http://212.187.21.95/public/images/fire.gif)

I think my example is a bit too blurry. You should eperiment a bit with the filter settings to get a better result.

--Erwin
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Kweepa on Sun 02/05/2004 15:02:27
It's good that you're trying to draw it all on your own!

My suggestion is to turn up the brightness 10% and the contrast 50% (these are Photoshop settings). Basically you want to saturate the reds and yellows.

I'd also make the flames less regular in height, and more blobby towards the bottom.

Do a google image search for "fire" and you'll see some firefighting images on the first and second pages.

If you want some animated fire, the best thing might be to download one of those fractal fire demos and take screenshots. It's going to be really difficult to paint three frames of 320x240 flames and make them look good.

Good luck!
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Daz on Sun 02/05/2004 15:07:22
it seems a bit level, maybe adjust hight even more and make it more up and down

and put more flares on it as well

i like that edit, its a good technique to use for fire, saddly i still haven't got psp off OSC yet so i cannot do that :P

-daz

Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Remco on Sun 02/05/2004 15:15:24
tnx for all your helps. I have made some changes but i don't really know if it's become better:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/fireintro2.gif)
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: DoorKnobHandle on Sun 02/05/2004 15:48:06
QuoteMore reds and yellow, looks a bit like burnt grass? 

what you wanted to say was "burning grass", or?

hmm, I had a tutorial link... I'll search it and post it here when I found it.
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Privateer Puddin' on Sun 02/05/2004 15:52:06
no, i said what i wanted to say. thanks.
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Erwin_Br on Sun 02/05/2004 17:22:32
I've edited your latest edit, again with the Motion Blur filter in PSP:

(http://212.187.21.95/public/images/fire2.gif)

--Erwin
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Remco on Sun 02/05/2004 17:33:06
too bad my painting program (ArtGem) does not support it.
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: stuh505 on Sun 02/05/2004 17:57:36
i think your best bet is to look at some photographs of campfires.  i just modified yours from my head but i think i could have (or you could also) improve it a lot by looking at real fire because i dont think real fire has quite so many tongues like this.  anyway here's my edit

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/edit2.jpg)

i just used smudge
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Igor on Sun 02/05/2004 17:57:43
I like Erwin's and Stuh's edit best. The problem i still see though, is that there's no real glow. To make fire really believable it must shine (give away light). Fire has usualy a bit orange glow, while the fire itself is yellow or white.
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Edwin Xie on Sun 02/05/2004 19:56:14
Look, I have been playing a game that has a pretty good fire. It seems like there are more yellows than reds and the problem is, there are no skinny sections of the fires. If you shrink that fire picture you got there then add duplicates of it it would look like a realer one (you can change the sections of the fire to different sizes if you want).
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Chicky on Sun 02/05/2004 20:05:49
i like the edit stuh, very cool  8) but i think there mayne a little too much red/orange. More yellow would work ;)

-OSC
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Edwin Xie on Sun 02/05/2004 20:14:18
This is what I meant (smoothen the picture I have shown you)
(http://www27.brinkster.com/edwinxie/fire2modification.GIF)
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Edwin Xie on Sun 02/05/2004 20:17:17
Oh, and please don't giving opinions about that picture, it is just an idea. 8)
(Edit: Rounden the edges too.)
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Remco on Sun 02/05/2004 20:35:58
Tnx for all the comments en tips. I made an edit and i hope it is a bit better now but i am still a bit doubtfull:

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/fireintro4.gif)
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: stuh505 on Sun 02/05/2004 21:24:40
remco, it doesn't look like you have listened to anyone's suggestions...

here instead of trying to edit yours i started over to give an example of what i suggest:

(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/fire2.jpg)
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Daz on Sun 02/05/2004 21:41:03
i think the bottom of Remco Bogaard's edit should have a lighter bottom maybe even translucent a bit like stuh's edit.

the fire keeps getting more and more realistic, i think stuh's one looks like a large scale forest fire, the way it is spread out not and looks amazingly cool.

you might want to look at opo tersers edit on his first edit  http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?topic=13520.0 its a bit down from the top

-Daz
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Remco on Sun 02/05/2004 21:56:12
Stuh, It's not really nice to say that i didn't listened to al the comments because i have read al the comments 2 or 3 times and i am now the whole day busy with this fire.

Could you tell me how did you made this? (maybe you have msn?)
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: stuh505 on Sun 02/05/2004 22:19:22
Remco,

I do not mean that you did not read or understand the comments.  Everyone seemed to comment on blurring etc and you didn't chose to do that, hence the comment about you choosing not to listen to their advice (which is, of course, your perogative).

Anyway, this is how I made the fire:

1) found a picture of a real fire
2) drew with pure white the very brightest parts
3) made a new layer underneath and drew the next brightest in yellow
4) made another layer underneath with some dark reds
5) used the smudge tool to blur the flames together as realistically as i could
6) made a new layer, and using mask mode I drew blobs of smoke and then filled them in with maroon
7) adjusted opacity of smoke layer
8) made billows of hot fire the same way
9) made a very small barely noticeable gaussian blur to remove the sharpness
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Remco on Sun 02/05/2004 22:27:23
There's the problem, my paint program does not support that functions.
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Andail on Mon 03/05/2004 00:13:35
I don't really think you have managed to catch the very essence of fire, even while bearing in mind you haven't access to advanced functions in your paint program.
Fire is much more chaotic, and each flame is individual, and it dances and swirls while stretching upwards. Your fire is much too stiff and generic, too dead.

Start by emulating cartoon fire; it's often very simple forms with just yellow and orange, but you can see how they make it seem alive and full of motion.
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Evil on Mon 03/05/2004 00:58:36
(http://www.fbc-bettendorf.com/evil/crap/flametest.gif)
(http://www.fbc-bettendorf.com/evil/crap/flametest.gif)

An example I did a while back. Very few colors, all done in paint. Hopefully that might spark something.
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: stuh505 on Mon 03/05/2004 01:10:06
the key is to use a lot of white for brightness rather  than yellow
Title: Re: Realistic fire
Post by: Kweepa on Thu 06/05/2004 12:27:43
You could try the new fire plugin (AGS_Fire).
Here's an example:
(http://kweepa.com/step/ags/images/effectsfire2.gif)
(Left: seed image, right: animated result)

See the Technical Forum for details and downloads.