[AGS HELP WANTED] Chimney Smoke

[Ghostlady]

Looking for someone who can animate smoke coming out of a chimney.  It would be put on top of a background.

As you can see here, it needs some help:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvJSuMoXYQA

[Rik_Vargard]

For what I understand, you need an animated object that you can place there.

In my Metro City Resistance Demo, at the end, in the city, I use a 30 frames animated object to create some heavy rain.
I created the rain in Blender (thx to a tutorial), then I exported it as a PNG sequence and used those images in my game's Views for that object.
I found This tutorial but there are more.

Another solution could be to use a black/green/blue screen VFX (like This One (there are more to find)) and then use a video editor and use a chroma key to make the black/green/ blue transparent and then export as a PNG sequence with RGBA.

Once one of those is done, you will have to use an Image Editor (I use Corel PaintShop) to select just that part of the image that has the smoke for every frame (because the PNG sequences will be like 1280*720) , and then save them as new images to use in AGS.

I think that the "complicated" thing will be to match the visual art of the background in the video editor.

ALL of this being said, maybe someone will come to you with a much simplier solution 

[brushfe]

That's a great solution, and it's so cool to hear the process behind your gorgeous game!

On the animation front, I think creating a looping shape would help a lot. Combined with the texture you have, this could create the illusion.

You could study the looping structure of the smoke in some gifs like this one, to see how the loop is created:

https://ca.pinterest.com/pin/overlays-instagram--1013943303605022164/

[Ghostlady]

Rik, the YouTube link you posted is exactly what I am looking for. That slow easy stream of smoke. This kind of work is out of my wheelhouse that's why I'm looking for some help. The background in that area of the chimney can be painted over to remove the smoke that is there.

[Ghostlady]

Brushfe, I am looking for someone to do this for me.

[RootBound]

@Ghostlady I'm willing to give it a try if you can send me the background and existing animation frames.

[Rik_Vargard]

@Ghostlady I can create a PNG sequence from that black screen smoke VFX and then create the frames to use in your Views in AGS.
I will also need the desired dimensions of your object image in pixels.

EDIT: In fact what I'll need is the width of your chimney top in pixels (full screen) so I can adapt the smoke

[Ghostlady]

@Rik_Vargard would you like me to send you the two backgrounds?

[Ghostlady]

@RootBound thank you very much for your offer. I'd like to see what Rik comes up with.

[Rik_Vargard]

@Rik_Vargard would you like me to send you the two backgrounds?

Yes, that would be very helpful. 

[Rik_Vargard]

Alright this was much more of a challenge than I expected  , but here we are:

https://youtu.be/MBm1ZxI-L-E

I cannot change the smoke's behaviour since right now, the loop is perfect.
What I can change, are the visuals, if you need me to:

- I can change the color of the smoke
- I can pixelate it
- I can change the opacity
- I can change the size