Fire

[Devin Johnston]

I need to create a fire pit and fire place with some realistic looking fire that casts light, I was thinking about just using a bitmap of fire and having it self illuminate but I wanted to find out if there were any better or more realistic ways of doing it?

[AubreyM]

If you have it FumeFX would work well. Adding it in with PS would also be an option.

[Devin Johnston]

I don't have Fume, I'm wondering if there's a way to model flames.

[AubreyM]

I suppose that it would be possible but it would be quite difficult to make it look real.

If you don't have Fume you could try particle flow or snow with a animated texture. I seem to remember a tutorial on doing it that way. I didn't book mark it but I am sure you could find something with a search.

[Tommy L]

If its for animation then some crafty camera work and an animated texture works well. If its a campfire style fire then a particle system with motion blur is a good way of setting up some embers flying up from the fire.

As mentioned, FumeFX is great for this but its around $800. Modeling animated flames is not really a viable way to go.

[Devin Johnston]

I think I'm going to set up some lights in the area where the fire will be to give me the fire light effect then just photoshop in some flames, thankfully it's not an animation.

[Tommy L]

Oh its for a still?? Yeah, simple light source and photoshop all the way.