Working With Fire In 3ds Max

In this tutorial, we will make a simple camp fire. Fire in 3D studio max does not have any dimensions. Instead, it is concentrated in a sphere, cylinder, or a box “gizmo” that represents the border that the fire cannot cross. Gizmos can also contain smoke and fog.

To make our fire, we need some wood to make the scene look a little bit more realistic. Our main concern is the fire, so we won’t waste our time to make the wooden log look perfect, instead, it will be a simple cylinder with a wood material applied to it.

First, create a cylinder and place it in the perspective view. You can change it’s dimensions later on.



Press the “M” key on your keyboard to open the material editor.
Instead of selecting the diffuse color, we will apply a material to it. To do so, click on the small button next to the gray rectangle. A new windows will appear, with allot of materials available. Double click the “ashsen_2.gif” material from the list in order to select it. If you cannot find it, then you may have to click on the “Mtl Library” radio button to access the full list.



To apply the material to the cylinder, drag and drop it over to it.



Rotate the cylinder for 45 degrees on the X scale, clone it a couple of times and arrange the cylinders so that they look like an unlighted campfire.




Now for the fire.
1) Click on the “helpers” button
2) Select “Atmospheric Apparatus” item from the drop down menu.
3) Select the “Sphere Gizmo” button

Place the gizmo on top of the cylinders, like it’s shown on the picture. Next, select the “scale” tools which will allow you to deform the gizmo by using your mouse. Scale the gizmo down on the X and Y scale until it forms a capsule like shape.



Now we need to tell 3DS max what to put into the gizmo.

Part a): Select the “modify” button (number 1)
Part b): Click on “add” (number 2)
Part c): Select “fire effect” from the list (number 3)
Confirm your selection by clicking OK (number 4)
Part d): Click on the “fire effect” item that we have just added from the list box (number 5)
Click on the “setup” button in order to change some advanced options (number 6)



Scroll down so you can change the fire effect parameters. Make sure that all of your settings correspond to these:

Stretch: 1,2
Regularity: 0,4
Flame Size: 4,0
Flame Detail: 3,19
Density: 13,0
Samples: 20
Phase: 1,5



That’s it! To render the picture, select “Render” from the “Rendering” menu, or press F10, and click on the “Render” button in the window that will show up.



The rendered image should look like this:



Of course, this is just an example, you can also create fires with more density, fires with different color flame, and even explosions:

gooooood

Nice tutorial,

I dont know the program, so my suggestion could be complete nonsense, if the program also has a light effect function, why not render the light from just under the fire, so the density of the fire is higher at the "core" of the fire, would make it more realistic.

Or you could try with a second layer (if the program can use some kind of multiple layers) where the layer above that fire layer, would be smaller and based at the bottom of the first fire (probably very confusing how Im explaining it now).

Was something like this on your mind? It's a 5 minute job, and it looks kind of yucky, but the fire is emitting light now...

It is sort of what I meant, but without the red around it xD