How can I create a flaming body effect in post-processing?
Asked 2/14/2014
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2 answers
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I saw an image where a person appears to be made of flames and smoke, and I’d like to understand how this effect is created. Is there a common name for this technique, and what tools or workflow are typically used to make it look realistic?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
3
You probably need a 3D modeling tool that can emit flames and smoke. That fire is actually more smoke-y than fire. Then create a rough sketch of the model, and simulate the burning.
Now, the more realistic your simulator is, the better it will look, obviously. The best simulators use very complex fluid simulation to achieve good results. E.g. see this simulation. 4 second from 5 hours of fluid simulation with 12000000 cells....
The other way is just to get photos of fire with transparency, and composite that over the model. You can end up with good results if you have good PS skills. Even better if you can paint over, as I think the image also has manual painting in it.
UPDATE: I stumbled upon this tutorial, and maybe this is exactly what you want...
Originally by user24785. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user24785
12y ago
0
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This is mainly a digital compositing/VFX effect rather than an in-camera photography technique. There isn’t one single standard name, but it’s essentially a fire-and-smoke composite or flame effect.
Based on the answers, there are two common ways to create it:
- Use 3D/VFX software to simulate flames and smoke around a rough model of the person. This gives the most realistic result, but it can require complex fluid simulation and significant processing time.
- Composite photos or rendered elements of fire and smoke over a photo of the subject in an editor like Photoshop. Good masking, blending, and manual painting/retouching are usually needed to make it convincing.
In practice, many final images combine both approaches: composited fire textures plus hand painting and retouching. If you want to try it, look for tutorials on fire compositing, smoke compositing, and flame VFX in Photoshop or 3D software.
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