The only way to approximate a depth effect in PI would be to animate the "zoom" property of your particles, and that's hard to get right; doing it in a compositing app would be the best way. That's the primary advantage of combustion when it comes to particles (plus the motion tracker it's got), though the PI engine is 2.0, I believe, while 3.0 is the most up to date.

Don't forget to check out the emitter libraries that have been released over the past few years (http://www.wondertouch.com/downloads.asp#IEL), there may be some good sparks in there. I started going through them as soon as I saw your post, if I find anything I'll let you know. With some tweaking--or total reworking, if need be--you might end up with something you like.

Update: Threw together a little emitter for you to look at, if you're interested: http://www.gyroshot.com/files/Spark Test.zip If the demo doesn't allow you to load libraries (I'm using a full copy of 3.0), you should be able to look at it with ShowIEL.

That's only a taste, of course, and one could add to it as necessary. Smoke, for example, or for a more complicated effect you could make use of so-called "super" emitters, to have the sparks break up at the end of their lives, forming extra trails (a Google image search for "sparks" reveals plenty of reference for that kind of thing).

Robert,

Thanks for the help, I could not open the file the demos are looking for .IP3 or .IPF files. Thank for trying. I bookmarked the forum and will read through it.

I had Googled for spark effect but not just sparks da!
I will do that. It is a cool program I will probably get the full version next week.

Bill

The IP3 and IPF formats are particleillusion project files; what I sent you was an emitter library. You can load it by right-clicking in the area on the right side of the workspace in the program (where all the different emitters are listed) and selecting "Load library". It's only one particle type, but I thought it might help start you on the right path.

Robert,

Thank you I can see it in the menu, however in the demo it is grayed out.
I can view it with the viewer.

Bill

Here is my first attempt at fire and smoke I know this post started as sparks, however with the presets provided fire and smoke was easier to learn with.

I used the demo of PI V2 SE.
I imported a still image and added smoke and fire, I think it is a little intense, but hey it’s my fist time, I’ll learn. I am also just reading about how to do reflections so I have not added any yet.

Comments welcome.

http://cinebydesign.net/film/fire-smoke-1.avi 1.16mb

Bill

Although the quality of the graphic is good, I think just an occaisional tounge of flame popping out would look more realistic. A perfect curtain of fire seems too perfect to be real. I definitely think it has potential, but I would rather the smoke be generated on-set so it can interact with the lighting and shadow. I'm interested in seeing the test footage with the flicker box you made included.

Since it's a static shot, if you wanted more realistic, you could build a replica of just that part of the hood in flat black and have practical smoke and fire (get a pro to do the burn). This can be composited over the main footage using a multiply to make the stuff look like it's coming out of the hood.

Marcus,

I like your suggestions and have reduced the flames and made the smoke match the background better. Not quite there yet but better.
I agree about the smoke on set I have found out what I need and that is a Hazer, at $600 it will have to wait awhile. So I will do with the fog machine I now have. ($30)

Watch this video you will see the underlying color flashes this is the effect the box gives.
I had the starters hard wired in to the lamp cords. The box will make it easier though.
I wanted to shoot another test this weekend however the weather will veto that idea.

Cole,

I will have the engine pulled out of the wreck I will use, it is possible I could mix up some cold flame and use it for the effect then supplement in post as needed.
Too the lab Igor! ((blah ha ha)(evil laugh))

Anyhoo here’s the latest version…
http://cinebydesign.net/film/fire-smoke-2.avi 5 mb

It is a larger frame size so the effect shows better I also made it 15 secs long and it has a video background this time so the background smoke moves, as does the moth flying about my backlight. Interesting factoid every now and then you would see a puff of smoke from the broad light as a moth flew into it now if I could get more moths to sacrifice themselves I would not need a smoke machine!!! :-)

One more thing I found out what I need for the sparks they are called Omni short circuitors I have not found where to buy them yet, though I do know I will need to pull a temporary permit to buy them.

Bill

that looks alot better!

Thank you, I’m learning.

Robert,

You said you had both Discreets Combustion and ParticleIllusion V3 If I get ParticleIllusion V3would there be any reason to get Combustion as well?

Thanks,
Bill

Nice work on the fire, looks pretty good (though I think there's a little too much orange in there, might look better if it were a slightly darker color).

I can't say there's much reason to get Combustion if all you want is the particle effects; it's a great program, and has many (many) other features you might find useful, but I can't bring myself to suggest you spend all that money for a few shots with some simulated smoke/fire/sparks. The real advantage it would have in a scenario like this is the motion tracker, as I mentioned, but if worse comes to worst, I might be able to help you out with that (you send the shot, I track it and send back the data for you to import into PI). It's possible to keyframe the particles' positions by hand as well, which may make sense for you if the camera move is simple.

Robert,

Thank you, for the information and the offer.
I think camera movement will be small if any in this series of shots It will come more into play when the talent starts interacting more. (By then the fire “WILL” have died off (large grin.)

Bill

I would do this. Might even take a sparkler and hold it above the frame then overlay it.

A great resource as well is DetonationFilms.com -- they offer free stock footage of explosions, sparks, smoke, blood -- you need it for compositing, they at least have something. In addition to their free footage, they have pay-per-download and CD's for purchase with additional stock footage.