Poser Firefly Candles ?

[3dcheapskate]

I find myself in need of some candles for a render, and this time I've decided to make some myself...

 

[3dcheapskate]

The wax is basically just Milkman Andy with the Scale of the Scatter node adjusted to make the translucence of the candles look right.

N.B. In this render the candles are about half a metre high

 

[3dcheapskate]

The wick was fun and simple

 

[3dcheapskate]

The smoke was also fun and simple.

The smoke mesh is two uncapped cylinders each with different horizontal warping, stretching and moving morphs

 

[3dcheapskate]

The flame, however, is the most fun ! Obviously not right yet, but on a reasonably good path that might be going in the right direction.

 

[3dcheapskate]

Comments and suggestions most welcome.

 

[3dcheapskate]

Added a very simplistic wiggle morph to the flame, and turned Smooth Polys on in render settings...

I think the candles need control edges

 

[3dcheapskate]

After spending many evenings watching candle flames I came up with a very simplistic generalization of what a candle flame looks like to my eye. Here are a few observations:

• If you have a lit candle where there's no wind it looks the same from all sides.
• The flame,with no wind, has the general appearance of being a vertically stretched sphere.
• The bottom of the flame at the centre is usually bluish, and almost transparent. But the bottom of the flame is not transparent at the sides, and it's more orange-yellow than blue. So perhaps I need an Edge_Blend node somewhere in the Transparency network for this ? But it's effect should only apply to the bottom of the flame, so there'll be a v_testure_coordinate involved in controlling that. There may also be an Edge_Blend for the colour in this area - blue at the centre, yellow-orange at the edges. Also controlled by the v_testure_coordinatein some manner.
• The top of the flame is usually rounded, not pointed. And it goes from opaque to transparent over a relatively short distance.
• The middle of the flame is yellow, totally opaque,and its edges are well-defined

The picture below is asort of summary of all that.

 

[3WC]

Nicely done!

 

[Miss B]

I'll say. Very nicely done indeed!

 

[3dcheapskate]

Thank you.
It still needs a lot of work/experimentation with the candle flame shader.
E.g I just noticed that I'd removed the Edge_Blend node for the transparency while playing and forgot to put it back.

The Edge_Blend for the flame colour needs a bit more thought. At the very bottom it should be all blue. A little bithigher up it should be blue at the centre and orange-yellow at the edges. Half way upit should be all yellow. Near the top it should be yellow in the centreand orange at the edges. And at the top it should be all orange.

 

[3dcheapskate]

I just thought - a simple way to make the colour bands have that parabola-ish* shape across the flame is to use a Color_Ramp for the band colours, and use the v_texture_coordinate as the controller Input for rampthat drives the Edge_Blend's Outer_Colour, but a modified (cubed in the example below) v_texture_coordinate as the controller Input for ramp that drives the Edge_Blend's Inner_Colour...

*apologies for the use of technical jargon !

 

[3dcheapskate]

However, changing Color2 for both ramps from yellow to orange didn't have the expected effect:

 

[3dcheapskate]

Using the double Color_Ramps into an Edge_Blend from the previous two posts (with a slight alteration to the four colours) to drive the Ambient_Color, combined with the Transparency network from the original render,and I get this:

Here's the updated shader:

I've also started a new thread over at Renderosity specifically for the candleflame shader - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you-know-who might pop in over there - - -> https://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2943991

 

[3dcheapskate]

With Poser motion blur.

 

[3dcheapskate]

Forgot to say that the flame mesh is a sphere with a couple of quick (and badly done) morphs.

 

[3dcheapskate]

Different view (and longer wicks!)

 

[3WC]

Your rendo thread link actually links right back to this HW thread. I thought I was going in circles for a moment.

 

[Alisa]

Very cool stuff going on here!

 

[3dcheapskate]

Your rendo thread link actually links right back to this HW thread. I thought I was going in circles for a moment.

That could have been a mistake on my part, although I'm fairly sure* that I pasted the URL into the post, selected that text, clicked the 'Insert Link' button, and pasted the URL again.

*but never certain - my fingers don't always do what my brain tells them...