[$10+] Fire (Patreon)

full scene (webm)

FLA (CS3+) download attached to this post.

Fire is an amazing element to animate. Fire is wild, sporadic, and sometimes unpredictable. How it moves and flows is unlike anything else in FX animation. So how does an animator approach it? When we look at fire in real life, it moves too fast for the human eye to fully process. There's just too much going on at once.

In some ways, this can actually play to the animator's advantage. Fire behaves so erratically that the shapes that play off the source of the fire quickly dissipate as they rise from the earth. They tend to flip on themselves and become completely different shapes almost instantly, allowing and even encouraging an animator to set aside some of the "principles" of animation for the behavior of fire to make its motion feel believable.

If you watch the fire above, you'll notice that the bottom part of the fire is more calm, but as the flames rise they begin to rapidly lose their form and disappear into nothingness. One of my favorite FX animators, Jazno Francoeur, described the shapes of fire like pieces of popcorn. Look closely at the shapes of fire that break off and fizzle away and you can see what he meant.

Still, it is important for fire to maintain a strong silhouette and design. When approaching the beginning of a fire FX animation, it's necessary to establish its basic shape and a couple of strong keyframes to build off of. The long and hard part is making them connect in a cohesive way.

After I animated this fire in flash, I created the embers and ash in After Effects to give it a more warm, outdoors feeling.

This fire was animated for the visual novel Driftwood. It is not out yet, but a demo is available of the 1st act is available here. This fire scene is included in an opening cinematic I animated for it. Look for a couple other breakdowns of scenes + more original content soon!

Have any thoughts on fire in FX animation? Any burning questions about animation on your mind? What kind of animation would you like to see more of? I'd love to hear your thoughts!