Tips: Fusion 3

Rob Redman shows how to create 3D fire effects and composite into your footage

An easy way to simulate flames

Fire, floods and destruction are some of the most common tasks given to VFX artists and in this tutorial I’m going to show you how you can quickly create a plume of 3D fire that is ready for compositing.

Fusion has so many tool options it can be tricky knowing where to start with any given effect, but in reality there is no proper answer. The beauty of this kind of application is that it frees the artist up to work in a way that suits them. So if you find a different method that you are more comfortable with then that’s great.

The beauty of this type of application is that it frees the artist up to work in a way that suits them

The result I’m looking for here is one of a large smoky fire that can be saved as a preset to get me started whenever I need to burn something, and it should work as a base for interior and exterior scenes, so I won’t light it for the preset; that should be saved for the actual compositing job. A fire effect can be made with just two nodes. In fact, you have to use a pemitter and a prender node or it won’t work. That said, the effect will be a little too basic so we will add some more detail with a few extra nodes, just to help sell the effect.

I’ll also show you how to emit from a texture as well as from the default geometry options that Fusion provides. This allows you to generate very specifically shaped fires, when needed. For all the assets you need go to creativebloq.com/vault/3dw208

Fusion has a multitude of tool options but there’s no definitive way to work, which offers the artist flexibility

Author profile Rob Redman Rob is creative director at a boutique VFX and animation studio, working across print, film and TV. He presents at shows from FMX to Trojan Horse was a Unicorn, as well as teaching 3D. pariahstudios.co.uk