Flaming Help!

[Sazzle74]

Hi, I've been having a play with flames and have used max's flame effect with a sphere gizmo. I'm not entirely happy with the look of the flames - they all look virtually the same! I'm also not sure if I've got the atmosphere the flames create quite right - I've used a VRay sphere to try and give the glow around the candles. Any help, c&c welcome. Thanks

[Morbid Angel]

if this is a still image best to get a flame from real life and place it on a card. You can also get some animated flame sequences.
For realistic flames I would suggest to try fluid sim engines like fume fx.

There are also simpler ways to creating candle flames, for example creating a sphere in a shape of the flame and applying a procedural ram with self illumination to mimic color falloffs.

[Sazzle74]

Thanks for the help morbid angel I've had a go at modelling the flame and using the procedural ramp etc and it's looking better I think - anything else you think I should look at more?

[werticus]

maybe a really subtle glow effect in photoshop.

or LENS FLARES!

[mdi]

if its for a still, just photograph it...add it in photoshop

[Pixelab]

if its for a still, just photograph it...add it in photoshop

I second that. I would even say flickr it http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&c...+candle&m=text

Just be sure that the picture you take on flickr is under the right creative commons copyright that allows you to use it, otherwise eventually contact the author.

[Sazzle74]

Thanks for all the help guys. The flikr website is brilliant We only have Paint shop pro at work and they don't have a proper lens flare like PS so I've left that out - it's a sun burst you can amend but it still looks v fake. Have put in photos of flames and increased the saturation and some curves. I think I've looked at it too long now though, is it looking better?