Achieving a heat haze effect

[Art48]

Hi,

I was wondering if it is possible with VRay and/or a demo version of PhoenixFD to achieve some kind of heat/haze effect.
Background is: I have a top-down shot of a crack in some rocks where there is visible lava underneath. I would love to render a heat effect from the lava.
Do you guys think it is easier in post? Would there be any possibility at all to do that in 3D?

Reference Image of the effect

[Neilg]

very possible with phoenix - https://vimeo.com/12836320

also using something like fusion has a distortion node which bends the image based on a black and white map, if you'd like to render it as a pass and do it in post.

[Art48]

Cool! In the docs I only find stuff about rendering fire etc. in general but I would only need the heat haze effect. How is it done in the video? Can I just select an object and make it "hot"? Sorry I am really not familiar with PhoenixFD. I only need a "still" image heat haze effect. Are there tutorials for this?

Edit: Alternatively I do it in photoshop. That would be the "displace" filter, right?

[georgi.zhekov]

Using Phoenix FD for this is quite easy I have attached a sample scene how this works.

You can use Temperature/Smoke channels for the simulation and set the render mode to Volumetric Heat Haze.