Cigar Smoke Effect in UDK

jjoyal88

Hey all

I dont really see a lot of vfx work on here but Im going to post some of my work anyway. Im working on some pieces to build my portfolio and one of them is a cigar smoke effect I have been working on for the past couple of weeks on and off. I just want to get some critiques on it right now. It started as a cigarette effect but after I started making the aesthetic pieces to show it off I relieved a cigar was more appropriate. I have a glass ashtray as well as a bar stool for them to sit on. Let me know what I can do to make it better.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9MAc9EWq8I"]Cigarette Smoke effect inside of UDK - YouTube[/ame]

Thanks!!
Joe

jordan.kocon

Hey I think this is looking really good so far! I think if you wanted it to be really realistic you should look at some more reference. Right now it seems like there are almost tribal shapes going on. This is only negative as it makes it look a little more stylized imo. But I don't think that's a bad thing, I think it looks awesome I just think if you are going for a more realistic effect than try making the smoke more... smokey and less like shapes if that makes sense. Either way I'm diggin it!

Razgriz

As a very loyal cigar smoker, I would offer these tips:

1. Not a cigar. You need a cigar for cigar smoke.

2. Too thick and billowing, cigar smoke is far more "wispy". It is pulled by the slightest bit of wind or air faster than it it pulled upwards. Like jordan said, you gotta use some reference.

3. The cool thing about cigar smoke is that it often trails back over the length of the cigar until it hits your fingers, or even manages to float out of the cap where you puff from. A little weird to explain, but it's neat to watch.

4. Much more variety. No smoke, especially at this scale, floats straight up that quickly. It's got to be pulled and random and various directions.

Hope this helps!

mbknielsen

Very nice so far, but try to replace some of the particles with more volumetric "foggy" smoke around the well defined smoke particles to give it a bit more volume.

SirCalalot

It looks pretty sweet, but as other have mentioned, try looking at more reference.
There are a few 'stock' videos on YouTube that could help

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nx4Xxtpl-0&feature=related"]smoke - slowmotion - YouTube[/ame]

Snader

Biggest problem: it's too slow.

This video has slightly faster moving smoke (the important part is at 0:22), and I'm thinking its a 60 fps shot:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLM-3Y3GfxA"]Me smoking a cigarette in high-speed / slow motion - YouTube[/ame]

It also dissipates much sooner, though that might be different for a cigar, and it warps/swirls a lot more.

I'm not sure how complex your material is allowed to be, but you could have a greyscale sort-of height map influence thickness and spread of the smoke.

jjoyal88

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I will definitely try and use all of your suggestions and see what I can come up with. I know its not a cigar right now, I decided to change it to a cigar after I made the capture. I will add some more shapes and try to play with the material to get more variety from it. I have been having problems with the speed the smoke ascends with using velocity and velocity over life together. I might have to go with a different approach with doing it.

Joe

jjoyal88

Ive made some changes to it. Im having problems with slowing the particles down as they go up. Velocity/life and acceleration/life arent working correctly so Im trying to make it work somehow. Velocity/life makes the particles shoot off fast and accel/life makes them go straight down after spawning. I added a fog/cloud particle to help break it up and added some spread and rotation to the particles as well. Also I reduced the alpha so the shapes dont stick out as much.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xOj6XFUA1s"]Cigar Smoke Effect v.2 - YouTube[/ame]

Keep the critiques coming!
Joe

Alberto Rdrgz

I think you need to slow it down a bit more and bigger swirls.

imbueFX

I think your second revision is looking better and in the right direction. I'd suggest distorting the texture in your material ever so slightly to get more internal movement and complexity. Sometimes I'm catching individual particles that have too high of a rotation rate, especially towards the base of the smoke that just looks off to me.

Another approach to consider is work more in a material that is attached to a ribbon. Supplement that with some particles and the results can be amazing. I did some R&D with this approach and still have some textures saved that I repeated.

I also agree that this moves just too slowly. Also its overall shape is just too straight. Even in a calm room with no noticeable moving air, there's all sorts of great internal turbulence due to heat dissipation that gives the smoke some great movement. Your reference video above is a perfect example of this.

Hope this helps!

imbueFX

Also regarding your problems with slowing the particles down: Velocity Over Life is a better approach for what you're trying to do. The setup would be:

*Create the module
*Change your distribution to ConstantCurve
*Set LockedAxes to XYZ, this way you can set only X and it will use the values across all axes
*Set a keyframe around time 0.3, with a value of 1
*Set another keyframe at time 1, with a value around .5

Since vel/life is a multiplier, what we're saying is that we want the particle to take velocity*1 up to 30% of its life. Then it will slowly ramp its velocity down to half at the end of the particles life. You can adjust your keys and values to fit your effect better, of course.

Hope this helps!

jjoyal88

imbueFX - Thanks for all the suggestions. I will definitely try to use what youre saying and post something in the next couple of days with the changes.

Joe

jjoyal88

Hey guys

I got around to doing some adjustments to the effect. I didnt have a lot of time to work on it lately so not too much is different.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm0-d_88uuI"]Cigar Smoke Effect v.3 - YouTube[/ame]
I tried to spread it out more and slow it down but its being a pain to do but I want more out of it than what is shown. I think Im going to take a break from it and work on something different so my brain doesnt get numb to it. Any additional critiques are welcomed.

Joe

Edit - Youtube makes the video darker and hides some of the smoke detail and I tried using Vimeo but got the same results.

MorganFX

Looking good! Are you using two emitters in the particle system, one for the skinny bottom half and another for the top swirly part?

imbueFX

Good progress!

Snader

The extra swirlyness makes a big difference, though it could stand to be much stronger (but that might not technically be feasible). But why are you slowing the smoke down so much? The references me and SirCalalot posted move considerably faster, and those are slow-motion videoclips.

mathes

Looking really nice! Would be great to see if it holds up when the cigar is moving.

SirCalalot

It's coming along really nicely, but as Snader mentioned it is still a little bit too slow.

If this was to be used in a game then the viewer wouldn't even be able to notice it moving let alone appreciate the complexity - as other actions of the scene will be drawing their attention.

jjoyal88

So I had taken a break from this and finally came back to it. Ive speed it up and tried playing around with variation in direction which cant seem to get it to work.
Let me know what you guys think and if you have anymore critiques let me know.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONeosZP6ux0"]Cigar Smoke Effect V.4 - YouTube[/ame]