SketchUp Fireplace
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 12:42 am
Pibuz put in a little request a few days ago for a workflow tutorial on how I created the fire in the below scene. I am happy to oblige, so (for what it's worth) here goes!
The logs and grate were free models downloaded from 3D Warehouse with a bit of modification to remove sharp edges, put in my own materials etc.
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model. ... b05b21288d
Flames * EDIT * - PLEASE READ POSTS BELOW FOR A BETTER METHOD USING EMITTING NULL
I found an image of some flames on Google and then made corresponding clip and bump maps. I made an emitting material using the flames as a light source and then blended that with a null with the fire only at 5% visibility. I found this gave a good mix of light emitted whilst allow you the see through the flames a little. This material was applied to 4 planes throughout the logs as shown below.
Smoke
The smoke is just a .png image of smoke with a diffuse material, and again blended with a null this time with the smoke at 15% visibility. This material was applied to a simple plane in the middle of the logs.
Ashes
The ashes are a mix of 3 elements 1. some little pebbles 2. a displaced shape to look like a heap of small pebbles and 3. a displaced shape with the 'Fire Embers' material from the Mat DB applied.
Tweaks to improve realism
As there are not (as yet ) any emitting double sided thins for Skindigo we always run into the problem that the light emitted for the flame planes is only in the normal direction. In this case out towards the camera and to the right. In order to combat this I had to cheat a little to ensure I also get light emitting to the rear and the left. This was done by simply adding the flames material to areas of the logs as shown below. I can then just flip my grouped fire model along it's red or green axis to ensure these extra lights are not visible to the camera in any particular scene.
The last thing I did was to introduce a small amount of motion blur to the flames to give them that 'roaring up the chimney' look, this was done using Key Frames. I set the default position of the 4 flame planes as 0, moved them up 20mm and set this second position as 1.
And that, as they say, is that! Hope this help some people!
The logs and grate were free models downloaded from 3D Warehouse with a bit of modification to remove sharp edges, put in my own materials etc.
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model. ... b05b21288d
Flames * EDIT * - PLEASE READ POSTS BELOW FOR A BETTER METHOD USING EMITTING NULL
I found an image of some flames on Google and then made corresponding clip and bump maps. I made an emitting material using the flames as a light source and then blended that with a null with the fire only at 5% visibility. I found this gave a good mix of light emitted whilst allow you the see through the flames a little. This material was applied to 4 planes throughout the logs as shown below.
Smoke
The smoke is just a .png image of smoke with a diffuse material, and again blended with a null this time with the smoke at 15% visibility. This material was applied to a simple plane in the middle of the logs.
Ashes
The ashes are a mix of 3 elements 1. some little pebbles 2. a displaced shape to look like a heap of small pebbles and 3. a displaced shape with the 'Fire Embers' material from the Mat DB applied.
Tweaks to improve realism
As there are not (as yet ) any emitting double sided thins for Skindigo we always run into the problem that the light emitted for the flame planes is only in the normal direction. In this case out towards the camera and to the right. In order to combat this I had to cheat a little to ensure I also get light emitting to the rear and the left. This was done by simply adding the flames material to areas of the logs as shown below. I can then just flip my grouped fire model along it's red or green axis to ensure these extra lights are not visible to the camera in any particular scene.
The last thing I did was to introduce a small amount of motion blur to the flames to give them that 'roaring up the chimney' look, this was done using Key Frames. I set the default position of the 4 flame planes as 0, moved them up 20mm and set this second position as 1.
And that, as they say, is that! Hope this help some people!