My 1st try at fire and water

[sbtamu]

I am Finally understanding GIMP and I'm starting to like it.
Any Who;
Here is what I did today.

Feel free to point out all mistakes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdPnTYMTy9Y

[Genete]

Hi stambu,
although the sun reflections are enlarged, do not simply make a mirror of the sun in the water. Try something different. Maybe with the clouds's shadows too:
From here:
http://genete.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/ ... hallenges/

you can see how the sun's reflections are distorted by the water waves and you just see light points and not a image reflection.

I would add a bit of feather to the fire's lighting on the ground. Also consider to balance the shadows dropped by the character. The sun shadows are so dark compared with the ones dropped by the fire's light.
A complicated scene anyway
-G

[Spidamation]

Hey @stambu that was nice...did you do the artwork with gimp? and animated with anime studio good try! and good advice @Genete...i learned alot from it....

[uddhava]

sbtamu

Nice work, although what Genete said about the reflections on the water is correct.
How did you animate the fire? Was it created in Gimp?

By the way what part of Texas are you from? I lived in Dallas for 12 years.

udd

[sbtamu]

Sorry for late replies but I have been in Kansas putting flowers on my great and great great Grandparents' graves this weekend for Memorial day.

Genete, Thank You for the advice and I look forward to working on the scene with your advice.

Spidamation/uddhava TY and Yes, I did the water with lava gradients (60 layers) and the fire with smudge tool (6 layers) and I just duplicated the switch layer in AS and used 50% opacity on the top layer and I also changed the order of the layers in the switch file randomly and the 2nd switch lawer was on frame 2,4,6,8,10,12 where the 1st switch layer were at frames 1-3-5-7-9-11.

If you want to see how I did the fire I'll post the images. It is actually really easy and only takes a few minutes to do.

uddhava, I just moved back to TX from Hawaii last Oct. Before that I lived in the Metroplex since 1978. Now I am in Fort Worth area.

[sbtamu]

Hi stambu,
although the sun reflections are enlarged, do not simply make a mirror of the sun in the water. Try something different. Maybe with the clouds's shadows too:
From here:
http://genete.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/ ... hallenges/

you can see how the sun's reflections are distorted by the water waves and you just see light points and not a image reflection.

I would add a bit of feather to the fire's lighting on the ground. Also consider to balance the shadows dropped by the character. The sun shadows are so dark compared with the ones dropped by the fire's light.
A complicated scene anyway
-G

Here is a small change i made tonight. I tried to get the suns reflection to look like your image but i had some opacity problems so i just used some points and zigged zagged a shape in. Also I am not sure what feathering the fire's lighting is so i just removed that light for the time being.

I lightened the cloud shadows and changed the shapes. and removed the sand dune's shadow from the sand dune on the right. I added some light to the log and Willy and added animation to the shadows.

I added 6 more images to the fire to make it look more natural.

Ty again Genete for the helpful ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdPnTYMTy9Y

[Genete]

I just moved back to TX from Hawaii last Oct.

So you have it easier than never! Look a sunset and realize that each piece of water acts like a mirror.. so there must be thousands of mirrors over the water...
I cannot test it down with Anime Studio right now but try to do this:

1) Create a particle layer with the following values:
Number of particles: 5000 or similar
Full On at start: yes
X and Y sizes: wide and tall enough (see below)
Start velocity: 0
Gravity: 0
Life time: 10 seconds (it depends on how quick do you want the brights to appears and dissapear)
Particles: a set of 20 or 30 small triangles with a full white fill color and different sizes and shapes.
(it should produce a random position field of white small triangles)

2) Now rotate the particle layer over its X axis to match the perspective of the water on that scene.
3) Then crop the particles to match what you see when you watch a sun set. To crop the particles you can use masking with another layer and a shape that hides the areas that shouldn't be shown.
4) You can use a style to apply to the bright particles to another thing than white.
5) Also you can blend the particles over the water using some kind of "Color" or "Screen" blend method.

I hope that can make the trick.
-G

[sbtamu]

I just moved back to TX from Hawaii last Oct.

So you have it easier than never! Look a sunset and realize that each piece of water acts like a mirror.. so there must be thousands of mirrors over the water...
I cannot test it down with Anime Studio right now but try to do this:

1) Create a particle layer with the following values:
Number of particles: 5000 or similar
Full On at start: yes
X and Y sizes: wide and tall enough (see below)
Start velocity: 0
Gravity: 0
Life time: 10 seconds (it depends on how quick do you want the brights to appears and dissapear)
Particles: a set of 20 or 30 small triangles with a full white fill color and different sizes and shapes.
(it should produce a random position field of white small triangles)

2) Now rotate the particle layer over its X axis to match the perspective of the water on that scene.
3) Then crop the particles to match what you see when you watch a sun set. To crop the particles you can use masking with another layer and a shape that hides the areas that shouldn't be shown.
4) You can use a style to apply to the bright particles to another thing than white.
5) Also you can blend the particles over the water using some kind of "Color" or "Screen" blend method.

I hope that can make the trick.
-G

Now that I have pro I can finally take a lot of the advice you guys have given me over the past 6 months and try them. Up till 7 came out I was still using Debut hoping that an upgrade would come out soon, and it did, saved myself 130 bucks.

Thanks G, I think I can fix the reflection since I have the use of particles now.

[sbtamu]

I just moved back to TX from Hawaii last Oct.

So you have it easier than never! Look a sunset and realize that each piece of water acts like a mirror.. so there must be thousands of mirrors over the water...
I cannot test it down with Anime Studio right now but try to do this:

1) Create a particle layer with the following values:
Number of particles: 5000 or similar
Full On at start: yes
X and Y sizes: wide and tall enough (see below)
Start velocity: 0
Gravity: 0
Life time: 10 seconds (it depends on how quick do you want the brights to appears and dissapear)
Particles: a set of 20 or 30 small triangles with a full white fill color and different sizes and shapes.
(it should produce a random position field of white small triangles)

2) Now rotate the particle layer over its X axis to match the perspective of the water on that scene.
3) Then crop the particles to match what you see when you watch a sun set. To crop the particles you can use masking with another layer and a shape that hides the areas that shouldn't be shown.
4) You can use a style to apply to the bright particles to another thing than white.
5) Also you can blend the particles over the water using some kind of "Color" or "Screen" blend method.

I hope that can make the trick.
-G

One step at a time 'G' lol, here is step 1 and 2 you explained. Once I get this part right can I pick your brain for step 3-5?

Thanks for showing me how Genete!!!

P.S. I didn't redo the sound FXs for this.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-jWt4vbbyM

[Genete]

Looks good! I would have make the triangles smaller and increase its amount, but hey! it is a first trial!
-G

[sbtamu]

Looks good! I would have make the triangles smaller and increase its amount, but hey! it is a first trial!
-G

I did this today, is this more like it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC9vnnNF8s8

I also started on scene 5 when Willy drops off a water fall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbXwp8PMr14

[Genete]

Looks much better! What about to use a non rounded shape for the mask and make it much more realistic? You should take a look to some live videos or photos. The shining area is not so "perfectly rounded"
-G

[lpbaker]

The fire looks good - my one suggestion would be to put a light area around the outside of the base of the fire where the light is brightest - a radial gradient, perhaps? Doesn't have to be hugely bright but having such dark shadows without a correspondingly bright highlight seems a bit unbalanced.

Great waterfall effect!

~ Lindsay

[lwaxana]

That reflection in the ocean is looking really nice! I also like the waterfall effect. :D I'd suggest moving the barrel down into the water to give it more sense of weight. And maybe use animated layer ordering so that before he goes over the edge, he's behind the waterfall and he's gradually revealed. That would give the sense that the camera is pointed up at the waterfall from below.

[sbtamu]

Thanks for the tips guys. it really is helping.

Good idea lwaxana I'll have to give that a try.

lpbaker,
I have a layer of light but for some reason it just didn't look right so I didn't render it. Here is the scene with the light.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKfa4iNJMN4
Maybe I could use soft edge and not so bright light?

genete,
Thanks, I'll give the reflection a perspective view.