Back in May, I set out to attempt effects animation, particularly fire and water. I began with fire, because I figured that its erratic nature would be easier to mimic. This ended up being true to a certain extent, but it also required more thinking, specifically about physics, than I imagined it would.
I had no idea where to start, so I searched up some tutorials to work from. I found two that were helpful to me: the first is this youtube video by Micah Buzan ANIMATION, which is a pretty thorough breakdown of fire movement. The creator of the video discusses the reasons for how fire moves as well as different stylistic interpretations of fire, so I found it really useful. As I was working on the animation I kept this video playing to keep me on track. The other video I found is not specific to fire animation, but it does have general exercises to help with getting in the effects animation mindset. I found the second video after the first, so I sort of went backwards from specific to general, however the creator (Stylus Rumble) discusses some useful basics.
I started the animation by drawing super blobby shapes for each frame of fire, as directed by the tutorial, because I didn’t want to get lost in the details before I could establish a solid base. The basic movement of the fire is a wave, and for my first pass, I stuck to the wave movement as strictly as I could. I conformed to it a bit too hard however, because it ended up looking stiff and unnatural. On my second pass I allowed for more dramatic movements and tried to randomize the embers. It was helpful to think of the fire as moving upward—heat rising, and cold air being pushed into the fire from the sides creates a sort of scooping shape. I tried to mimic this as I began fine-tuning the movement. I found that it was important that as ‘pieces’ of the fire leave the main blob, they continue to warp and follow the wave motion. I ended up using crescent shapes for these parts, because I thought it would emphasize the hot air being pushed up by the cold air.
The most important part of this process for me was taking one step at a time, making sure to avoid polishing a frame before moving on to the next. I tried to make sure each step was finished before adding another dimension of movement to it, because it is very easy to get lost in all the little pieces flying everywhere.