AfterBurn (plugin)
Encyclopedia
3D Studio Max
Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio MAX, is for making 3D animations. It was developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capabilities, a flexible plugin architecture and can be used on the Microsoft Windows platform. It's frequently used by video game developers, TV...
plugin, created by Sitni Sati. The latest version is 4.0.
Overview
AfterBurn is a volumetric effects plugin for AutodeskAutodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
's 3D Studio Max
3D Studio Max
Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio MAX, is for making 3D animations. It was developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capabilities, a flexible plugin architecture and can be used on the Microsoft Windows platform. It's frequently used by video game developers, TV...
software, which has been used in several feature films. AfterBurn is one of very few plugins to create and render
Volume rendering
In scientific visualization and computer graphics, volume rendering is a set of techniques used to display a 2D projection of a 3D discretely sampled data set.A typical 3D data set is a group of 2D slice images acquired by aCT, MRI, or MicroCT scanner....
true volumetrics within 3ds max. AfterBurn can be used to create a wide variety of realistic effects, for example:
- Thick, billowing smoke
- Large, gaseous explosions
- Thick or thin clouds
- Dust (thick storms or dust clouds)
- Flowing water, via "HyperSolids"
Integration with 3ds max
Particle system
The term particle system refers to a computer graphics technique to simulate certain fuzzy phenomena, which are otherwise very hard to reproduce with conventional rendering techniques...
s. Each particle emitted is rendered as a "puff" of a defined size (represented in 3ds max as a simple sphere of approximate size). When hundreds or thousands of particles are rendered together, each of these "puffs" contributes to the overall desired effect (for example, smoke or an explosion).
Although AfterBurn excels at gaseous explosions and thick smoke, it's not as suited to creating tendril-like flames. AfterBurn can be tweaked into giving a flame look, but there are several other 3ds max plugins that can create or even simulate flames in a more realistic way, such as FumeFX, another Sitni Sati plugin.
Features
Nearly every aspect of AfterBurn's volumetric effects can be tweaked by the user. Moreover, nearly every changeable parameter can be animated over time with "flow curves" or gradient ramps. Particles can change colors and size over time, animate in a variety of different ways, or grow denser or thinner over time, to name a few things. For an explosion, for example, you'd want the particles to start small, grow in size quickly and slowly stop expanding; the material would morph from bright yellow/white to orange, red, and finally into a dark gray or black, animating quickly at first, and then slowing down to a clouding smoke.Use in feature film
AfterBurn has been used in a number of feature films, some of which include:- ArmageddonArmageddon (film)Armageddon is a 1998 American disaster film, directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and released by Disney's Touchstone Pictures. The film follows a group of blue-collar deep-core drillers sent by NASA to stop a gigantic asteroid on a collision course with Earth...
- Coronado
- Flight of the PhoenixFlight of the Phoenix (2004 film)Flight of the Phoenix is a 2004 remake of a 1965 film, both based on the 1964 novel The Flight of the Phoenix, by Elleston Trevor, about a group of people who survive a plane crash in the Gobi Desert and must build a new plane out of the old one to escape. The film stars Dennis Quaid, Tyrese...
- K-19: The WidowmakerK-19: The WidowmakerK-19: The Widowmaker is a movie released on July 19, 2002, about the first of many disasters that befell the Soviet submarine of the same name. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow...
- PaycheckPaycheck (film)Paycheck is a 2003 film adaptation of the short story of the same name by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. The film was directed by John Woo and stars Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman and Aaron Eckhart...
- Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters UnleashedScooby-Doo 2: Monsters UnleashedScooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed is a 2004 film, and sequel to 2002's Scooby-Doo based on the Hanna-Barbera series classic, Scooby-Doo. It is the second installment in the Scooby-Doo Live-Action film series. It was directed by Raja Gosnell, who also directed the first film, and was written by James...
See also
- DreamScape, a plugin from the creators of AfterBurn that is used to render skies, seas and terrain, among other things.