Generating Fire

Creating realistic fire from scratch in a 2D compositing environment is notoriously difficult. While the best results often come from importing practical stock footage of real fire (and using the "Screen" blend mode to composite it), Oraphim provides tools to generate procedural fire for motion graphics and stylized VFX.

Method 1: The FastNoise Approach

The foundation of procedural fire is animated fractal noise.

1. Add a FastNoise node.
2. In the Inspector, increase the Detail and Contrast to create a harsh, chaotic pattern.
3. To animate the fire rising, right-click the Seethe parameter, select Expression, and type time * 0.05. The noise will now continuously morph.
4. Add a ColorCorrector node after the FastNoise.
5. Tint the shadows deep red, the midtones bright orange, and the highlights yellow/white.

You now have a basic, rolling plasma/fire texture. To shape it into a flame, use a Polygon mask to cut out a teardrop shape and pipe it into the Effect Mask input of the FastNoise node.

Method 2: The Particle Fire Workflow

For realistic sparks, embers, and volumetric fire, the 3D Particle System is required.

1. Set up a particle system (pEmitter -> pRender).
2. In the pEmitter, set the Region to a small circle at the bottom of the screen (the base of the fire).
3. Set the velocity to shoot upwards.
4. Add a pTurbulence force node to make the particles waver left and right like a flickering flame.
5. In the pEmitter Style tab, change the color controls to "Color Over Life". Set the particle to spawn bright yellow, turn orange in the middle of its life, and fade to dark red/black before it dies.
6. Finally, apply a heavy Blur or Defocus node to the output of the pRender to blend the individual particles together into a cohesive, glowing mass of fire.

The Heat Distortion Effect

Fire is not just light; it emits heat that distorts the background behind it.

1. Add a Displace node to your main background footage pipeline.
2. Pipe a new FastNoise node into the Foreground input of the Displace node.
3. Animate the FastNoise seethe and offset it so the noise moves quickly upwards.
4. Mask the Displace node so it only affects the area directly above your fire.

This creates the classic "heat shimmer" ripple effect, selling the realism of the fire in your composite.

Use Fire in a production project

1. Open Composition workspace and select the intended text, shape, layer, animation property, or procedural system.
2. Establish the correct input state first—timing, media link, layer/node enable state, project settings, or source selection as relevant.
3. Apply or adjust Fire with one clear goal. Change the smallest set of controls needed to reach that goal so the result remains understandable and reversible.
4. Review the complete affected range in context. Scrub difficult frames and also play at normal speed when motion or audio is involved.
5. Save a named milestone before moving into another major operation, especially after graph changes, tracking, AI processing, relinking, simulation, or delivery setup.

Practical guidance

Fire is a volumetric/procedural effect. Match scale, motion, lighting, and exposure to the plate; validate a short range before increasing simulation or raymarch quality.

A useful test is a short 5–10 second section containing both an easy case and a difficult case for this feature. Tune against the difficult moment without breaking the easy one. If two approaches are plausible, duplicate/version the project state and compare them rather than stacking both together blindly.

Verify the result

• Preview the full animation and compare the rendered output with the interactive viewer.
• Toggle/bypass the operation where possible and make sure the change you intended is actually responsible for the result.
• Check selection, visibility/mute/solo state, node connections, track locks, range, and source identity when the result appears missing.
• Save and reopen before treating a complex setup as reusable.
• If this feature changes final pixels or audio, render a short review and inspect the file outside Oraphim.

Related guides

• Animation and Keyframes
• Dissolve
• Motion Graphics Overview
• Keyframes