house on fire

[GianFior85]

i know there are a few topics on creating fire effects, but what is the best way to go about creating a realistic looking fire on a house? it doesn't have to look like it's burned down, so would it be possible to take a normal static shot of a house and digitally add a fire to the roof or something? If so, is compositing stock fire footage the best way to go about it?

[-zach-]

Physically
You could do a miniature to scale, using stuff from like home depot and your local craft store... Make it like 10'x7' or whatever your house is like, and then burn it. The reason I say make it so big is because big fires are made up of many little flames. If you do a miniature, and you only have several flames, it's not going to look realistic. (See: Team America World Police). If you make it bigger, there will be more flames and it will look realistic.

Graphically
You could use a particle effects engine to create smoke, and then shoot a fire plate agfainst black, and then add them all in layers. Or you could get someone who knows Maya or 3ds and ask them to do it.

[12quidkidinnit]

What editing software are you using ?

In Premiere Pro 1.5 you could experiment and see what you can come up with yourself by importing a suitable fire video and putting it on video track 2. Find one with just a black or very dark backgound. Click the window tab, and effects. Select Video Effects, then Keying, followed by the Track Matte Key. Drag this effect onto the clip. In Effect Controls, under Matte, select video 2. Under composite, select Matte Luma. This will show the fire on a transparent background. If you needed to, you could do this several times with various different fire clips until you have the desired effect.

Here's a link to one I did just to see what it would look like . . .
(it's not great but it works)

http://www.jiggyjigg.com/upload/files/9/fire.wmv

[maverickstunts]

Detonation films has some really good fire effects.

[Bogdan]

When we were discussing faking car crash in another thread, I suggested actually buying and crashing some cheap, old car, of course taking all safety measures.

This time I am NOT suggesting buying an old house and ... :-)

[Anhar Miah]

Easy as Pie if you have Combustion:

http://www.creativecow.net/show.php?page=/articles/mey_michael/burning_castle/index.html

Enjoy

[Justin Kuhn]

Find out when your city or a city near you is going to burn down any condemned properties, then be there and shoot it. Or else get a police scanner and keep your ears open for fires.

[faultygoblin]

Hmm, unless you luck out a mini seems the way to go,
depending on how much computer experience you have maybe combustion,

Or do a high high quality photo print of your house, make a few copies, film the photo burning, maybe add some 3d pieces like wood or wires to make it look 3d, then cut right before its apparent its paper crumpling?

otherwise a plate of the house,
a smoke plate
and some fire plates ?

or a combination thereof?


there may be some stock footage you can buy usually around 10-20 dollars a second... but where's the fun and pride in that..

post some grabs when you do shoot it be curious to see what method you use and how it turns out..

[KyleProhaska]

I say use the fire effects with masks on the windows and roof. Doesn't seem like it would be so hard.

-Kyle

[Derrick_SA]

I would composite a clip of real fire over the house, in After Effects if you got it.

- Derrick

[faultygoblin]

What did you end up using?
Any screen grabs?