A Tiny Puff Of Smoke

[GenJerDan]

Any suggestion on how to make it? What I need is a real tiny puff or stream of smoke, possibly accompanied by a small flash of light.

The effect I'm looking for is like a plane that crashed in the distance, beyond some hills, but a somewhat comedic one...so just a little puff, not big black oily smoke...

I do not have any of the fancy-schmancy computer programs for this (unless someone knows how to do it in Blender), so it should probably be a practical method.

[mmm]

Is the effect in the distance? Has it got to be quite a big puff of smoke that looks small compared to what would happen if a plane crashed?

[GenJerDan]

I just used the plane crash as visual desciption of what I need. It's not really a plane crash...unless it's a cartoony crash.

But I think I figured out how to do what I need. A flashlight bulb with no glass + a nice shot of DC, and I should get a flash and little wisp of smoke. Then I just composite it into my scene.

Sound reasonable?

[khmuse]

Not sure how much "a tiny puff of smoke" is, but here is an idea.

A small body carbon film resistor will make a very controllable and repeatable amount of smoke if over driven. You will need a decent power source (a lantern style 6V battery would be fine) a switch and the resistor. Assuming that you use a 6V source, then a 1 Ohm, 1/2 Watt resistor would be 72 fold over loaded by applying 6 Volts across it. If you need more burn, you can parallel a few resistors, or to lessen then burn, put a few in series. The resistors will cost a few cents each purchased retail.

[Not_Estaban]

Any suggestion on how to make it? What I need is a real tiny puff or stream of smoke, possibly accompanied by a small flash of light.

I think you could do it in post. I shot this with a small Panny GS120 (not for a great image, just a test):



http://www.foroflamenco.com/movies/internetshopping.wmv (Windows Media <1Mb)

I brought in some free footage of a spark and some smoke from http://www.detonationfilms.com/free_stuff.htm

I used Vegas to set up the master video as an alpha source, together with the sparks, as compositing children of the smoke.

Note: Smoke and sparks were dodged in compositing.

Then Event Pan and Zoomed them to the right size and postion.

Not sure if that is technically correct, as I was finding my own way around the evaluation software but with some free sound effects, it worked for me.

[MattC]

couldn't you just do this with a particle emitter?

[little bobby]

baby powder on a black matte. key out the black. squeeze the baby powder to get the puff. they used it austin power's Goldmember to get the puff of smoke that comes out of the ejection seat of his shaguar in the beginning of the movie (the part with cruise and spacey and the helicopter).

[Derrick_SA]

Check out Particle Illusion software

- Derrick

[GenJerDan]

Well, I'll try them all and see what works best for my purposes. Thanks.

[Bruce Morgan]

Any suggestion on how to make it? What I need is a real tiny puff or stream of smoke, possibly accompanied by a small flash of light.

The effect I'm looking for is like a plane that crashed in the distance, beyond some hills, but a somewhat comedic one...so just a little puff, not big black oily smoke...

I do not have any of the fancy-schmancy computer programs for this (unless someone knows how to do it in Blender), so it should probably be a practical method.

Get ready for this
It was suggested by an old book in the Margret Herrick Libaray in Los Angeles (that is part of the academy library)
1)Take the distant part of your scene a photo or a zerox photo or a painting and turn it up side down ,
2)put the dvx on 60i(for slowmotion ) or (24p for somewhat slow similar to 32fps in 36mm) in front of an aquarium.
3)THE AQUARIUM
is topped with water and or water and glycerine with clear flat glass on all sides
4).The surface of the water at the top of the aquarium is sealed with celophane to prevent wave form disturbance .

5)using your assumed story board frame .Locate the area for the flash and the puff of smoke with the dvx finder on ( no tape in camera as yet )

6)using a penlight or lazar light penflashlight with the desired area which lines up with the upside down background scene ,
7)you must rig something like a mini c stand out of a wire coat hanger and the battery is removed and wires are run to the contacts on the penlight to complete the circut without shaking the damned pen light all over the place .
the penlight can flash into the lens or flash onto some scotchlite which has a overlayer of a fire scene .

now for the trick
8)load the the dvx with tape
9)Place it the dvx upside down in a cinesaddel or placed in a nook of sandbags for a locked down shot .for a pan shot put the sand bags on a piece of round plasctic and a larger square cooking tin under it.The interface is coated with stp oil treatment . Now you have a rube Goldberg fluid head (something like Disjectas towel dolly!! )

8)do a test dropping india ink(thicker ink is better ) into the hole in the celophane at the top of the tank .You should see a nice uprright scene with a flash from the penlight and the resulting smoke (india ink ) rising from the crashed plane .
10)of course film or should I say tape every single test.
as you continue this test the water will get darker which may help or hurt your scene .
It is possible to backlight the xerox or transparency scene with an apropriate light .
Good Luck
I am using these effect in my sci fi often .The framing does not need to be flat procenium or stage -like framing .So work hard with your number 2 pencil and paper or a storyboard artist before your rig all this messy crap .
Good Luck and Happy Filming
Cheers
Bruce