Smoke Poof

mb72378

mb72378

Well-known member
Hey all. Im needing a smoke "poof" effect just like the one in this video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bip2pucLbo

Whats the bet way to go about getting a smoke "poof" like the one in the commercial. No, I'm not interested in detonationfilms they dont really have anything like what Im looking for. One person told me to rapidly squeeze a bottle of baby powder in from of a black background but Im not really sold on that. Im needing it to look VERY professional (not cheap or cheesy) so whats the way to go about it?

Thanks
 
* I do not recommend you do this. Pyrotechnics are extremely dangerous and should only be accomplished by a licensed, experienced technician in a controlled environment. *

As a practical effect, that would have been done with a flash-pot. Electricity is fed to two bare terminals set an inch or more apart. These terminals are set permanently into a plaster-of-paris or other non-conducting hard resin bed. For firing, the terminals are connected with a single strand of very thin copper wire. A mound of 4F gunpowder or flash powder is placed atop this copper fuse.

You can build these in shallow tuna cans, though you could do so in most other containers. Paramount is that the terminals are completely isolated from any metal on the container.

Lamp cord wire is suitable for the electrical feed. The charge should be set off only with an approved pyrotechnics firing terminal. For low-voltage applications, the system can be made to fire using a model rocket electronic launcher with their slower burning (safer) fuses.

A very small amount of powder was used in the video you sent. A level teaspoon will give you precisely that result. You would film this against a black or blue / green screen for keying into other footage.

Conversely, (and more safely) you can buy pre-keyed analog effects in various formats from folks like Detonation Films and ArtBeats.
 
Make your own with a camera, tank/jug/clear container of water and drop some milk into it.
PS I DO recommend you do as above, because not only would you get nice smoke/explosion footage, you can also get some blood splats and squirts from your stump of an arm.

Remeber, for the blood squirts and splatters you might need 2 more camers above, and a nice clean smooth drop cloth on the ground (white). Have one camera zoomed in where your hand would be after setting off the bomb (squirts), and then have the other camera focused on the floor about 3 feet away from where your new stump would be.
 
kevinottawa said:
Make your own with a camera, tank/jug/clear container of water and drop some milk into it.
Click to expand...

Cloud tanks are a very cool way to achieve some effects. In this case, the effect wouldn't really fulfill what the OP was asking for.

kevinottawa said:
...PS I DO recommend you do as above, because not only would you get nice smoke/explosion footage, you can also get some blood splats and squirts from your stump of an arm.

Remeber, for the blood squirts and splatters you might need 2 more camers above, and a nice clean smooth drop cloth on the ground (white). Have one camera zoomed in where your hand would be after setting off the bomb (squirts), and then have the other camera focused on the floor about 3 feet away from where your new stump would be.
Click to expand...

The flash pot I talked about above is a low-explosive, close-proximity device. If you've seen pyrotechnics at a concert or other live event, those almost always include flash pots in various forms.

You could certainly burn yourself if you were in very close proximity to the device. However, gun and flash powder deflagrate slowly instead of exploding at supersonic velocity (like highly explosive TNT). Unless contained in a sturdy, closed container (like a pipe with caps), black powder simply isn't going to act as a dismembering-capable high-explosive.

Flash and black powder (4F) are non-concussive when used in an open container - their brisance is quite low. With the naked eye, it is easy to see the ignition point spread slowly outward to eventually burn off the material.

Anyway, that is how the effect is done in that clip.
 
Thanks for the replies. As cool as all of that sounds I am a videographer, not a pyrotechnics engineer haha. I have looked all over the internet and can't find a high quality effect on a keyable background like the one in the video. Detonation films doesnt have one. I would def. be willing to just buy one but i cant find one. Any other website ideas of anyone know anyone that might be willing to do it for me and I'll buy the clip from you? I'd prefer a DVCPRO HD 1080 60i clip.

Thanks
 
Check out Particle Illusion from http://www.wondertouch.com/ - they have a free 30 day trial. It's great for creating smokey stuff (and a zillion other things) that you can tune to be exactly what you want. I bought the full product, it covers all of the pyrotechnic special effects i ever need.
 
partical illusion seems pretty neat but I have to be honest....a little steep. This video is pro-bono work so while I am willing to spend a little of my own money Im not sure that Im interested in spending $500. Thanks for the idea....I guess I ll have to continue to look and hope for some good stock footage...
 
The SE Windows version is only US$99 and is plenty powerful enough for a 'smoke poof'. Or just grab the free 30 day trial version - a few hours of fiddling should be ample to create the perfect effect you need and render it. The product comes with tons of presets, all of which are then adjustable for timing, size etc.
 
Thanks, I had no idea that there was a free trial. You know whats even better? the free trial has no limits........no watermarks NOTHING!!!!! I hope this will work.
 
A little compressed air and a hose going to a makeshift pot with a flour/lamp black mix will give a good poof.

I've already made one mistake today so I won't tell you how to do it the old fashioned way.
 
Small flashpots like described above are easily made with a standard ceramic utility light bulb fixture and an inline switch extension cord. Use small gauge nichrome wire for the fuse between the base contact and the side wall ground, small self tapping screws make good wrapping posts. Only takes about a table spoon of black powder and is pretty safe. Keep it away from flammables and wear eye protection. Shoot against a black background or green screen, but keep it several feet away from your backdrop. This is what we use in theater productions, with the larger mogul base fixtures that take 500w bulbs. You can google nichrome wire and find lots of suppliers. If I remember correctly, we used #28 gauge. Smaller wire sets off faster. Don't do this indoors. black powder smoke stains things.
 
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you could always try CG:

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I AGREE
 
hey thats an awesome link. Im confused though. Do you buy the smoke pot then do the effect yourself or buy a video clip? I have a mac so I cant open the .wmv example video.
 
Hi Mb,

No, the smoke pot is an actual physical effect, its a small pyrotechnic device, its a little pot (looks like a black can of tuna) with some wires hanging out the back. Usually these would be used on stage, in Britain (where I am) they are probably most used at christmas time in traditional pantomimes when the wicked witch appears or something.

To fire it properly, you would stick it in a Lemaitre mount that holds the pod down, and wire it into a Lemaitre firing system. This firing system has loads of switches and buttons and huge warning labels all over it, but if you cant be bothered with all that (i can't) then just shove 12v up its arse with a vlock battery and it will blow nicely.

Only thing is, you have to prove to the Pyro suppliers that you need it and/or are responsable enough to have it (In most cases anyway). Im OK as I am a registered pyro guy in the UK, but it may be more difficult in the US to get hold of this stuff.

If they will let you buy it, its a reasonably cheap and very reliable and fairly safe way of achieving this kind of effect. This stuff is designed to be fired indoors, with people all round, so theres no hot fall out and virtually no chance of being burnt or setting fire to anything.

I have recently finished a pyro job where i used Lemaitre Maroons and flash reports to simulate mortar hits in a vietnam film. They look small in this video, but when coupled up with good editing and sound effects, they look amazing.

I achieved the flame by putting the maroon in the bottom of a paper cup, and pouring Coffee Mate over it (Coffee Mate is non dairy coffee creamer and when it is atomised nicely in air, it burns with a nice orange flame). I then stuck a smaler cup in the top of the first cup, and filled it up with a mix of petrol and diesel (the diesel gives a nice oily black smoke). I also added chips of cardboard and foam which fall out of the blast as burning debris. I had to use a small electronic ignitor in the top of the cup to ignite the petrol as it came out, as the maroon didn't really have enough heat to light the petrol in time.

I buried the whole thing and wired it into a simple controller, and fired manually in sequence.

http://vimeo.com/7564084
Password: kboom

Freeze it during the first blast, you can see how the card board and foam fly out of the hole and how the coffee creamer burns with the petrol.

34318_409989202569_506442569_4348379_2675477_n.jpg




Pyro is fun.



Pete.
 
Oh, but remember to be really really careful if you start doing this type of pyro, in my first experiments, I used a steel champaign bucket to hold the maroon to duct all the force upwards.

8417_162080017569_506442569_2667686_4459432_n.jpg


ONE maroon!

A maroon is the size of a film canister and has about 4g of charge inside it. Pretty powerful stuff, so be really careful with it.
 
All of that is really awesome and I am very thankful for your taking time to post such valuable info but I believe I am out of my league. I think Im going to find some other effect to achieve the "disappearing man". Again thanks A LOT!
 
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