trueSpace Envy -Tutorials -

In this tutorial I will cover the topic of creating realistic 3d fire and smoke in trueSpace. The
technique I will cover can also be used to make steam, clouds, and other particle effects.

This tutorial will focus on creating a simple smoke trail left from a missile, but the technique
remains the same for creating fire, steam and clouds.

First off, the effect starts out with a tiny cube (you could use other primitives, but I find a cube works best in terms of result and render time). Since it smoke we will be creating, this cube should be painted a white/greyish color. The cube should also be very transparent. We'll paint it with .01 opacity for now. Now that we have one cube created, copy it. Move it around a bit, but keep it close (1-4 cube lengths) to the original cube. When placed, glue the two cubes together. Be sure to move it around in the x, y, and z planes. If you wish to use fewer cubes, you can always give the cubes a little more opacity to compensate for the less cubes.
	The next step is to copy these two cubes, and use the same technique as above. Then redo the process a few more times. Keep doing this until you get the general shape of the smoke trail. *Remember that since your cube count grows exponentially as you glue and copy each one, so will your poly count and render times.
After awhile of copying, positioning, and gluing the cubes together, you should come up with a mesh somewhat like this. For creating fire, follow these same steps, only make a shape more akin to fire/explosions, and paint the inner cubes bright yellow,a nd the the outer cubes red and black.
	This is what the smoke should like when rendered. Keep in mind, it may appear "smaller" than the wireframe, because some of the outer cubes may not be all that visable.
Just an example of how this effect can be used (the smoke is hard to see, but it shows off the fire).

Tips:
Do NOT boolean the cubes together, you will lose the volumetric look.

Render times may become outrageous, so I recommend using fewer cubes and increase the opacity accordingly.