For the last couple of days I've been trying to get something that looked like a proper candle, self-illuminating and all.

And I've come reasonably close. (although there IS another light source in this picture, but it's also an "ambient disk" type of light, not an actual "Light" per se :)

In the process I made my own candle, since I wanted one with a modeled flame, not just (as it's mostly used) a X'ed, transmapped square with a picture of a flame. By modeling it, I hoped I could get it to illuminate more. Which MAY be the case, I'm still not 100% convinced.

Anyway.. along the way, I decided I might as well share this candle (also in the hope that SOMEONE came up with the PERFECT candle wax material G) - and once that was decided.. I also decided to make it a little more fun by adding some morphs to the flame so it could flicker and be blown out.

There's an animation of it at work here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQxRLAa65ok

And if you click the thumbnail here:  you'll be teleported to my site where you can download the candle ;) (opens in a new window)

Have fun - oh and if you improve my textures, please let me know - that's sort of the whole idea here ;)

Thanks so much!!!

The first problem to get the wax scatter right is to get the scale right.

The prop comes in at far too large. Thus, the attenuation of light as it scatters looks wrong.

I rescaled your prop to 12% and then the scatter numbers started to make sense.

You must remember that subsurface scatter is based on real-world measurements. If you present a candle 10 inches thick, made of wax, it will not look like a candle 1 inch thick.

The flame is really large and has a complex and odd shape. It's shaped more like a fire than a single flame. I could not get it to look right so I gave up and just left it.

But I thought you'd be interested in seeing the wax and wood shaders I made for this prop.

I placed a point light just at the tip of the flame.

Color 255, 255, 204.

Intensity .12%.

Inverse Square Falloff. (Attenuation)

Shadow Blur Radius 1.

Shadow Samples 70.

There is also an environment with bright windows (seen reflected in the wood) and dark walls.

IDL is on.

Re: flickering flame: it would be interesting to see if there were a way to make the flame cloth and have wind force affect it. Would require some thinking for it to stay "standing up," of course.

Or, it could be constrained to some non-rendering geometry top and bottom and have a wind-force act on it...

Yeah, I was thinking there would need to be some sort of constraints there.

I'll try those other wax settings :)  And that RNDA flame looks nice. But very still. It reminds me more of the "typical" candle pics you see. I did mine as a more sputtering/flickering one on purpose :) It would have been easier to just model a drop, but it looks so ..lifeless L

The wax looks really good though.

But what I really don't understand is that you say it comes in too large? It shouldn't. I'll have to look into that. It should be the proper size for a candle. Hm.. scratches head

And I like the idea of making the flame into cloth of some kind. Interesting :)

For those who may have already downloaded this, I've updated the zip. It now loads at the correct size. I used BB's shader, but changed it a tiny bit.. the candle came out a tiny bit too "translparent" to my tastes. I was going for ... uhm I don't know the name of that candle material in English. The Translater just says "candles" - but it's not wax - it gets sorta hard and brittle when it has been melted.. hopefully you guys know what I'm thinking of?

It's a little less transparent than wax anyway.

Thanks for the help :D

Quote - For those who may have already downloaded this, I've updated the zip. It now loads at the correct size. I used BB's shader, but changed it a tiny bit.. the candle came out a tiny bit too "translparent" to my tastes. I was going for ... uhm I don't know the name of that candle material in English. The Translater just says "candles" - but it's not wax - it gets sorta hard and brittle when it has been melted.. hopefully you guys know what I'm thinking of?

It's a little less transparent than wax anyway.

Thanks for the help :D

Could you be thinking of tallow?

No it's not tallow. It's.. well the translater says stearic but that sounds plain wrong. It's (at least here) what church candles are made of....

Some of them (not all!) burn like this, making spider web like structures:

Tallow is much softer and more waxy in appearance :)

Hehe I just found the chemical formula for it:   C3H5(C17H35COO)3

which Google tells me is .. sort of soap... Except it's not L But it does have some of the same properties. And almost same translucence /SSS value. Just it's still less transparent than wax :) 

Part of Speech: noun

Definition: sticky substance

Synonyms: adhesive, amber, cement, cohesive substance, exudate, glue, mucilage, paste, pitch, plaster, resin, rosin, tar, wax

I believe you are looking for the word paraffin.

Itøs not parrafin either. It's what "cheap" (ie ordinary) candles are made of. 

Oh well :)

Robynsveil.. er.. uh?

tallow

Quote - Itøs not parrafin either. It's what "cheap" (ie ordinary) candles are made of. 

Oh well :)

 

Robynsveil.. er.. uh?

I thought I'd go with synonyms of wax. Fail. Epic fail.

TG the formula you gave is stearin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stearin

http://www.howtomakecandles.info/cm_article.asp?ID=ADDIT0003

Further, in that article it states:

It is used as tallow in the manufacture of candles and soap. In the manufacture of soap, stearin is mixed with a sodium hydroxide solution in water.

Interesting.

Quote - TG the formula you gave is stearin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stearin

http://www.howtomakecandles.info/cm_article.asp?ID=ADDIT0003

THANKS! It's called stearin here, but whenever I looked that word up I only got Danish hits so I thought it was called something else feels stupid now

Oh well.. we finally got it solved then :)

And it is less translucent than wax, which was what I was aiming for :)

Stearin is actually not English either - it is Greek and it means tallow. 

ah. But the point is, it's not tallow. Or at least not ordinary tallow like what a tallow candle would be made of... 

I'm not that much into chemistry so I can say whether or not stearin is based on tallow. I suppose I've never really thought about what it was, other than "stearin"

Even in Germany we call that stuff "Stearin".

Quote - I'll try those other wax settings :)  And that RNDA flame looks nice. But very still. It reminds me more of the "typical" candle pics you see. I did mine as a more sputtering/flickering one on purpose :) It would have been easier to just model a drop, but it looks so ..lifeless L

Speaking as a firefighter, and somewhat familiar with flames, I have never, ever, seen a candle flame that looked like that. That's either a road flare or a fake candle with a gas line through it sitting in a stiff breeze.

Are you referring to the RDNA candle? Because the photo of candles that Trekkigrl posted above has flames very similar to that.

"Even in Germany we call that stuff "Stearin".

In the deep south of the united states
thats what they call that wheel like device on the drivers side dashboard that is used to change a cars direction

Sorry could'nt resist

Cheers

LOL @ wolf359...

Thanks, Trekkiegrrrl for the candle, Bagginsbill for the awesome shaders!

And for the chemistry lesson! :biggrin:

I'm trying to use this shader on one of DM's candle props and I was wondering how you get the glow of the wax at the top?  If the candle is thicker than the one shown does that change the glow result?  How do you compensate for different size candles?  

Look at the scale value on the candle's scatter node.  It is low enough to allow the point light to transmit light through the candle material and make it glow.

Quote - Look at the scale value on the candle's scatter node.  It is low enough to allow the point light to transmit light through the candle material and make it glow.

Okay, I'll play around with this.  SSS is so fascinating.