Help!

I' m trying to create a scene showing a body being hit by an energy blast (I know- morbid ). The effect i am trying to achieve is similar to that scene in Terminator 2 when the horoine dreams about the bomb. I cannot reproduce the effect of the 'dust' streaming away from her body as at gets burnt. any ideas?

"How about a game like Jeapordy, but for kids. Gary Colman could host" -the strange guy in Airplane?..;)

Here's a thought. Start with a skeleton, maybe some hair and clothes (depending on how far along this dissolve is. Radial light in front, or possibly a spotlight (? I dunno..;) shining back towards the skeleton.  Some (brain fart- those blobs that run together...sigh, I hate getting old..;) textured in flame closest to the light, then smoke or cloud textures closer to the figure..Just an idea..or you could probably find an effect like that in Gimp or Photoshop..;)

Metaballs, that was the word..;)

Tried the idea with the smoke/cloud texture but it was too fine. Thought about volumetric texture to make it look more like grit or particles breaking off a flying backwards, but i'm not to good with volumetrics (NO patience!!).

Just thinking out loud...would rendering the figure face on as an alpha, then using the image to create a terrain, turn it on its side, then.....now i'm stuck again for textures.

you might consider taking a poser figure texture (head+body) and just playing in photoshop a bit. with one of those cracked earth brushes you could make tears through it.. then just make it into an alpha mask. kaboom. instant detonation :)

m

Nice, I'll give it a try. Let you know how i get on. You never know, i might even post my first pic!!

(yes, I'm an upload virgin!!)

Another cool trick, taught to me by Pidjy, is to make a lens flare, or explosion in PS, or PSP, or some other image editing app and make a matching alpha map and apply it to a 2D square. You can group that with a radial light and carefully position it on or near your unfortunate Poser figure and it should give pretty good results. This renders really well in Bryce, and if you are a "no postwork" purist you can truthfully say that no postwork was involved, since it was rendered in the original scene. HTH    Dan

A very interesting, if 'off-the-wall' idea from Drac!

"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity - Robert Heinlein"
"Never underestimate the stupidity of the American public - Phineas Taylor Barnum"

Hmm... seems like a common theme there (P.T. Barnum got there 1st, tho'..)

Cheers,
Diolma

(BTW, I have read, I think, all of Robert A. Heinlein's books. Just said that to show that I'm not quoting "out of context").. :-))

hmm..I have about 42-44 of them. Read all of them, but didn't keep the 'last' book (collected letters, etc..;) TANSTAAFL..;)

Danamo- As a 'Purist'  this sounds like a good idea.  I'll give it a try

How come stealing from one book is plagiarism, but stealing from many is research?

Instead you can render a picture of fluffy bunnies and kittens and give the pic a gruesome name. After all it is the thought that counts. Or model the explosion UV map it and then place it in the scene make textures in 6 layers or so will be great.

My last suggestion involves a digital camera refried beans and a lighter and a bit of work in photoshop.

silly purist people... :)

Nothing wrong with Fundamentalist rendering.

and i quote  "A purist is one who desires that a particular item remain true to its essence and free from adulterating or diluting influences. The term may be used in almost any field, and can be applied either to the self or to others. Use of the term may be either pejorative or complimentary, depending on context. Because the appellation depends on subjective notions of what is "pure" as opposed to "adulterating" as applied to any particular item, conflict can arise both as to whether a person so labeled is actually a purist and as to whether that is desirable. For example Geoffrey Boycott." (!!!?)