Cigar Smoke/PF Source

The cigar was made by lightly editing a cylinder. I linked a pf source to the top, so when the cigar moves so does the pf source. The cigar emits smoke form the lit end. PF stands for Particle Flow, the Particle Flow source viewport emitter icon which emits particle effects in the default shape of rectangles which you can change and alter in the control panels.

I then added a wind from the forces rollout, which simulates the effects of generated particles from pf source blowing in the wind and linking it to the bottom of the cigar to ensure the smoke blows away from the cigar; outward rather than inward.

I then made my smoke by applying a material to a plane. I used gradient in the opacity channel and changed the gradient type to radial and adjusted the colours to what I wanted.

I used an average amount of 900 but the amount varies from scene to scene and often I had more than one cigar in each scene. I used geometry to render out the shape of my texture, forcing it to always face the camera. With the outside opacity set to black, the black part (the outside of the plane) is invisible from the render and as there is no pure white, the smoke is brighter where it overlaps. The force moves it in a more organic way rather than a straight line and each particle dies in 40 frames with a variation of 10 and a speed of 2 to give it a more stylised feel.

I have 2 or 3 cigars in each scene; for instance in the third scene, where the character lights his cigar, the first is linked to the left thumb of the character, the second in the head of the cat rig and third on the left hand index finger of the character.

I was initially happy with the smoke, but it’s not realistic as it doesn’t scatter… but it has style. I could maybe have fixed that by adding three pf sources at the end of each cigar and adding a height variation of 10. However, as he was walking I didn’t want a trail of smoke running through his head so I made it simple and easy to edit. I used some guides such as Autodesk knowledge network website but only for references and to find ways to give me more control.