TR#287: Synthesizing Flames and Their Spreading

Chris. H. Perry and Rosalind W. Picard

Article available in:
Proceedings of the Fifth
Eurographics Workshop on
Animation and Simulation
Oslo, Norway, September, 1994.

We present a new technique for fire synthesis which combines a model for flames with a model for flame spreading. For the flame model, we show that minor changes to traditional particle system techniques exhibit significant improvements in realism, with little to no extra rendering costs. For flame spreading, we model physically-based evolution of the boundary between burning and non-burning regions of polygonally defined objects. Experiments which combine the flame synthesis and spread models are illustrated on polygonally-defined objects. The resulting new technique provides parameters for explicitly controlling wind or gravity, while simultaneously incorporating properties such as the geometry and flammability of the object being burned. Through the use of these parameters, the resulting fire can interact more naturally with the material it is burning, as well as with the surrounding environment.

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