After Burn 3Dmax

Table Of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 License Agreement............................................................................................................... 1 Support and Contact Information ....................................................................................... 4 Stay in Contact .................................................................................................................... 4 Technical Support Information .............................................................................................. 5 Welcome ............................................................................................................................. 7 AfterBurn 3.2 Overview ........................................................................................................ 9 What's New in AfterBurn 3.2 ............................................................................................... 15 What's New in AfterBurn 3.1 ............................................................................................... 18 Reference Guide ................................................................................................................ 22 AfterBurn Atmospherics................................................................................................... 22 AfterBurn Renderer ............................................................................................................ 22 AfterBurn Atmospheric ................................................................................................. 23 AfterBurn Manager rollout................................................................................................... 23 Procedure ...................................................................................................................... 27 AfterBurn Manager rollout................................................................................................... 32 Procedure ...................................................................................................................... 36 Illumination/Shading Parameters rollout............................................................................... 41 Color Parameters rollout ..................................................................................................... 48 Particle Shape/Animation Parameters rollout......................................................................... 50 Noise Shape Parameters rollout........................................................................................... 55 Noise Animation Parameters rollout ..................................................................................... 60 AfterBurn Combustion Atmospheric ............................................................................... 62 AfterBurn Combustion Parameters rollout ............................................................................. 62 AfterBurn Combustion Parameters rollout ............................................................................. 70 AfterBurn Volume Fog Atmospheric ............................................................................... 78 AfterBurn Volume Fog Parameters rollout............................................................................. 78 AfterBurn Volume Fog Parameters rollout............................................................................. 82 AfterBurn Fog Atmospheric........................................................................................... 86 AfterBurn Fog Parameters rollout......................................................................................... 86 AfterBurn Fog Parameters rollout......................................................................................... 90 AfterBurn Video Post Effects ............................................................................................ 94 AfterBurn Glow Render Effect.............................................................................................. 94 AfterBurn Glow Render Effect.............................................................................................. 97 AfterBurn Daemons........................................................................................................100 AfterBurn Wind Daemon ....................................................................................................100 AfterBurn Swirl Daemon ....................................................................................................102 AfterBurn Void Daemon .....................................................................................................104 AfterBurn Explode Daemon ................................................................................................107 AfterBurn VMap Daemon ...................................................................................................112 AfterBurn Daemon Link Map Type ......................................................................................113 AfterBurn Particle Flow Operator ........................................................................................114 AfterBurn Shadow Generators ............................................................................................120 Sticky Particles..................................................................................................................121 Animation Flow Curves ......................................................................................................124 Keyboard Shortcuts when over a curve point:...................................................................125 Interpolation Controllers ....................................................................................................126 Particle Age (PA)............................................................................................................126 Particle Velocity (PV)......................................................................................................126 Emitter Distance (ED).....................................................................................................126

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Table Of Contents Object Distance (OD) .....................................................................................................127 Expression (XE) .............................................................................................................127 Gradient Controls ..............................................................................................................128 Gradient Usage..............................................................................................................129 RapidRay..........................................................................................................................130 MAXScript Controls............................................................................................................131 Tutorials...........................................................................................................................132 Tutorial 1: Octane Shader ..................................................................................................132 Tutorial 2: Colors and Noise ...............................................................................................137 Tutorial 3: Raymarcher & The Explode Daemon...................................................................142 Tutorial 4: Cloud Modeling .................................................................................................149 Tutorial 5: AfterBurn Daemon Link Map ..............................................................................154 Tutorial 6: AfterBurn HyperSolids (1) ..................................................................................156 Tutorial 7: AfterBurn HyperSolids (2) ..................................................................................160 Tutorial 8: AfterBurn Glow .................................................................................................164 Tutorial 9: Tendrils ..................................................................................................167 Tutorial 10: Cigarette Smoke..............................................................................................175 Index ...............................................................................................................................183

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Introduction License Agreement Sitni Sati d.o.o End User License Agreement (EULA) for AfterBurn 3 IMPORTANT -- READ CAREFULLY: This Sitni Sati d.o.o End User License Agreement ("License Agreement") is a legal agreement between you (either an individual or an entity) and Sitni Sati d.o.o, a company under Croatian law with residence in Zagreb, Croatia. By clicking on the "Accept" button, installing, copying or otherwise using AfterBurn 3, you agree to be bound by the terms of this License Agreement. If you do not agree to the terms of this License Agreement, click on the "Cancel" button and/or do not install AfterBurn 3. ******************************************************************************* NOTE, THIS PRODUCT MUST BE REGISTERED WITHIN 30 DAYS BEFORE YOU CAN CONTINUE USING THE SOFTWARE FOR AN UNLIMITED TIME ******************************************************************* ************ 1. General This is a license agreement and NOT an agreement for sale. Under this contract Sitni Sati d.o.o grants to you a non-exclusive license to use AfterBurn 3, which is software and documentation. AfterBurn 3 itself as well as the copy of AfterBurn 3 or any other copy you are authorized to make under this contract remain the property of Sitni Sati d.o.o at all times. 2. Use of AfterBurn 3 (1) Sitni Sati d.o.o grants you a nonexclusive, nontransferable license to use AfterBurn 3 and its manual and other accompanying printed material and “online” or electronic documentation with equipment owned by you or under your control, according to the terms and conditions of this Agreement. This Agreement permits a single user to install and use AfterBurn 3 on only one computer at one location at any one time. (2) If AfterBurn 3 is identified as a demonstration, evaluation, or NFR version, you may use it only for the purpose of commercial evaluation and demonstration. Such licenses are generated for a specific fixed time period. After a NFR license has been expired, all related documentation and data must be destroyed or sent back to Sitni Sati d.o.o or the reseller who handled the NFR version. You may not use it for commercial, professional, or for-profit purposes. 3. Multiple use and network operation If this Software is a Network Version, you may use it only over an internal local area network environment with a Floating License Tool, and you may install and operate AfterBurn 3 on a single server computer in a single location which may be accessed by other computers, or on an individual computer, as a multiple-user installation with either: (1) The maximum number of concurrent users being one (1), so that multiple individuals may access or use AfterBurn 3, but that only one person at a time may do so, or (2) The maximum number of concurrent users being more than one (1), in which case you must purchase single seat licenses for each additional concurrent user.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide The use of software or any device that reduces the number of computers/devices which access AfterBurn 3's licensing tool when used in a Server configuration may interfere or damage the licensing tool or prevent AfterBurn 3 from running properly. In no case will such a device "reduce" or prevent you from buying the number of single seat licenses required. 4. Transfer (1) You may not rent, lease, sublicense or lend AfterBurn 3 or documentation. You may, however, transfer all your rights to use AfterBurn 3 to another person or legal entity provided that you transfer this agreement, AfterBurn 3, including all copies, updates or prior versions. You must inform Sitni Sati d.o.o in writing about a license transfer and the new user has to sign and accept this license agreement. (2) In case of such a transfer the license of the former user expires and all remaining data covered by this license must be deleted/destroyed 5. You May Not: (1) Copy or use AfterBurn 3 or Documentation except as permitted by this Agreement. (2) Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble AfterBurn 3 except to the extent permitted by law where this is indispensable to obtain the information necessary to achieve interoperability of an independently created program with AfterBurn 3 or with another program and such information is not readily available from Sitni Sati d.o.o or elsewhere. (3) Install or use AfterBurn 3 on the Internet or over a wide area network, including, without limitation, use in connection with a Web based render farm or similar service. (4) Remove, alter, or obscure any proprietary notices, labels, or marks from AfterBurn 3 or documentation. (5) Utilize any equipment, device, software, or other means designed to circumvent or remove any form of copy protection used by Sitni Sati d.o.o in connection with AfterBurn 3, or use AfterBurn 3 together with any authorization code, serial number, or other copy protection device not supplied by Sitni Sati d.o.o directly or through an authorized reseller. 6. Limited warranty (1) SPECIAL EFFECTS AND RENDERING PLUG-INS ARE TOOLS INTENDED TO BE USED BY TRAINED PROFESSIONALS ONLY. SITNI SATI D.O.O WARRANTS THAT AFTERBURN 3 WILL PERFORM IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DOCUMENTATION. SITNI SATI D.O.O CAN NOT WARRANT THAT AFTERBURN 3 WILL WORK TOGETHER WITH OTHER SOFTWARE AND PLUG-INS FROM OTHER 3RD PARTY DEVELOPERS, BECAUSE OF THE COMPLEXITY OF SUCH INTERACTIONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT OPERATING SYSTEMS OR SOFTWARE PACKAGES. THE USER MAY HOWEVER IMMEDIATELY REPORT SUCH INCOMPATIBILITIES FOR FURTHER INSPECTION BY SITNI SATI D.O.O SUCH A REPORT HAS TO BE DONE IN WRITING. 7. Warranty Disclaimer THE INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. SITNI SATI D.O.O DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL SITNI SATI D.O.O, ITS SUPPLIERS, TURBO SQUID, INC., OR AUTODESK MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT, A DIVISION OF AUTODESK BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF SITNI SATI D.O.O OR ITS SUPPLIERS, TURBO SQUID, INC., OR AUTODESK MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT, A DIVISION OF AUTODESK HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF

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Introduction SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY. 8. Confidentially All Licensing information, including license files, descriptions of code activation and written instructions of any kind created by Sitni Sati d.o.o are only intended for the licensed user of AfterBurn 3 and no one else. Such information may not be spread or distributed in any form to other users. 9. Registration Data For the purpose of customer registration and control of proper use of the programs Sitni Sati d.o.o will store personal data of the users in accordance with the Croatian law on Personal Privacy and Data Protection. This data may only be used for the above-mentioned purposes and will not be accessible to third parties. 10. Other If any provision of this Agreement is found to be invalid or otherwise unenforceable, the further conditions of this Agreement will remain fully effective and the parties will be bound by obligations which approximate, as closely as possible, the effect of the provision found invalid or unenforceable, without being themselves invalid or unenforceable.

BY INSTALLING AND AUTHORIZING THIS SOFTWARE, YOU HEREBY AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS PRESENTED ABOVE. 3ds Max is a registered trademark of Autodesk Media & Entertainment, a division of Autodesk Inc.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide

Support and Contact Information

Stay in Contact AfterBurn 3 is under constant development and we need your help to improve it. If you think of features you'd like to see within AfterBurn 3, please let us know. We'd love to hear from you and we will always answer your emails. It doesn't matter if you just want to write in to give us your opinion. Tell us what you think and what you would like to see in upcoming releases. The easiest way to contact us is by email. Our contact information is as follows: Sitni Sati d.o.o. Zapoljska 6, Zagreb 10000, Croatia Ph: +385 (0)1 23 33 342 Fx: +385 (0)1 23 05 453 http://www.afterworks.com Email: [email protected] NOTE: If you are looking for technical support for AfterBurn 3, then please go HERE. Copyright Notice The copyright of AfterBurn 3 and the manual is owned by Sitni Sati d.o.o. Reproduction of the software or associated digital information of this manual is forbidden, unless confirmed and signed in writing by Sitni Sati d.o.o. All Rights are Reserved. AfterBurn, DreamScape, Enlight and ScatterVL Pro are trademarks of Sitni Sati d.o.o. AfterBurn © Sitni Sati d.o.o 2000-2005 This software is designed to work as a plug-in only for 3ds Max.

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Introduction

Technical Support Information General Technical Support Turbo Squid, Inc. is pleased to have been chosen as Autodesk Media & Entertainment's partner for the Autodesk Certified Animation Plug-in Program, and as part of our commitment to the 3ds Max users and our development partners, we are proud to announce that we are offering free email-based technical support for all Autodesk Certified Animation Plug-in tools. The most important goal behind our technical support endeavors is to ensure that you have a good experience with your software, and in those cases where there are problems, that you have a good experience with Turbo Squid in getting your issues resolved quickly. If you are having any difficulties with your Autodesk Certified Animation Plug-in products, then feel free to contact our support team at the following online site: Online Web-based Support System: http://www.turbosquid.com/Support From this section of our website, fill out an online Product Support Ticket, so our technical support staff can get you an answer. Please be sure to include as much specific information as possible when reporting errors including the following: • • • • • • • •

The Autodesk Certified Animation Plug-in tool that is giving you trouble along with your product Serial Number (without your serial number, Turbo Squid will NOT be able to assist you) Hardware configuration (single / dual motherboard, amount of RAM, etc.) Operating System (including language and Service Packs) Version of 3ds Max you are using Step-by-step description to reproduce the problem Other miscellaneous notes, plug-ins present and observations A *.max file that shows the problem A daytime phone and return email address (if different from the one sent in on)

When sending files for diagnosis, please be sure to compress them with a Windows utility like WinZip or WinAce. This will make transfer a much faster, and simpler process.

Online Forums You are also encouraged to visit the Autodesk Certified Animation Plug-in Technical Support forums to get answers from fellow users and from the developers directly. This online community has been set up specifically to make sure that you get the help you need, when you need it. It can be found at the following URL: http://support.discreet.com. Click on Autodesk Certified Plug-ins, and there will be a forum for AfterBurn 3.2.

FAQs Within the Turbo Squid website are FAQs for all of the Autodesk Certified Animation Plug-ins, including AfterBurn 3.2. Check here for answers to common questions. As problems are reported and solved, answers to these issues will also be added to this FAQ area, so check back often.

Installation & Authorization Support 5

AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide If you’re having difficulty installing or authorizing your new Autodesk Certified Animation Plug-in software, then you may also choose to call our technical support staff directly so that we can get you up and running quickly. If you decide to call, be sure that you have your Product Serial Number available. If you do not have it, our staff won't be able to assist you. Phone: (504) 525-0990 Please understand this phone line is for Installation support only, and all other technical and usage support questions will be referred to email or to our support forums for assistance.

Other Options Sitni Sati will continue to enhance AfterBurn 3 as part of the Autodesk Certified Animation Plug-in program. When there are new releases or updates to AfterBurn 3, you will be informed by your authorized reseller and through direct contact from Sitni Sati, Autodesk Media & Entertainment and Turbo Squid. To best keep you informed about new releases and free updates you must be a registered user.

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Introduction

Welcome

Obsession - image courtesy of Essen Syed © 2003 Thank you for purchasing AfterBurn 3 for 3ds Max®. AfterBurn is an advanced volumetric particle effects engine plug-in that works exclusively with Autodesk Media & Entertainment's 3ds Max program, and gives you the ability to create realistic smoke, clouds, explosions and other organic fiery and gaseous effects. We hope that you will find that AfterBurn 3 allows you to create the incredible effects you are looking for. Our philosophy is to integrate powerful software design and ease-of-use into our plug-ins so that as an artist, you can be productive instead of having to fight with the tools. If you find we need to improve in some areas of AfterBurn 3, please let us know. AfterBurn is designed to work in concert with the integrated 3ds Max particle systems to augment their effects, and, in many cases, to create visual effects that you could not achieve easily using the 3ds Max program’s native tools. AfterBurn makes it possible for you to create convincing exhaust trails from rockets and missiles, fiery explosions that rival the real thing, swirling tornados that can rip buildings to shreds, gooey lava flows and much more. Just think of this tool as your organic effects generator within the 3ds Max environment. AfterBurn is an incredibly powerful plug-in, used currently by major film effects companies, computer game developers, and “boutique” video production houses to create amazing visual

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide results. We are glad you've invested in this powerful application to enhance your work, and we hope you’re eager to get started. AfterBurn is a complex system, and may appear confusing at first. However, if you follow the tutorials and watch the training videos, the ideas behind AfterBurn's design should become clear to you. Follow the instructions in this manual and try to work through it in easy stages, don't make the mistake of trying to learn everything at once. Practice with AfterBurn will help you get comfortable quickly.

Where to find AfterBurn AfterBurn is a very complex piece of software, and as such, it has components intertwined with many aspects of the 3ds Max application. In an effort to help you get up to speed quickly with the software, provided below are a number of quick links for you to use to get to the specific area of the help that you need.

AfterBurn 3.2 Overview AfterBurn Renderer AfterBurn Gradient Controls Animation Flow Curves (AFCs) & Interpolation Controllers AfterBurn Shadow Generators AfterBurn Combustion AfterBurn Volume Fog AfterBurn Fog AfterBurn Glow AfterBurn Daemons Tutorials

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Introduction

AfterBurn 3.2 Overview

Image courtesy of Allan McKay AfterBurn is an advanced volumetric particle effects engine plug-in that works exclusively with Autodesk Media & Entertainment's 3ds Max program, and gives you the ability to create realistic smoke, clouds, explosions and other organic fiery and gaseous effects. AfterBurn is designed to work in concert with the integrated 3ds Max particle systems to augment their effects, and, in many cases, to create visual effects that you could not achieve easily using the 3ds Max program’s native tools. AfterBurn makes it possible for you to create convincing exhaust trails from rockets and missiles, fiery explosions that rival the real thing, swirling tornados that can rip buildings to shreds, gooey lava flows and much more. Just think of this tool as your organic effects generator within the 3ds Max environment. AfterBurn is an incredibly powerful plug-in, used currently by major film effects companies, computer game developers, and “boutique” video production houses to create amazing visual results. We are glad you've invested in this powerful application to enhance your work, and we hope you’re eager to get started. But before you dive into the tutorials, we strongly recommend that you read this section first, to understand exactly the way AfterBurn works. It will give you a better understanding of the way you set up an AfterBurn effect, the way it behaves, and what sort of advanced controls you will have at your disposal. As an effects artist and creator, you can use this knowledge to consider how AfterBurn will affect and interact with your scenes, and how you need to prepare your 3ds Max particle systems to take best advantage of this astonishing plug-in. Now, let’s get started.

Understanding how AfterBurn works Particle System Information AfterBurn Environment

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AfterBurn Daemons Understanding how AfterBurn works As mentioned earlier, AfterBurn is an advanced particle effects engine. To work with it, you need to have a particle system already present in your scene. If you are new to particle systems, you may first want to go through the tutorials provided with 3ds Max, covering these object types. Since you won't create any new particle systems within the AfterBurn tutorials, once you get familiar with the native 3ds Max particle tools and the forces that act upon them, you can then make adjustments to the AfterBurn tutorial files and fine-tune the effects that AfterBurn produces. To start, what is a particle effect in 3ds Max? In general terms, a particle effect takes the appearance of particles within a specific particle system and transforms them to look like something entirely different. When you add an AfterBurn effect to your particles, the AfterBurn engine will create a volumetric “puff” surrounding each individual particle within a chosen particle system. (Think of it as a sort of a spherical cloud.) In the example below, you can see a single particle represented on the far left. In the center, is the representation of the AfterBurn volumetric puff as defined by the user. Finally, on the right is the volumetric effect created when rendered.

When these “puffs” overlap, they tend to blend together, creating the illusion of one larger, organic entity, like the dust storm below.

Image courtesy of Allan McKay

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Introduction Of course, the appearance of these puffs, their coloration and noise parameters, as well as the degree of their blending together will be entirely up to you, and that’s half the fun while working with AfterBurn! There are plenty of options, so you can tweak your effects to get very specific results. Additionally, you don't have to worry about rendering test frames endlessly to see how your AfterBurn effects will look, since the plug-in comes with a sophisticated preview engine, taking the guesswork out of your setup. In the following sections we'll cover the basics of AfterBurn operation, along with the locations of AfterBurn’s major plug-in components.

Particle System Information Before creating an AfterBurn effect, you need to build a particle system within 3ds Max. By default, AfterBurn supports all of the built-in particle systems that come with 3ds Max, as well as many other third-party particle plug-ins. Many of these particle systems give you the ability to set the life span of the particles over time. This way, the particles are born at a specific point, live for a given period of time and then die. AfterBurn can take advantage of these particle settings and apply them automatically to the volumetric puffs that it creates.

For example, if you have a Super Spray particle system set up so the particles are born on frame 10 and live for 30 frames, AfterBurn will recognize this and automatically adjust it's settings to match for the puffs it creates. The result is that your particles and their corresponding AfterBurn effects are always in sync. By default, AfterBurn is aware of the built-in particle systems, and you

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide won't have to manually set any lifespan parameters. Be aware that certain commercial and freeware particle system plug-ins may require you to set the lifespan for the AfterBurn volumetric effects manually. Once your particle system is set up, you then need to apply AfterBurn to it. When it comes to particle systems, you should spend some time learning how they work, how you can control them, and what they are capable of on their own. This is important as much of AfterBurn is reliant upon how these particle systems move around your scenes. There are a number of tutorials that come with the 3ds Max software. You can also go onto the Internet as there is quite a bit of information as well as countless tutorials covering how to work and master the particle systems.

AfterBurn Environment AfterBurn contains a set of 3ds Max environmental effects that resides within the Rendering>Environment dialog. This is the core of the AfterBurn plug-in, and the place where you will spend most of your time creating and fine-tuning your effects. Please note that since much of AfterBurn is set up as Environmental effects, these effects does not create any actual geometry in your scenes. In addition, you are not limited to a single AfterBurn effect in your scene. You can either add one AfterBurn entry to affect selected particle systems globally, or you can add multiple AfterBurn entries for different particle systems. For example, in case of a tornado scene, you may have one AfterBurn entry for the swirling clouds above the funnel, another one for the funnel itself, and a third one for the ground debris.

You can activate and work on each of these effects independently, and you can copy settings from one to another quickly and easily. AfterBurn also comes with three different rendering technologies: the Raymarcher, the Octane Shader and HyperSolids. Between them, you can create just about any organic particle effect you can dream up. Raymarcher is the photorealistic engine, while the Octane Shader is AfterBurn's ultra-fast render system for dust and more transparent effects. HyperSolids is a special engine for creating blobby, organic forms and other procedural solid looking objects as shown below.

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Introduction

Image courtesy of Allan McKay

AfterBurn Daemons AfterBurn Daemons are helper objects that affect AfterBurn and AfterBurn Combustion in different ways. (Think of them as “Space Warps for volumetrics.”) These daemons affect the volumetric effects by altering the noise and shape of the puffs. For example, the wind daemon can affect the puffs and make them appear as if they are moving in a particular direction.

The new Explode Daemon AfterBurn ships initially with a number of Daemons. For any AfterBurn effect to take advantage of these daemons, they must be added to the respective plug-in slot.

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If there is more than one Daemon applied to the same effect, you need to take care about which one is going be applied first (the final effect can look different!) You can control this by reordering Daemons in the AfterBurn or AfterBurn Combustion [Pick Sources/Daemons] Combo Box.

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Introduction

What's New in AfterBurn 3.2 AfterBurn 3.2 is the latest update of this award winning plug-in. Since it's first introduction back in 1997, AfterBurn has been used in numerous movies, IMAX films, games and commercials. This all-in-one solution enables rendering of ultra-realistic effects ranging from clouds, pyroclastic smoke, dust, superb explosion effects, liquid metals, water and various procedurally defined solid objects. High quality output and flexibility are hallmarks of AfterBurn that makes it a perfect solution for any production pipeline. For existing AfterBurn users, here is a short list of the major features and additions to this exciting new version:

ThinkingParticles 2 Support: AfterBurn 3.2 now supports multiple ThinkingParticles 2 particle groups within the Master System. From the AfterBurn user interface, you can select ThinkingParticles as your source particle, and a new Group selector dialog will appear. Whichever TP2 particle Groups you pick will be displayed inside the Source Particles/Daemons group of controls (as shown below).

New ThinkingParticles multiple system support To learn more about the ThinkingParticles 2 support, click HERE.

Improved Explode Daemon Calculations:

Image Courtesy of Allan McKay AfterBurn 3.2 has re -worked the core algorithms of the Explode Daemon so that it achieves faster results and is not as memory intensive. In terms of controls, it is identical to previous versions, but in terms of speed, you will see a marked improvement.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide To learn more about the Explode Daemon, click HERE.

AFCs now use full Bezier interpolation:

Full Bezier Interpolation AfterBurn 3.2 has added full Bezier interpolation to all of its AFC control dialogs. Now users can manipulate full Bezier curves and handles to define your curves and gives you more control over how your flow curves appear.

Added Support for finalRender Stage-1 Global Illumination and Caustics As part of the interoperation between ACAP plug-ins, AfterBurn 3.2 now offers a tighter connection to finalRender Stage-1's Global Illumination and Caustics generation. In previous versions of AfterBurn, all GI and Caustics data would not affect the output look of the AfterBurn volumetrics as shown in the image below.

Stage-1 Global Illumination off Now, within AfterBurn 3.2, you can right-click on the particle system to which AfterBurn is assigned, choose fR-Properties and from the resulting dialog turn on Calculate Self-GI and/or

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Introduction

Generate Caustics controls. At that point, the volumetric puffs will use the Global Illumination and Caustics data from Stage-1 to light the scene.

Stage-1 Global Illumination on

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What's New in AfterBurn 3.1 AfterBurn 3.1 is the latest update this award winning plug-in. Since it's first introduction back in 1997, AfterBurn has been used in numerous movies, IMAX films, games and commercials. This all-in-one solution enables rendering of ultra-realistic effects ranging from clouds, pyroclastic smoke, dust, superb explosion effects, liquid metals, water and various procedurally defined solid objects. High quality output and flexibility are hallmarks of AfterBurn that makes it a perfect solution for any production pipeline. For existing AfterBurn users, here is a short list of the major features and additions to this exciting new version:

Animation Flow Curves AfterBurn's AFC controls, which are used to vary parameters over a particle's lifespan, have now been enhanced in version 3.1. Besides Smooth and Corner knot types within the AFC dialogs, you now have the additional option of using Bezier curves and handles to define your curves and gives you more control over how your flow curves appear.

New Bezier controls for your AFC dialogs To learn more about the AFC controllers, go HERE.

Gradients Gradients in AfterBurn 3.1 have also had a face-lift to give them additional refinement controls. In addition to the standard linear interpolation between gradient flags, a new TCB (Tension, Continuity, Bias) method has been built in, allowing you to set fewer flags and still achieve amazing results. When you activate the new TCB controller, each gradient flag gets the TCB as well as Ease To and Ease From control spinners for your color interpolation.

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Introduction

To learn more about the new TCB gradient options, go HERE.

Interpolation Controllers One of the biggest enhancements to AfterBurn 3.1 is in regards to the way the Animation Flow Curves for all of your AfterBurn parameters are interpolated over time. In previous versions, all AFCs were based off of the individual particle's age. Now, with AfterBurn 3.1 you now have the ability to choose from Particle Age, Particle Velocity, Emitter Distance, Object Distance and Expression based interpolation methods, freeing you to create astonishing animations that would be nearly impossible to create otherwise.

To learn more about these sophisticated Interpolation controllers, go HERE.

Explode Daemon The Explode Daemon has gotten a lot of attention between versions, and now offers a number of new color blending options, including Add, Multiply, Replace and Intensity Blend, so that you can create more realistic effects than ever before.

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To see more on the Explode Daemon, go HERE.

Reflection & Refraction for HyperSolids AfterBurn 3.1 offers users familiar with the HyperSolids rendering technology a way to create convincing liquids, complete with Reflections of surrounding scene geometry as well as now full Refraction, for amazing results.

For more information on the new HyperSolids controls, go HERE.

Particle Flow Integration AfterBurn 3.1 comes with a new plug-in component designed to compliment and extend Autodesk Media & Entertainment's powerful Particle Flow extension. It allows you to assign different AfterBurn volumetric effects to specific portions of your particle flows. In this way, you can mix and match AfterBurn looks without having to set up multiple particle systems in order to user them.

For more information on the Particle Flow controls, go HERE.

Speed and Performance

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Introduction Finally, the AfterBurn 3.1 core engine has been further optimized and enhanced so that the entire process of rendering, regardless of the engine is sped up by as much as 40%! You should see quite remarkable speed gains on all of your existing AfterBurn scenes, and the most enhancement on scenes that utilize very transparent Raymarcher effects.

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Reference Guide AfterBurn Atmospherics

AfterBurn Renderer When you load any AfterBurn effect into Rendering->Environment, this plug-in is added automatically to your list. Without it, your AfterBurn effects will not render. Regardless of the number of AfterBurn entries you have in your list, you only need to have the AfterBurn Renderer in their once.

Click on any part of the image to go to that group of controls The order of AfterBurn entries is not as important as it is with standard 3ds Max volumetrics. However, it is a good idea to put effects that are closer to the Camera’s point of view above other entries in the list to achieve faster rendering times.

Rendering group of controls Global Step Scale - This spinner is useful in case you have many AfterBurn entries. With this parameter, you can easily increase or decrease the rendering quality of all AfterBurn entries. A smaller step scale provides better quality while a larger step scale provides quicker rendering times.

Output group of controls Clamp Output checkbox: If this option isn't checked, the default algorithm (exponential) will be used to limit the final color value (0.0 to 1.0 range). Clamping can be used for bright output which is more realistic in some cases. Create Image Channels checkbox: This option allows you to control whether various image channels will be created (such as a velocity channel, Material ID channel, etc.)

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Reference Guide

AfterBurn Atmospheric AfterBurn Manager rollout This rollout is one of the main panels for the AfterBurn 3 atmospheric volumetric effects. When using AfterBurn, this rollout is where you'll pick which particle systems are to be included in the AfterBurn effects along with several of the properties that affect the overall quality and speed of the system. If you do not have a source particle system selected within this rollout, then no AfterBurn volumetric effects will be generated.

Click on any part of the image to go to that group of controls

Source Particles/Daemons group of controls AfterBurn uses the 3ds Max program’s built-in particle systems, or compatible third-party particle systems, for position and velocity information. In order to begin working with AfterBurn, you'll need to select which particle systems you want it to create volumetric effects for. In addition, if you want any AfterBurn Daemons to modify your final volumetric effect, then you need to add these as well in this section. The order in which particle systems and daemons are selected does not affect the final rendered output.

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Pick - Lets you choose any 3ds Max standard particle system and any daemons you might want to include. To select a particle system or a daemon, press the “H” key to bring up the Select by Name dialog box. This allows you to choose a particle system in your scene by the emitter’s name. You can add as many particle systems or daemons as you want. When you pick a ThinkingParticles 2 particle system, you will get the following dialog:

Within it, you can choose any or all of the particle groups that have been created inside of ThinkingParticles 2 that you want to have AfterBurn affect. Once selected, they will show up in the AfterBurn atmospheric as follows:

Be aware that if you want to change the groups listed, you must double-click on the master TP2 particle system listed in the Source Particles/Daemons dialog to re-access the pop-up window. Remove - Removes the particle system or the daemon that is currently listed in the dropdown menu located directly on the right. The drop-down menu informs you which particle systems and daemons are included. Edit - This button will open the selected particle system or daemon for editing in the Modify panel.

Source Lights group of controls This works the same way as the Source Particles/Daemons, but lets you pick lights instead. You need to pick lights in your scene if you want to illuminate the AfterBurn effect.

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Reference Guide

Pick - Allows you to choose the light(s) you want to include. Press the “H” key to bring up the Select by Name dialog box, which then lets you choose lights by name. If you want your volumetric effects to cast shadows, you need to select AfterBurn Shadows inside the light’s rollout dialog (make sure you have the “Cast Shadows” option checked in the AfterBurn’s Illumination/Shading Parameters rollout.) Remove - Removes the light that is currently listed in the dropdown menu located directly on the right. The dropdown menu informs you which lights are included. Edit - This button will open the selected light for editing in the Modify panel.

Tools group of controls This group of controls provides quick access to tools and dialogs for common tasks in AfterBurn. Open - Clicking this button lets you load AfterBurn setting (.ABN) files. This file type does not include the animation done over time in 3ds max (that is, animation of low and high value spinners over time.) You use the .ABN files to save and retrieve parameter settings at the current frame. Save - Save settings (at the current frame) as an .ABN file at the specified time(s) in 3ds max. Again, as above, only low and high numeric values at a particular frame will be saved. All gradients and Animation Flow Curves (AFCs) are also saved in the .ABN file. (AFCs are described in further detail later on in this document.) Most of the time in AfterBurn, you do not need to directly animate high and low value spinners over time; the AFCs work well instead. Reset - Clicking this button launches a dialog that asks if you want to reset the AfterBurn parameters. Clicking Yes, resets all AfterBurn parameters, Animation Flow Curves, gradients and spinners back to their defaults. This is a global change and is NOT undoable, so use it with care. Help - This button opens this AfterBurn .CHM Help file directly within the 3ds max application. Preview - Clicking this button opens the Interactive Preview window. This Window can help you to visualize current AfterBurn parameters and to easily understand the influence of certain parameters.

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You can also use it to render a single particle over its entire lifespan. If your particle effect is particularly complex, you can render the Preview as an .AVI file, and then view it when the rendering is finished. Or you can scrub the frame slider beneath the preview window to manually see a particular frame within the AfterBurn lifespan. NOTE: AfterBurn Daemons, Reflections, Refractions, and Metaballs are not represented in the Preview window. Show in Viewport - Enabling this button displays a colored AfterBurn wireframe or a shaded shape in the Viewport. The shape is colored with the highest number gradient (if you've selected two colors, the second color gradient will be used to color the shape). Shape sizing, squashing, and auto stretching (but not the Variation parameter) are reflected in the Viewport as shown below.

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Reference Guide Particles in viewport

AfterBurn particles in viewport

Scale - Used for scaling the whole AfterBurn effect. You can use this option to “fit” your existing and saved .abn file settings into a new project of a different scale. When you click this button, the following dialog appears:

Here you can quickly set a percentage that you'd like to scale your entire AfterBurn volumetric effect. Procedure To scale an AfterBurn Effect: 1. Set the desired Percentage in the spinner. Normal logic applies: a setting of 10 means 10% of the original size, etc. 2. Click on the Scale Up or Scale down button depending on your needs. 3. Press Apply. NOTE: A good trick to help you visualize the effect of your scaling is to use this feature in concert with the Show in Viewport option. Preferences - Lets you set various parameters quickly. RapidRay - AfterBurn uses RapidRay for calculating the reflection/refraction of other objects in the scene. For more information about this feature, please go HERE. About - The About box gives you information about AfterBurn 3 including the build number and your hardware information.

Particles Property group of controls Usually, AfterBurn gets the particle life information from the existing particle system in order to apply it's volumetric effect. AfterBurn natively supports all of the built in particle systems that come with the 3ds Max application. This means that your normally don't have to use AfterBurn’s own Particle Life settings unless you want to achieve some sort of special look - possibly to have the particles ignite after a specific frame, etc.

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However, AfterBurn cannot get particle life parameters from certain third-party particle systems and in these cases you will be required to set the particle life manually. (For more information, please consult the developer of those systems if you are having trouble using them with AfterBurn.) Part. Start - By default, this spinner is disabled, however if you enable the Use button within this group of controls, you can set the start frame where the AfterBurn volumetric effects will begin. Part. Life - This spinner sets the overall lifespan over the AfterBurn volumetric effect. If you are having difficulty using a third-party particle system, try enabling the AfterBurn Use button and set the Particle Start and Particle Life parameters manually. If the Use button is not checked, you should nevertheless set the particle life parameters. Otherwise, all Previews will be 100 frames long by default. Use - Overrides the existing particle lifespan in favor of the Particle Start and Particle Life Spinner values. Activate the checkbox only if you want to limit which particles receive the volumetric effects. Seed - This spinner represents a random number parameter used to change the look of the AfterBurn Noise pattern. Clicking on the New button will cause the seed value to change.

Volume Rendering group of controls This group of controls affects the overall quality of the AfterBurn volumetric effects and are used to help tweak the look and speed at which AfterBurn renders its effects.

Falloff - The greater this spinner's value, the more opaque the volumetric effect will be. Lower values are good for clouds but will increase rendering times due to a higher number of samples that need to be calculated for each pixel of the volumetric effect. With Falloff set close to zero, the AfterBurn effect will be rendered in a similar fashion as the 3ds Max program’s native Fire Effect (in Rendering->Environment->Atmosphere->Effects). This is generally not desirable since all samples along a ray in this case contribute equally to the final pixel color. This tends to lessen the appearance of depth in the effect, making it hard to tell which areas of the “cloud” are near or far relative to your point of view.

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Reference Guide NOTE: You do not need to use this parameter for AfterBurn’s HyperSolids as it has no effect.

Falloff = 0.25

Falloff = 0.5

Falloff = 1.0

Step Size - This value indicates the step size of an integration path in 3ds Max world units. For an insight on how many steps will be performed, this value can be calculated using the formula: particle size divided by the number of steps. A lower Step Size value will produce a better-looking image. With very high density and a big step size, rendering artifacts may be produced. To avoid them, you should use smaller step sizes. Small step sizes are also required when rendering HyperSolids.

Step Size = 0.125

Step Size = 3.0

Step Size = 6.0

Limit - Instructs AfterBurn when to stop ray marching along an integration path. Low values are used for high-density volumetrics while high values are used for low density volumetrics. With a higher limit value, rendering time will be faster. If a larger limit value (>0.1) is used on a very dense effect, rendering artifacts may occur. NOTE: This parameter is not used for HyperSolids. Affect Z-Buffer - If you want an AfterBurn volumetrics to affect the Z-Buffer (which provides depth information in the 3ds Max rendering), then this button should be enabled. If the button is not enabled, AfterBurn's Video Post filters won't work for this AfterBurn instance. You can use this to make an occluded AfterBurn effect glow (you should turn OFF the [Affect Z-Buffer] parameter for the AfterBurn effect which is occluding the one you want to glow.)

Particle Quantity group of controls

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Every Nth - The “Every Nth” parameter lets you specify which Nth particle should be rendered with an AfterBurn effect. For example, if you have a particle system with 100 particles and you specify that every 10th particle should have an AfterBurn effect, 10 particles will be rendered with an AfterBurn effect (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90). Excl. - The Exclude button computes the Nth particles in the reverse order - instead of rendering an AfterBurn effect on the Nth particle, it's excludes every Nth particle. Offset - The Offset spinner lets you specify the particle from which the Every Nth setting should be applied from. Following the example above, if you have a particle system with 100 particles, and you specify an Every Nth value of 10 with an Offset of 1, it will render particles 11, 21, 31 and so on with the AfterBurn effect. Procedure How to make every 2nd particle colored by a different AfterBurn entry: Let’s assume you have a particle system of 100 particles (indexed from 0 to 99), and that you would like to apply a slightly different AfterBurn effect to every other particle, without adding another particle system into the scene. 1. In Rendering->Environment, create one AfterBurn entry, and set Every Nth to 2, and Offset to 0. This will result in rendering particles (0, 2, 4, 8...98.) 2. Pick your particle system, and modify the AfterBurn parameters to get the desired effect. 3. Add another AfterBurn entry, and set Every Nth to 2, and Offset to 1. This will result in rendering particles (1, 3, 5, 7...99.) 4. Pick the same particle system as in Step 2 above, and modify the new AfterBurn parameters to get a different look.

Rendering Type group of controls AfterBurn comes with three different types of rendering engines, and each one is useful for specific cases.

Raymarcher - The Raymarcher engine is a high-quality rendering engine in AfterBurn. It is capable of producing very crisp shadows on high-density smoke, explosions and clouds. Light interaction algorithms provide superb lighting and shadowing. However, they have a serious impact on the rendering speed because of complex calculations between AfterBurn and light interaction. Therefore, use it only if you really need the photorealistic output that the Raymarcher offers in your animation. Octane Shader - The Octane Shader provides up to 10 times the rendering speed of the Raymarcher, but lacks the latter’s crisp, self-shadowed volumetrics. This render engine is good for light dust and background smoke or "atmosphere" in your scenes. NOTE: You may experience rendering artifacts if you create extremely dense volumetrics so watch your Falloff settings.

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Reference Guide

HyperSolids - HyperSolids is a new way of rendering volumetric effects as blobby solids. This render engine is perfect for liquids or other organic solids like slime, jello and mud. With the HyperSolids engine, it is possible to render a volumetric effect as a true solid object with unlimited details but without a single polygon. Depending on the settings, you can use Noise as a Bump map, or as a Displacement map. Antialias - This button can be used only with HyperSolids. Ideally, you might use another 3rdparty renderer within 3ds Max which supports anti-aliasing of volumetric effects, and render HyperSolids with it instead. There are several good options available on the market now. If you don't have one, the built-in anti-aliasing algorithm will do the job very well with the built-in 3ds Max scanline renderer, but it will be slower.

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AfterBurn Manager rollout This rollout is one of the main panels for the AfterBurn 3 atmospheric volumetric effects. When using AfterBurn, this rollout is where you'll pick which particle systems are to be included in the AfterBurn effects along with several of the properties that affect the overall quality and speed of the system. If you do not have a source particle system selected within this rollout, then no AfterBurn volumetric effects will be generated.


Source Particles/Daemons group of controls AfterBurn uses the 3ds Max program’s built-in particle systems, or compatible third-party particle systems, for position and velocity information. In order to begin working with AfterBurn, you'll need to select which particle systems you want it to create volumetric effects for. In addition, if you want any AfterBurn Daemons to modify your final volumetric effect, then you need to add these as well in this section. The order in which particle systems and daemons are selected does not affect the final rendered output. Pick - Lets you choose any 3ds Max standard particle system and any daemons you might want to include. To select a particle system or a daemon, press the “H” key to bring up the Select by Name dialog box. This allows you to choose a particle system in your scene by the emitter’s name. You can add as many particle systems or daemons as you want.

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Reference Guide

When you pick a ThinkingParticles 2 particle system, you will get the following dialog:

Within it, you can choose any or all of the particle groups that have been created inside of ThinkingParticles 2 that you want to have AfterBurn affect. Once selected, they will show up in the AfterBurn atmospheric as follows:

Be aware that if you want to change the groups listed, you must double-click on the master TP2 particle system listed in the Source Particles/Daemons dialog to re-access the pop-up window. Remove - Removes the particle system or the daemon that is currently listed in the dropdown menu located directly on the right. The drop-down menu informs you which particle systems and daemons are included. Edit - This button will open the selected particle system or daemon for editing in the Modify panel.

Source Lights group of controls This works the same way as the Source Particles/Daemons, but lets you pick lights instead. You need to pick lights in your scene if you want to illuminate the AfterBurn effect. Pick - Allows you to choose the light(s) you want to include. Press the “H” key to bring up the Select by Name dialog box, which then lets you choose lights by name. If you want your volumetric effects to cast shadows, you need to select AfterBurn Shadows inside the light’s

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide rollout dialog (make sure you have the “Cast Shadows” option checked in the AfterBurn’s Illumination/Shading Parameters rollout.) Remove - Removes the light that is currently listed in the dropdown menu located directly on the right. The dropdown menu informs you which lights are included. Edit - This button will open the selected light for editing in the Modify panel.

Tools group of controls This group of controls provides quick access to tools and dialogs for common tasks in AfterBurn. Open - Clicking this button lets you load AfterBurn setting (.ABN) files. This file type does not include the animation done over time in 3ds max (that is, animation of low and high value spinners over time.) You use the .ABN files to save and retrieve parameter settings at the current frame. Save - Save settings (at the current frame) as an .ABN file at the specified time(s) in 3ds max. Again, as above, only low and high numeric values at a particular frame will be saved. All gradients and Animation Flow Curves (AFCs) are also saved in the .ABN file. (AFCs are described in further detail later on in this document.) Most of the time in AfterBurn, you do not need to directly animate high and low value spinners over time; the AFCs work well instead. Reset - Clicking this button launches a dialog that asks if you want to reset the AfterBurn parameters. Clicking Yes, resets all AfterBurn parameters, Animation Flow Curves, gradients and spinners back to their defaults. This is a global change and is NOT undoable, so use it with care. Help - This button opens this AfterBurn .CHM Help file directly within the 3ds max application. Preview - Clicking this button opens the Interactive Preview window. This Window can help you to visualize current AfterBurn parameters and to easily understand the influence of certain parameters.

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Reference Guide

You can also use it to render a single particle over its entire lifespan. If your particle effect is particularly complex, you can render the Preview as an .AVI file, and then view it when the rendering is finished. Or you can scrub the frame slider beneath the preview window to manually see a particular frame within the AfterBurn lifespan. NOTE: AfterBurn Daemons, Reflections, Refractions, and Metaballs are not represented in the Preview window. Show in Viewport - Enabling this button displays a colored AfterBurn wireframe or a shaded shape in the Viewport. The shape is colored with the highest number gradient (if you've selected two colors, the second color gradient will be used to color the shape). Shape sizing, squashing, and auto stretching (but not the Variation parameter) are reflected in the Viewport as shown below.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide Particles in viewport

AfterBurn particles in viewport

Scale - Used for scaling the whole AfterBurn effect. You can use this option to “fit” your existing and saved .abn file settings into a new project of a different scale. When you click this button, the following dialog appears:

Here you can quickly set a percentage that you'd like to scale your entire AfterBurn volumetric effect. Procedure To scale an AfterBurn Effect: 1. Set the desired Percentage in the spinner. Normal logic applies: a setting of 10 means 10% of the original size, etc. 2. Click on the Scale Up or Scale down button depending on your needs. 3. Press Apply. NOTE: A good trick to help you visualize the effect of your scaling is to use this feature in concert with the Show in Viewport option. Preferences - Lets you set various parameters quickly. RapidRay - AfterBurn uses RapidRay for calculating the reflection/refraction of other objects in the scene. For more information about this feature, please go HERE. About - The About box gives you information about AfterBurn 3 including the build number and your hardware information.

Particles Property group of controls Usually, AfterBurn gets the particle life information from the existing particle system in order to apply it's volumetric effect. AfterBurn natively supports all of the built in particle systems that come with the 3ds Max application. This means that your normally don't have to use AfterBurn’s own Particle Life settings unless you want to achieve some sort of special look - possibly to have the particles ignite after a specific frame, etc.

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Reference Guide

However, AfterBurn cannot get particle life parameters from certain third-party particle systems and in these cases you will be required to set the particle life manually. (For more information, please consult the developer of those systems if you are having trouble using them with AfterBurn.) Part. Start - By default, this spinner is disabled, however if you enable the Use button within this group of controls, you can set the start frame where the AfterBurn volumetric effects will begin. Part. Life - This spinner sets the overall lifespan over the AfterBurn volumetric effect. If you are having difficulty using a third-party particle system, try enabling the AfterBurn Use button and set the Particle Start and Particle Life parameters manually. If the Use button is not checked, you should nevertheless set the particle life parameters. Otherwise, all Previews will be 100 frames long by default. Use - Overrides the existing particle lifespan in favor of the Particle Start and Particle Life Spinner values. Activate the checkbox only if you want to limit which particles receive the volumetric effects. Seed - This spinner represents a random number parameter used to change the look of the AfterBurn Noise pattern. Clicking on the New button will cause the seed value to change.

Volume Rendering group of controls This group of controls affects the overall quality of the AfterBurn volumetric effects and are used to help tweak the look and speed at which AfterBurn renders its effects.

Falloff - The greater this spinner's value, the more opaque the volumetric effect will be. Lower values are good for clouds but will increase rendering times due to a higher number of samples that need to be calculated for each pixel of the volumetric effect. With Falloff set close to zero, the AfterBurn effect will be rendered in a similar fashion as the 3ds Max program’s native Fire Effect (in Rendering->Environment->Atmosphere->Effects). This is generally not desirable since all samples along a ray in this case contribute equally to the final pixel color. This tends to lessen the appearance of depth in the effect, making it hard to tell which areas of the “cloud” are near or far relative to your point of view.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide NOTE: You do not need to use this parameter for AfterBurn’s HyperSolids as it has no effect.

Falloff = 0.25

Falloff = 0.5

Falloff = 1.0

Step Size - This value indicates the step size of an integration path in 3ds Max world units. For an insight on how many steps will be performed, this value can be calculated using the formula: particle size divided by the number of steps. A lower Step Size value will produce a better-looking image. With very high density and a big step size, rendering artifacts may be produced. To avoid them, you should use smaller step sizes. Small step sizes are also required when rendering HyperSolids.

Step Size = 0.125

Step Size = 3.0

Step Size = 6.0

Limit - Instructs AfterBurn when to stop ray marching along an integration path. Low values are used for high-density volumetrics while high values are used for low density volumetrics. With a higher limit value, rendering time will be faster. If a larger limit value (>0.1) is used on a very dense effect, rendering artifacts may occur. NOTE: This parameter is not used for HyperSolids. Affect Z-Buffer - If you want an AfterBurn volumetrics to affect the Z-Buffer (which provides depth information in the 3ds Max rendering), then this button should be enabled. If the button is not enabled, AfterBurn's Video Post filters won't work for this AfterBurn instance. You can use this to make an occluded AfterBurn effect glow (you should turn OFF the [Affect Z-Buffer] parameter for the AfterBurn effect which is occluding the one you want to glow.)

Particle Quantity group of controls

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Reference Guide

Every Nth - The “Every Nth” parameter lets you specify which Nth particle should be rendered with an AfterBurn effect. For example, if you have a particle system with 100 particles and you specify that every 10th particle should have an AfterBurn effect, 10 particles will be rendered with an AfterBurn effect (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90). Excl. - The Exclude button computes the Nth particles in the reverse order - instead of rendering an AfterBurn effect on the Nth particle, it's excludes every Nth particle. Offset - The Offset spinner lets you specify the particle from which the Every Nth setting should be applied from. Following the example above, if you have a particle system with 100 particles, and you specify an Every Nth value of 10 with an Offset of 1, it will render particles 11, 21, 31 and so on with the AfterBurn effect. Procedure How to make every 2nd particle colored by a different AfterBurn entry: Let’s assume you have a particle system of 100 particles (indexed from 0 to 99), and that you would like to apply a slightly different AfterBurn effect to every other particle, without adding another particle system into the scene. 1. In Rendering->Environment, create one AfterBurn entry, and set Every Nth to 2, and Offset to 0. This will result in rendering particles (0, 2, 4, 8...98.) 2. Pick your particle system, and modify the AfterBurn parameters to get the desired effect. 3. Add another AfterBurn entry, and set Every Nth to 2, and Offset to 1. This will result in rendering particles (1, 3, 5, 7...99.) 4. Pick the same particle system as in Step 2 above, and modify the new AfterBurn parameters to get a different look.

Rendering Type group of controls AfterBurn comes with three different types of rendering engines, and each one is useful for specific cases.

Raymarcher - The Raymarcher engine is a high-quality rendering engine in AfterBurn. It is capable of producing very crisp shadows on high-density smoke, explosions and clouds. Light interaction algorithms provide superb lighting and shadowing. However, they have a serious impact on the rendering speed because of complex calculations between AfterBurn and light interaction. Therefore, use it only if you really need the photorealistic output that the Raymarcher offers in your animation. Octane Shader - The Octane Shader provides up to 10 times the rendering speed of the Raymarcher, but lacks the latter’s crisp, self-shadowed volumetrics. This render engine is good for light dust and background smoke or "atmosphere" in your scenes. NOTE: You may experience rendering artifacts if you create extremely dense volumetrics so watch your Falloff settings.

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HyperSolids - HyperSolids is a new way of rendering volumetric effects as blobby solids. This render engine is perfect for liquids or other organic solids like slime, jello and mud. With the HyperSolids engine, it is possible to render a volumetric effect as a true solid object with unlimited details but without a single polygon. Depending on the settings, you can use Noise as a Bump map, or as a Displacement map. Antialias - This button can be used only with HyperSolids. Ideally, you might use another 3rdparty renderer within 3ds Max which supports anti-aliasing of volumetric effects, and render HyperSolids with it instead. There are several good options available on the market now. If you don't have one, the built-in anti-aliasing algorithm will do the job very well with the built-in 3ds Max scanline renderer, but it will be slower.

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Reference Guide

Illumination/Shading Parameters rollout This rollout is where you control all of the shading controls over your AfterBurn effects. All lighting interaction is handled here as well, including things like shiny the effects are along with whether or not the AfterBurn volumetrics cast and receive shadows.


Shadow Tracing group of controls This rollout controls the shadowing within the AfterBurn volumetric effects.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide Shadow Samples - This spinner determines how many samples will be used for stepping through the volume. More samples will produce better quality output, but in most cases a value between 10 and 15 will produce good results.

Higher sampling produces more detailed and accurate shadows, but the tradeoff is that they take longer to render. This is the case with very high-density volumetrics as there is very high fluctuation of density inside a volume. Fewer samples should be used for very low-density effects. Shadow Falloff - This spinner makes the volumetric shadows appear lighter or darker, depending on whether it is smaller or larger than the Global Falloff setting within the AfterBurn Manager rollout. This makes the light “think” that volumetrics have different properties than those used for rendering a camera ray. When this value is lower than the Global Falloff value, the shadows will be ligther than normal, and when it's higher than the Global Falloff value, the shadows are darker. Global - Uses the Falloff value you have set in the “Global Parameters” rollout. Limit - This spinner tells the AfterBurn rendering engine when to stop tracing secondary rays needed for shadow calculations. For low-density volumetrics, use larger settings than those you use for high-density effects. Shadow Bias - Similar to the map bias used by the native 3ds Max lights. The spinner moves the shadow toward or away from the shadow-casting AfterBurn volumetric effects. By default, this value is 1.0 world coordinate unit. Increasing the bias moves the shadow away from the effect, and decreasing the bias moves the shadow closer to the effect. The Map Bias value can be any positive floating-point number. For example, if a shadow-casting AfterBurn effect flows into another AfterBurn effect, but its shadow doesn't appear to meet properly at the intersection, the bias is too high. This effect varies with the angle of the spotlight to the object. Extremely shallow spotlight angles usually require higher bias values.

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Reference Guide

Another purpose of bias is to avoid problems with objects that cast shadows onto themselves. If you see streaks or moiré patterns on the surface of the object, the bias value is too low. Shadow Opacity - An opacity of 0.0 means that there will be no shadow. Opacity of 1.0 means that shadows will be calculated as in AfterBurn 1.0. This value can be animated over time via an AFC control.

Shadow Cast checkbox: When unchecked, AfterBurn will not cast shadows on other objects in your scene. For AfterBurn to cast shadows, the lights in your scene must be using AfterBurn shadows. Shadow Receive checkbox: When this checkbox is enabled, AfterBurn will receive shadows from other objects in the scene. Self Shadows checkbox: When this checkbox is enabled, AfterBurn will cast shadows onto the AfterBurn volumetric effect itself. Colored Shadows checkbox: This option works only with AfterBurn lights casting raytraced shadows. When this checkbox is enabled, it produces a colored shadow as shown below.

Checkbox disabled

Checkbox enabled

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Shading group of controls The Shading rollout controls the highlights on the AfterBurn volumetrics as well as how the normals are shaped and how they are colored.

Shading Type - This dropdown menu provides you with three types of volume shading: None, Lambert and Phong. None - When this option is selected, the AfterBurn volumetric puffs' normals are not affected by the scene lights. Lambert - Lambert shading changes the illumination of the surface based on the angle between the surface normal and the light. Phong - Phong shading is similar to Lambert, except that it includes specular highlights (controlled by the Shininess and Shininess strength spinners below). Normals - These options are activated when the Shading Type is set to either Lambert or Phong. There are two options for normal calculations: Shape and Noise. Shape - Shape-based normals are calculated from the Gizmo shape you are using (sphere, box, cylinder, metaball), and thus are smooth on the surface. Noise - Noise-based normals are the normals of the selected Noise function rendered from the Noise Shape rollout below. Whichever noise function is selected is generated within the AfterBurn atmospheric.

Light Scattering - Light Scattering is calculated as a modification of AfterBurn volumetric puff's illumination based on an angle between the incident of light at the sampling point, and the 3ds

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Reference Guide Max Camera direction. There are three options to choose from: Rayleigh, HGS and Isotropic. The following AVIs illustrate how the light interacts with the volumetric puffs within each AfterBurn effect.

Rayleigh

HGS

Isotropic

S Inf. - The Shape Influence spinner is used to mix between the Noise normal and the Shape normal. A value of 1.0 causes the normals to be completely Shape based, while a value of 0.0 causes the normals to be completely Noise based. All values in between blend between the two normals types. Ambient Color - The ambient color swatch adjusts the ambient light contribution to an AfterBurn volumetric effect.

Specular Color - The specular color swatch is only active when the Shading Type is set to Phong, and it controls the specular color. The Specular color is the color of the highlight on a shiny object. Shininess - When the Shading Type is set to Phong, the shininess spinner becomes active and controls the size of the specular area on the AfterBurn volumetric puffs. This value can be animated over time via an AFC control. Shininess Strength - When the Shading Type is set to Phong, the shininess strength spinner affects the overall intensity of the shininess applied to the AfterBurn volumetric puffs. This value can be animated over time via an AFC control.

Reflections group of controls This group of controls is only available for shaded HyperSolids and determines how reflective the volumetric effects are.

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Reflections checkbox: When enabled, other objects from the scene become visible in reflections within the AfterBurn HyperSolids. Refl. Strength - This spinner controls the reflectivity of HyperSolids. A value of 0.0 is no reflectivity while a value of 1.0 represents full reflectivity. This value can be animated over time via an AFC control. Reflect MtlID checkbox: When an object is visible in the Volumetric HyperSolids surface reflection it can leave its Material ID “imprinted” on the surface. This is useful if you want to apply 3ds Max Video Post Effects or Render Effects to specific Material IDs within the scene. Reflect Environment checkbox: With this option enabled, the AfterBurn effect can reflect the Environment Map or Color if one is present in the scene. [???Note: if the Env. Color is black, does it make a difference here?]

Refraction group of controls This group of controls is only available for shaded HyperSolids and determines how refractive the volumetric effects are.

Refractions checkbox: When enabled, other objects from the scene become visible in refraction within the AfterBurn HyperSolids. Refr. Strength - This spinner controls the refraction amount of HyperSolids. A value of 0.0 is no refractivity while a value of 1.0 represents full refractivity. This value can be animated over time via an AFC control. Also be aware that when you start working with reflection and refraction with AfterBurn, once you've achieved the look you're after, you'll most likely want to turn on the Antialiasing switch in the AfterBurn Manager rollout to clean up the rendered edges within the HyperSolids. Absorption checkbox: Using this option, HyperSolids can attenuate the light passing through the medium. The higher the value, the more the selected absorption color attenuates the refraction effect. Absorption Color - This color swatch represents the absorption color visible in the effect. IOR - Index of refraction. Higher IOR values produce more distorted rays. The IOR of glass is around 1.6; the IOR of water is 1.333. Refract Environment: With this option enabled, the AfterBurn effect can refract the Environment Map or Color if one is used. Refract Environment checkbox: When enabled, this checkbox instructs the AfterBurn HyperSolids to calculate the environment in it's refraction solution.

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Reference Guide

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Color Parameters rollout AfterBurn can use up to three colors for each volumetric puff as defined within the Color Parameters rollout. Each color is controlled by 4 elements: a gradient, interpolation controller, color position spinner, and Hue, Saturation, and Value variation spinners.

Color - The Color gradient defines color changes over the particle's lifetime as controlled by a user-defined interpolation method. In simple terms, the gradient tells the volumetric puff what color it's supposed to be over time. To learn how to set up gradients, you should go to the Gradient Controls section of the Reference Guide. There are several settings that determine how a gradient is applied to the AfterBurn effect: Interpolation Controller - Next to the gradient is a small button. This button is responsible for how the gradient is interpreted over the life of the AfterBurn effect. To learn about the different Interpolation Controller options and how to control them, go to the Interpolation Controllers section of the Reference Guide. Pos - This spinner controls the position of color dominance for each volumetric puff. A lower value tells AfterBurn to place that color more closely to the center of a particle's puff. A higher value indicates that color will be placed close to the puff's outer boundary. When two or more colors are used in combination, their relative settings determine which color will be more prominent at any given point in time. This value is also affected by how the colors are instructed to blend together via the c1->c2->c3 controls. Plus, you can animate the prominence of a gradient's colors over the course of the animation through the use of an AFC control.

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ID - This spinner lets you assign a Material ID to that color. If an ID is applied, you can use the AfterBurn Glow filter to glow this color by specifying the ID in the Glow dialog. To use this feature, you must check the Affect Z-buffer option in the AfterBurn Manager rollout. Variation - There are three spinners that affect the overall Hue (H), Saturation (S) and Value (V) of the volumetric puffs. Each one can go from 0 to 255. If you assign a value to one of these parameters, each particle that is born will differ in that particular selection from other puffs by that value. So if you want to introduce some randomness into the lightness/darkness of the AfterBurn puffs, you'd adjust the Value variation spinner to achieve that effect. You can also specify how many colors you want to use on a volumetric particle.

The particle to the far left, uses one color, which is a yellow-brown. The particle in the middle uses 2 colors, the same yellow-brown, plus purple. The third particle uses three colors – grayish brown, purple, plus blue. If you want the blue to be more towards the middle, then go to the 3rd color gradient, and change the Pos. parameter to the lower value. NOTE: Using more colors will slower rendering. c1->c2->c3: This set of options lets you determine how the three color gradients blend together. Distance - This option changes the color of the volumetric puff from Color 1 to Color 2 and then to Color 3, based on the distance from the particle center. Density - This option changes the color of the volumetric puff from Color 1 to Color 2 and then to Color 3, based on the particle density. Toony - This last option gives the smoke a “cartoony” or high-contrast, posterized look. Two or three colors are required to get the Toony effect.

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Particle Shape/Animation Parameters rollout The Particle Shape/Animation Parameters rollout is where you define what shape you want the volumetric puffs to be. AfterBurn can use any of five different shapes as a “container” for each volumetric particle: Sphere, Cylinder, Box, Metaball and Hemisphere (Sphere must be selected for the Hemisphere option to be available.)


Size group of controls The Size group of controls affects the individual volumetric puff sizes as well as how they are oriented in relation to their emitter and motion.

NOTE: Be aware that the labels within this group of controls is affected, and will change, depending on the puff shape that is chosen in the Type group of controls below. As there are four different shape types (Spheres, Cylinders, Boxes and Metaballs), the labels will adjust accordingly when each is chosen.

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Sphere: Sph. Radius - The sphere radius spinner lets you set the individual spherical puff radius. The value is in world units and can be animated over time via an AFC control. Squash Height - This spinner lets you set a high and low value that squashes the sphere height. The value is in world units and can be animated over time via an AFC control. Squash Len - Squash Length; lets you set a high and low value that squashes the sphere length. The value is in world units and can be animated over time via an AFC control. Metaball: Mb. Radius - The metaball radius spinner lets you set the individual metaball puff radius. The value is in world units and can be animated over time via an AFC control. Box: Box Width - This spinner lets you set a high and low value for the box width. The value is in world units and can be animated over time via an AFC control. Box Height - This spinner lets you set a high and low value for the box height. The value is in world units and can be animated over time via an AFC control. Box Length - This spinner lets you set a high and low value for the box length. The value is in world units and can be animated over time via an AFC control. Cylinder: Cyl. Radius - Cylinder radius. Lets you set a high and low value of the cylinder radius. The value is in world units and can be animated over time via an AFC control. Cyl. Height - Cylinder height. Lets you set a high and low value of the sphere height. The value is in world units and can be animated over time via an AFC control. Squash Len - Squash length. Lets you set a high and low value that squashes the cylinder length. The value is in world units and can be animated over time via an AFC control. Regularity - Lets you specify a high and low value of the regularity. Lower values will look more varied and sporadic, while higher values will be more uniform and fill the volume boundary more completely. The default value for regularity is 0.3, but values up to 0.5 are recommended.

When using HyperSolids, the regularity will behave as the displacement/bump strength. Var% - Each of the parameters within this group of controls also has a variation percentage spinner where you can cause the settings to vary from volumetric puff to puff. This introduces a more natural look to the volumetric effects since all of the particles are slightly different. NOTE: Lower regularity will produce a sparser look, but it will require a higher particle count to cover the same area with higher regularity, resulting in a slower rendering time. You can also achieve a sparser look by setting a low threshold parameter to a value between 0.3 - 0.5, depending on the noise type. Play with this technique to fit your project needs and to avoid any unnecessary additional rendering time.

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Rotation group of controls This group of controls determines the rotation of the puff shape around any of its three axes. Rotation axes are aligned to the world coordinates. If the Alignment option in the Type group of controls is set to Particle Velocity, then rotation axes are aligned to the particle velocity direction.

X - This parameter controls the rotation of the AfterBurn puff around the world X-axis. This parameter can be animated over time via an AFC control. Y - This parameter controls the rotation of the AfterBurn puff around the world Y-axis. This parameter can be animated over time via an AFC control. Z - This parameter controls the rotation of the AfterBurn puff around the world Z-axis. This parameter can be animated over time via an AFC control. Var% - Each of the parameters within this group of controls also has a variation percentage spinner where you can cause the settings to vary from volumetric puff to puff. This introduces a more natural look to the volumetric effects since all of the particles will be rotated slightly differently.

Type group of controls The Type group of controls determines the overall shape of the volumetric puffs. There are four different shapes to choose from: Sphere, Box, Cylinder and Metaball.

Type dropdown: This dropdown is where you determine the shape of the volumetric puffs. Sphere - This option creates a spherical puff as shown below. The Spherical shape is the default type of volumetric puff and is good for most tasks. It also offers the option of producing a Hemispherical puff as well.

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Spherical

Hemispherical

Box - This option creates a cube shaped puff as shown below. Be aware that when you switch between shape types, the new parameters don't automatically update. So when you switch from Sphere to Box, you'll need to adjust the Box Height and Box Length to make it appear correctly.

Box Cylinder - This option creates a cylindrical puff as shown below. Be aware that when you switch between shape types, the new parameters don't automatically update. So when you switch from Sphere to Cylinder, you'll need to adjust the Cylinder Height and Squash Length to make it appear correctly.

Cylinder Metaball - This option creates metaball puffs that are used exclusively with the AfterBurn HyperSolids option. This shape type does not function with any other rendering type. Alignment: These two options control how the volumetric puffs are oriented in relation to the particle motion. None - When None is selected, the AfterBurn puffs keep their original orientation unless you have specified rotation. Particle Velocity - When this option is enabled, the AfterBurn puffs will rotate in such a way that they will stay aligned to their travelling direction. Auto Stretch - This spinner controls how the volumetric puffs will stretch according to the particle velocity. The higher the value of this spinner, the more elongated the puffs will become. This parameter is useful in situations where you want to create fast moving effects like explosions. This parameter can be animated over time via an AFC control.

Shape Preview Window

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide One of the benefits of AfterBurn is the options is provides you to visualize your effects before having to render. Within the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters rollout is a preview window that lets you see the overall shape of your volumetric puff.

Preview Window - The main preview window is activated by the lower button on the right (the small green bar - called the Interactive update button), and will display the overall shape of your volumetric puff along with the noise pattern that is to be applied. Within this window, you can left-click and drag to rotate around the effect and right-click and drag to zoom in and out from the preview as shown below. Hit Stop then Play to restart Frame slider - Directly beneath the preview window is a narrow slider where you can preview any animation set up via the AFCs within your AfterBurn effect. The current frame is displayed below. X - This button resets any orientation and zoom changes you've made within the Preview window. Interactive update - This button enables the main Preview window.

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Noise Shape Parameters rollout The Noise Shapes Parameters rollout is where you define what kind of noise you want the volumetric puffs to have applied to them. The noise is what gives the volumetric puffs a natural appearance. AfterBurn can use any of seven different noise types as the distortion for each volumetric particle. From this rollout you can determine the Noise function easily.


Size group of controls The Size group of controls is where you define the overall look of the selected noise type you've picked. The controls that are available are dependent upon which noise type you've selected.

Gain - This spinner controls the overall contrast of the noise. The higher the value, the more contrast within the noise pattern. Likewise, the lower the value, the less contrast there will be within the noise pattern. This spinner's values go from 0.0 to 1.0 and can be animated over time via an AFC controller.

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NOTE: If you change Gain from the default value of 0.5, additional rendering time is needed for computations. If your volumetrics start with very high density and fade away at the end of the particle’s life, you will probably experience a sharp transition. Use Gain along with the Density Falloff options to achieve a smoother transition. Bias - This spinner controls the overall brightness of the noise patter. The higher the value, the brighter the noise pattern. Likewise, the lower the value, the dimmer the noise pattern. This spinner's values go from 0.0 to 1.0 and can be animated over time via an AFC controller.

NOTE: If you change Bias from the default value of 0.5, additional time is needed for rendering computations. Bias is a great tool for shaping and defining the noise pattern when used along with Gain. Blur - This spinner is only available with the Smoke, fBm Turbulence, and fBm Fractal noise types. This spinner will blur/sharpen the noise pattern. Blur values higher than 1.0 blur the noise, while values less than 1.0 sharpen it. This spinner can be animated over time via an AFC controller.

Detail - This spinner is enabled only with the fBm Turbulence and fBm Fractal noise types, and increases or decreases the detail amount in the noise. Higher values produce greater detail (a

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Reference Guide more tightly packed noise pattern), while lower values produce less detail (a looser noise pattern). This spinner can be animated over time via an AFC controller. Var% - Each of the parameters within this group of controls also has a variation percentage spinner where you can cause the settings to vary from volumetric puff to puff. This introduces a more natural look to the volumetric effects since all of the puffs will have slight variations to their noise patterns.

Type group of controls This group of controls is where you define which noise pattern you want to have applied to the AfterBurn volumetric puffs. There are seven different noise types to choose from. Each one has a distinct appearance and you can further refine the overall look of the noise with the Size group of controls above.

Type dropdown: Here is where you choose the noise pattern for your volumetric puffs. There are seven different noise types that you can choose from, and by turning on the Noise Preview window you can see what they look like prior to having to render out. There are two ways to calculate the noise pattern. Beneath the Type dropdown are two options: Fireball - When Fireball is selected, the noise pattern is generated normally. Tendril - When Tendril is selected, the noise pattern is inverted, making it look more spiked. Affect: These options are available only when you select the HyperSolids rendering type. Surface Bump - When chosen, noise will affect only surface bump (very similar to the 3ds Max program’s native Bump mapping.)

Surface Displacement - Displaces the surface (similar to what the 3ds max Displacement Space Warp does to a mesh.)

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Density falloff by radius: The density around the edges of the volumetric puff is controlled through these options. None - When None is enabled, there is no attenuation to the volumetric puff. This is the default setting and is generally quicker to render. Linear - The Linear option causes the actual values of noise/density to be calculated as an attenuated linear function from the center of puff shape to the radius. In other words, the further away from the center of the puff, the less dense the particle becomes. Cubic - The Cubic option causes the actual values of noise/density to be calculated as a smooth s-curve function from the center of the puff shape to the radius.

Noise Preview window Like the Shape Preview window in the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters rollout, the Noise Preview window is used to view the noise pattern that is to be applied to the AfterBurn volumetric puffs.

Preview Window - The main preview window is activated by the lower button on the right (the small green bar - called the Interactive update button), and will display the overall noise pattern of your volumetric puff. NOTE: The Preview does not show the precise look of the final rendered AfterBurn effects. Its purpose is to help you visualize how parameters affect Noise. Within this window, you can left-click and drag to rotate around the effect and right-click and drag to zoom in and out from the preview as shown below. Frame slider - Directly beneath the preview window is a narrow slider where you can preview any animation set up via the AFCs within your AfterBurn effect. The current frame is displayed below. Interactive update - This button enables the main Preview window.

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Noise Animation Parameters rollout This rollout is used to further refine the selected noise pattern's look and motion over the course of the animation.

Click on any part of the image to go to that group of controls Density - This spinner controls the overall density or opacity of the volumetric puffs. It works in concert with the Density Falloff option in the Noise Shape Parameters rollout. Lower values produce more transparent puffs, while higher values produce, more solid, opaque puffs. This spinner can be animated over time via an AFC controller. NOTE: If you use the Octane Shader, you should set the Density values much lower than the ones used with RayMarcher rendering engine. Noise Size - This spinner is used to control the overall size of the noise pattern. Larger values will produce bigger noise patterns, while smaller values produce smaller patterns. This spinner can be animated over time via an AFC controller. Noise Levels - This spinner controls how much detail is put into the noise pattern. Use low levels for a smooth/simple look. If you require more detail, a higher value is required. Highresolution work (film or print) will need higher settings than normal resolution work (NTSC or PAL broadcast) to achieve the same level of detail within the volumetric puffs. There is no need to set it “too high”, because if increased above a certain value, further increasing will have no effect on the output detail and rendering time will be significantly slower. Zero levels will produce a simple density gradient going from the particle center outwards. This spinner can be animated over time via an AFC controller. Threshold Spinners: The Hi and Lo Threshold spinners control the grayscale range within the noise patterns. By default, that range extends from a Lo value of 0.0 to a Hi value of 1.0. If you set these spinners to values less than the defaults, you will effectively compress the dynamic range within the noise pattern. Hi Threshold - Adjusting this spinner below it's default value of 1.0 will make the noise pattern look more solid. All changes you make to this spinner will be reflected in the Noise Preview window. This spinner can be animated over time via an AFC controller.

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Reference Guide Lo Threshold - Adjusting this spinner above it's default value of 0.0 will make the noise pattern look more sparse. All changes you make to this spinner will be reflected in the Noise Preview window. This spinner can be animated over time via an AFC controller. Vert. Stretch - The Vertical Stretch spinner controls how much the noise pattern will stretch along the World Z-axis. A value of 1.0 produces no stretch, while lower values will stretch the noise pattern vertically and higher values will compress the noise pattern vertically. All changes you make to this spinner will be reflected in the Noise Preview window. This spinner can be animated over time via an AFC controller. Phase - The Phase spinner controls the speed of the animation of the noise function. Be aware that you must use an AFC control in order to get the noise pattern to change over time. Once you've set up different High and Low AFC parameters, the changes will be reflected in the Noise Preview window as you scrub it's frame slider. Motion Drag - This spinner forces the noise pattern to move slower or faster than the actual particles when they are in motion. Positive values cause the noise to move faster, while negative values cause the noise to move slower. This spinner can be animated over time via an AFC controller. MBall effect - This spinner controls the Metaball effect strength when you use the HyperSolids. The smaller this value is, the smoother the Metaballs are. This spinner can be animated over time via an AFC controller. Local. noise - When turned on, the Localize Noise options forced the noise pattern to move with the volumetric puff. When turned off, the volumetric puffs move through the noise in World space. Drift - The Drift spinner causes the noise pattern to move globally in the Z-axis direction. Higher values cause more drift in the noise pattern along the World Z-axis.

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AfterBurn Combustion Atmospheric AfterBurn Combustion Parameters rollout AfterBurn Combustion is an enhanced version of the 3ds max 5 effect called Fire Effect found in Rendering->Environment->Atmosphere->Effects. NOTE: The Fire Effect feature was called Combustion in earlier versions of 3ds Max, then renamed when Autodesk Media & Entertainment shipped its standalone compositing package, called combustion™.

This version of the Fire Effect can interact to some extent with AfterBurn, and also adds a number of features that are explained below. As the AfterBurn Combustion rollout is very long, it's individual groups of controls are listed below so that you can click on any of them to go to a particular part of the AfterBurn Combustion rollout.

Source Gizmo/Daemons group of controls Soure Lights group of controls Globals group of controls Max 3D Texture group of controls Shading group of controls Reflections group of controls Characteristics group of controls Noise Animation group of controls Explosion group of controls Source Gizmo/Daemons group of controls AfterBurn Combustion uses standard 3ds max Helpers (Atmospheric Apparatus Gizmos) as the basis for the effect, just like the Fire Effect that ships with 3ds max.

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Pick Gizmos/Daemons - Click this button and choose the Helper gizmos you want to have the AfterBurn Combustion effect applied to. If you want any AfterBurn daemons applied to the effect, you need to specify which daemons you want. You can add as many helper gizmos and daemons as you want. Remove Gizmos/Daemons - In order to remove a gizmo from the list, highlight it then click this button. It will then remove the helper gizmo currently listed in the dropdown menu located directly on the right.

Source Lights group of controls AfterBurn Combustion needs one or more lights for illumination of its effects.

Pick Source Lights - Click this button and choose the lights you want to have illuminate the AfterBurn Combustion effect. You can add as many lights to this list as you want. Remove Source Lights - In order to remove a light from the list, highlight it then click this button. It will then remove the light currently listed in the dropdown menu located directly on the right.

Globals group of controls The Globals rollout is where you control the type of AfterBurn rendering algorithm that is applied to the Combustion effect, along with it's general shape and opacity.

Rendering Type - Besides Raymarcher, AfterBurn Combustion offers HyperSolids. The HyperSolids rendering type is a modified Raymarcher designed for rendering procedural solids. The final effect is similar to the one when you apply the native 3ds max Displace modifier to a sphere (for example) with a Noise map as a displace map.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide The difference between those two techniques is that HyperSolids does not produce any polygons and the level of detail (at render time) is almost unlimited. It also does not require any additional RAM when you increase the detail level. Antialias - This button controls AfterBurn's built-in anti-aliasing algorithm for rendering HyperSolids. You may consider using a third-party renderer (instead of the built-in AfterBurn renderer) for anti-aliasing, as this may prove to be much faster. Step Size - This spinner value indicates the step size of the integration path in world units. For an insight on how many steps will be performed, this value can be calculated using the formula: particle size divided by the number of steps. A lower Step Size value will produce a better-looking image. With very high density and a big step size, rendering artifacts may be produced. To avoid them, you should use smaller step sizes. Small step sizes are also required when rendering HyperSolids. Regularity - This spinner controls how homogenous the noise patterns are that are applied to the AfterBurn Combustion effect. Lower values will look more random and sporadic while higher values will be more uniform and fill the volume boundary more completely. For HyperSolids, regularity will behave as the displacement strength. Density - This spinner controls the overall density of the Raymarcher effect. Higher values produce more solid effects while lower values produce more transparent effects. NOTE: The HyperSolids rendering type does not use the Density parameter. Falloff - This spinner controls the opaqueness for the AfterBurn Combustion effect. The higher the value, the more opaque the final volumetric effect will be. Smaller values are good for clouds. NOTE: The HyperSolids rendering type does not use the Falloff parameter.

MAX 3D Texture group of controls This feature lets you use almost any native 3ds max 3D procedural texture (such as Camouflage, Speckle, Cellular and many more) to affect the look of the AfterBurn Combustion volumetric.

This texture can be used for AfterBurn Combustion density and color. The example below was created by mixing several different Noise and Perlin Marble maps together.

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Reference Guide If you decide to use a map for density, you may also specify you want this map to color the effect. The example below was created quickly by using the same map as the one used in the example above, but with several colors mixed in.

Use for Density checkbox: Once you've chosen your 3ds Max texture to use as a map, turning on this checkbox overrides the normal Density spinner and uses the grayscale information from the map for the density of the effect. Also, you have to activate this checkbox if you want to use maps for coloration as well as they are linked together. Be aware that in order for the texturing to work, you'll need to make sure that the shading it turned on in the Shading group of controls below. Use for Color checkbox: When you activate the Use for Density checkbox, you can also choose to use the same map for color as well. Be aware that in order for the texturing to work, you'll need to make sure that the shading it turned on in the Shading group of controls below. NOTE: You should notice that you can apply AfterBurn IDs under the colors in AfterBurn Combustion (within the Characteristics group of controls). These IDs let you glow the AfterBurn Combustion effect or apply any other 3ds max Video Post or Render Effect to it. If you are using the 3ds Max texture for density only, you can apply IDs from the AfterBurn Combustion rollout. If you’re using the texture for color, AfterBurn Combustion will use the Material ID. All other options in AfterBurn Combustion are the same as those in the Fire Effect included in 3ds Max.

Shading group of controls Unlike the built-in Fire Effect, AfterBurn Combustion allows you to use lights to shade the effect. This group of controls is where you define how the lighting will interact with the AfterBurn Combustion effect.

Type of shading: There are three types of shading available: Off, Lambert and Phong. Off - When this is selected, no shading is applied. Lambert - Lambert shading changes the illumination of the surface based on the angle between the surface normal and the light. Phong - Phong shading is similar to Lambert, except that it includes specular highlights (controlled by Shininess and Shininess Strength). Normals: There are two options for normal calculations - Shape and Volumetric.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide Shape - Shape normals are calculated from the shape you are using (Sphere, Box, Cylinder), and thus are smooth over the surface. Volumetric - Noise normals are the normals of the actual Noise function rendered. Shape Infl. - The Shape Influence spinner becomes active when you choose the Volumetric normals method of shading and is used to mix between the Noise normal and Shape normal. A value of 0.0 means the shape has no effect on the shading, while a value of 1.0 means the shape fully controls the shading of the AfterBurn Combustion effect (this is identical to having selected the Shape radio button). Specular Color - This color swatch determines what color the specular highlights will be when the Phong shading method is selected. Shininess Strength - The Shininess Strength spinner affects the intensity of the shininess on the AfterBurn Combustion effect. Shininess - The Shininess spinner affects the size of the specular area of the highlight.

Reflections group of controls The Reflections group of controls is where you define how whether or not the AfterBurn Combustion effect will reflect objects in your scene. NOTE: The AfterBurn Combustion effect does NOT support reflections of the background environment.

Use checkbox: When enabled, other objects in the scene become visible in reflections. Strength - This spinner controls the overall reflectivity within the AfterBurn Combustion volumetrics (in a similar way as native 3ds Max reflective maps and materials.) A value of 0.0 = no reflectivity while a value of 1.0 = full reflectivity. Reflect MtlID checkbox: This checkbox tells the AfterBurn Combustion effect to render out the Material ID within it's reflections for use with other Video Post or Render Effects effects.

Characteristics group of controls You can set three color properties for an AfterBurn Combustion effect using the color swatches under Colors. Click a color swatch to display the software's Color Selector.

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Inner Color - Sets the color of the densest part of the effect. For a typical fire, this color represents the hottest part of the flame. Outer Color - Sets the color of the sparsest part of the effect. For a typical fire, this color represents the cooler, dissipating edge of the flame. The AfterBurn Combustion effect is colored using a gradient between the inner and outer colors. The dense areas of the effect use the inner color and gradually blend to the outer color near the edges of the effect. Smoke Color - Sets the color of smoke for use with the Explosion option. If you turn on Explosion and Smoke, the inner and outer colors animate to the smoke color. If you turn off Explosion or Smoke, the smoke color is ignored. ID - The spinners beneath each of the color swatches represents a separate Material ID. You can set both the Inner and Outer Color swatches to have different Material IDs in situations where you want to apply another Video Post or Render Effect to it such as a Glow. Flame Type: You control the shape, scale, and pattern of flames within the AfterBurn Combustion effect using controls under Shape. Two options set the direction and general shape of flames. Tendril - Creates directional pointed flames with veins along their center. The flames orient along the local Z-axis of the fire apparatus. Tendril creates campfire-like flames. Fireball - Creates round puffy flames. Fireballs are well suited for explosions. Stretch - Scales flames along the Z-axis of the apparatus. Stretch works best with Tendril flames, but you can use it to give Fireballs an oval shape. Values less than 1.0 compress flames, making them shorter and thicker. Values greater than 1.0 stretch flames, making them long and skinny. You can also combine Stretch with non-uniform scaling of the apparatus. Use non-uniform scale to change the boundary of the effect and scale the shape of the flames. Use the Stretch parameter to scale only the flames inside the apparatus. You can also use Stretch values to reverse the effect that scaling the apparatus had on the flames Flame Size - Sets the size of individual flames inside the apparatus. The size of the apparatus affects the flame size. A larger apparatus requires a larger flame size. Use a range from 15.0 to 30.0 for the best results. Large values work best for Fireballs. Small values work best for Tendrils.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide If the AfterBurn Combustion flame size is very small, you might need to increase Samples to see individual flames. Noise Levels - This spinner controls the amount of color change and edge sharpness seen within each flame. Range=0.0 to 10.0. Low values produce smooth, fuzzy flames and render faster. High values produce patterned, sharp flames but render slower. Use higher Noise Levels for large flame sizes. If the Noise Levels value is greater than 4, you might need to increase the Step Size spinner (above in the Globals group of controls) to capture the detail.

Noise Animation group of controls This group of controls defines how the noise patterns within the AfterBurn Combustion effect animate over time.

Phase - Controls the rate of change for the AfterBurn Combustion effect. The phase spinner should be animated over time to create a good effect. Phase value can have several meanings, depending on the state of the Explosion check box. If you clear the Explosion checkbox, Phase simply controls the churning of the fire. The faster the value changes, the more furiously the fire burns. If the Phase function curve is a line, you get a steadily burning AfterBurn Combustion effect. If you turn on the Explosion checkbox, Phase controls the churning of the fire and the explosion timing, using values between 0.0 to 300.0. The Phase function curve for a typical explosion starts steep and flattens out. Phase values control explosion timing in the following way: 0–100 Explosion begins and builds to peak density at 100. 100–200 Explosion burns. Effect turns to smoke if Smoke is turned on. 200–300 Explosion clears and is completely gone at 300. > 300 No effect. Drift - Sets how flames are rendered along the Z-axis of the fire apparatus. The value is the amount of rise in units. Low values give a slow-burning cool fire. High values give a fast-burning hot fire. For the best AfterBurn Combustion effects, drift should be a multiple of the height of the fire apparatus. You can also animate the location and size of the fire apparatus and most of the fire parameters. For example, an AfterBurn Combustion effect can animate color, size, and density.

Explosion group of controls Use the parameters in the Explosion group to automatically animate explosions.

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Explosion checkbox: This checkbox, when enabled animates the size, density, and color automatically based on the animation of the Phase value. Smoke checkbox: This checkbox controls whether or not the explosion creates smoke. When on, fire colors change to smoke between Phase values 100 to 200. Smoke clears between Phase values 200 to 300. When off, fire colors remain at full density between Phase values 100 to 200. Fire fades away between Phase values 200 to 300. Fury - This spinner varies the churning effect of the Phase parameter. Values greater than 1.0 cause faster churning. Values less than 1.0 cause slower churning. Set Up Explosion - Clicking on this button displays the Set Up Explosion Phase Curve dialog. You enter a Start time and End time, and then click OK. The Phase value animates automatically for a typical explosion effect between the values you set.

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AfterBurn Combustion Parameters rollout AfterBurn Combustion is an enhanced version of the 3ds max 5 effect called Fire Effect found in Rendering->Environment->Atmosphere->Effects. NOTE: The Fire Effect feature was called Combustion in earlier versions of 3ds Max, then renamed when Autodesk Media & Entertainment shipped its standalone compositing package, called combustion™.

This version of the Fire Effect can interact to some extent with AfterBurn, and also adds a number of features that are explained below. As the AfterBurn Combustion rollout is very long, it's individual groups of controls are listed below so that you can click on any of them to go to a particular part of the AfterBurn Combustion rollout.

Source Gizmo/Daemons group of controls Soure Lights group of controls Globals group of controls Max 3D Texture group of controls Shading group of controls Reflections group of controls Characteristics group of controls Noise Animation group of controls Explosion group of controls Source Gizmo/Daemons group of controls AfterBurn Combustion uses standard 3ds max Helpers (Atmospheric Apparatus Gizmos) as the basis for the effect, just like the Fire Effect that ships with 3ds max.

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Pick Gizmos/Daemons - Click this button and choose the Helper gizmos you want to have the AfterBurn Combustion effect applied to. If you want any AfterBurn daemons applied to the effect, you need to specify which daemons you want. You can add as many helper gizmos and daemons as you want. Remove Gizmos/Daemons - In order to remove a gizmo from the list, highlight it then click this button. It will then remove the helper gizmo currently listed in the dropdown menu located directly on the right.

Source Lights group of controls AfterBurn Combustion needs one or more lights for illumination of its effects.

Pick Source Lights - Click this button and choose the lights you want to have illuminate the AfterBurn Combustion effect. You can add as many lights to this list as you want. Remove Source Lights - In order to remove a light from the list, highlight it then click this button. It will then remove the light currently listed in the dropdown menu located directly on the right.

Globals group of controls The Globals rollout is where you control the type of AfterBurn rendering algorithm that is applied to the Combustion effect, along with it's general shape and opacity.

Rendering Type - Besides Raymarcher, AfterBurn Combustion offers HyperSolids. The HyperSolids rendering type is a modified Raymarcher designed for rendering procedural solids. The final effect is similar to the one when you apply the native 3ds max Displace modifier to a sphere (for example) with a Noise map as a displace map. The difference between those two techniques is that HyperSolids does not produce any polygons and the level of detail (at render time) is almost unlimited. It also does not require any additional RAM when you increase the detail level. Antialias - This button controls AfterBurn's built-in anti-aliasing algorithm for rendering HyperSolids. You may consider using a third-party renderer (instead of the built-in AfterBurn renderer) for anti-aliasing, as this may prove to be much faster.

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Step Size - This spinner value indicates the step size of the integration path in world units. For an insight on how many steps will be performed, this value can be calculated using the formula: particle size divided by the number of steps. A lower Step Size value will produce a better-looking image. With very high density and a big step size, rendering artifacts may be produced. To avoid them, you should use smaller step sizes. Small step sizes are also required when rendering HyperSolids. Regularity - This spinner controls how homogenous the noise patterns are that are applied to the AfterBurn Combustion effect. Lower values will look more random and sporadic while higher values will be more uniform and fill the volume boundary more completely. For HyperSolids, regularity will behave as the displacement strength. Density - This spinner controls the overall density of the Raymarcher effect. Higher values produce more solid effects while lower values produce more transparent effects. NOTE: The HyperSolids rendering type does not use the Density parameter. Falloff - This spinner controls the opaqueness for the AfterBurn Combustion effect. The higher the value, the more opaque the final volumetric effect will be. Smaller values are good for clouds. NOTE: The HyperSolids rendering type does not use the Falloff parameter.

MAX 3D Texture group of controls This feature lets you use almost any native 3ds max 3D procedural texture (such as Camouflage, Speckle, Cellular and many more) to affect the look of the AfterBurn Combustion volumetric.

This texture can be used for AfterBurn Combustion density and color. The example below was created by mixing several different Noise and Perlin Marble maps together.

If you decide to use a map for density, you may also specify you want this map to color the effect. The example below was created quickly by using the same map as the one used in the example above, but with several colors mixed in.

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Use for Density checkbox: Once you've chosen your 3ds Max texture to use as a map, turning on this checkbox overrides the normal Density spinner and uses the grayscale information from the map for the density of the effect. Also, you have to activate this checkbox if you want to use maps for coloration as well as they are linked together. Be aware that in order for the texturing to work, you'll need to make sure that the shading it turned on in the Shading group of controls below. Use for Color checkbox: When you activate the Use for Density checkbox, you can also choose to use the same map for color as well. Be aware that in order for the texturing to work, you'll need to make sure that the shading it turned on in the Shading group of controls below. NOTE: You should notice that you can apply AfterBurn IDs under the colors in AfterBurn Combustion (within the Characteristics group of controls). These IDs let you glow the AfterBurn Combustion effect or apply any other 3ds max Video Post or Render Effect to it. If you are using the 3ds Max texture for density only, you can apply IDs from the AfterBurn Combustion rollout. If you’re using the texture for color, AfterBurn Combustion will use the Material ID. All other options in AfterBurn Combustion are the same as those in the Fire Effect included in 3ds Max.

Shading group of controls Unlike the built-in Fire Effect, AfterBurn Combustion allows you to use lights to shade the effect. This group of controls is where you define how the lighting will interact with the AfterBurn Combustion effect.

Type of shading: There are three types of shading available: Off, Lambert and Phong. Off - When this is selected, no shading is applied. Lambert - Lambert shading changes the illumination of the surface based on the angle between the surface normal and the light. Phong - Phong shading is similar to Lambert, except that it includes specular highlights (controlled by Shininess and Shininess Strength). Normals: There are two options for normal calculations - Shape and Volumetric. Shape - Shape normals are calculated from the shape you are using (Sphere, Box, Cylinder), and thus are smooth over the surface. Volumetric - Noise normals are the normals of the actual Noise function rendered.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide Shape Infl. - The Shape Influence spinner becomes active when you choose the Volumetric normals method of shading and is used to mix between the Noise normal and Shape normal. A value of 0.0 means the shape has no effect on the shading, while a value of 1.0 means the shape fully controls the shading of the AfterBurn Combustion effect (this is identical to having selected the Shape radio button). Specular Color - This color swatch determines what color the specular highlights will be when the Phong shading method is selected. Shininess Strength - The Shininess Strength spinner affects the intensity of the shininess on the AfterBurn Combustion effect. Shininess - The Shininess spinner affects the size of the specular area of the highlight.

Reflections group of controls The Reflections group of controls is where you define how whether or not the AfterBurn Combustion effect will reflect objects in your scene. NOTE: The AfterBurn Combustion effect does NOT support reflections of the background environment.

Use checkbox: When enabled, other objects in the scene become visible in reflections. Strength - This spinner controls the overall reflectivity within the AfterBurn Combustion volumetrics (in a similar way as native 3ds Max reflective maps and materials.) A value of 0.0 = no reflectivity while a value of 1.0 = full reflectivity. Reflect MtlID checkbox: This checkbox tells the AfterBurn Combustion effect to render out the Material ID within it's reflections for use with other Video Post or Render Effects effects.

Characteristics group of controls You can set three color properties for an AfterBurn Combustion effect using the color swatches under Colors. Click a color swatch to display the software's Color Selector.

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Inner Color - Sets the color of the densest part of the effect. For a typical fire, this color represents the hottest part of the flame. Outer Color - Sets the color of the sparsest part of the effect. For a typical fire, this color represents the cooler, dissipating edge of the flame. The AfterBurn Combustion effect is colored using a gradient between the inner and outer colors. The dense areas of the effect use the inner color and gradually blend to the outer color near the edges of the effect. Smoke Color - Sets the color of smoke for use with the Explosion option. If you turn on Explosion and Smoke, the inner and outer colors animate to the smoke color. If you turn off Explosion or Smoke, the smoke color is ignored. ID - The spinners beneath each of the color swatches represents a separate Material ID. You can set both the Inner and Outer Color swatches to have different Material IDs in situations where you want to apply another Video Post or Render Effect to it such as a Glow. Flame Type: You control the shape, scale, and pattern of flames within the AfterBurn Combustion effect using controls under Shape. Two options set the direction and general shape of flames. Tendril - Creates directional pointed flames with veins along their center. The flames orient along the local Z-axis of the fire apparatus. Tendril creates campfire-like flames. Fireball - Creates round puffy flames. Fireballs are well suited for explosions. Stretch - Scales flames along the Z-axis of the apparatus. Stretch works best with Tendril flames, but you can use it to give Fireballs an oval shape. Values less than 1.0 compress flames, making them shorter and thicker. Values greater than 1.0 stretch flames, making them long and skinny. You can also combine Stretch with non-uniform scaling of the apparatus. Use non-uniform scale to change the boundary of the effect and scale the shape of the flames. Use the Stretch parameter to scale only the flames inside the apparatus. You can also use Stretch values to reverse the effect that scaling the apparatus had on the flames Flame Size - Sets the size of individual flames inside the apparatus. The size of the apparatus affects the flame size. A larger apparatus requires a larger flame size. Use a range from 15.0 to 30.0 for the best results. Large values work best for Fireballs. Small values work best for Tendrils. If the AfterBurn Combustion flame size is very small, you might need to increase Samples to see individual flames. Noise Levels - This spinner controls the amount of color change and edge sharpness seen within each flame. Range=0.0 to 10.0. Low values produce smooth, fuzzy flames and render faster. High values produce patterned, sharp flames but render slower. Use higher Noise Levels for large flame sizes. If the Noise Levels value is greater than 4, you might need to increase the Step Size spinner (above in the Globals group of controls) to capture the detail.

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Noise Animation group of controls This group of controls defines how the noise patterns within the AfterBurn Combustion effect animate over time.

Phase - Controls the rate of change for the AfterBurn Combustion effect. The phase spinner should be animated over time to create a good effect. Phase value can have several meanings, depending on the state of the Explosion check box. If you clear the Explosion checkbox, Phase simply controls the churning of the fire. The faster the value changes, the more furiously the fire burns. If the Phase function curve is a line, you get a steadily burning AfterBurn Combustion effect. If you turn on the Explosion checkbox, Phase controls the churning of the fire and the explosion timing, using values between 0.0 to 300.0. The Phase function curve for a typical explosion starts steep and flattens out. Phase values control explosion timing in the following way: 0–100 Explosion begins and builds to peak density at 100. 100–200 Explosion burns. Effect turns to smoke if Smoke is turned on. 200–300 Explosion clears and is completely gone at 300. > 300 No effect. Drift - Sets how flames are rendered along the Z-axis of the fire apparatus. The value is the amount of rise in units. Low values give a slow-burning cool fire. High values give a fast-burning hot fire. For the best AfterBurn Combustion effects, drift should be a multiple of the height of the fire apparatus. You can also animate the location and size of the fire apparatus and most of the fire parameters. For example, an AfterBurn Combustion effect can animate color, size, and density.

Explosion group of controls Use the parameters in the Explosion group to automatically animate explosions.

Explosion checkbox: This checkbox, when enabled animates the size, density, and color automatically based on the animation of the Phase value. Smoke checkbox: This checkbox controls whether or not the explosion creates smoke. When on, fire colors change to smoke between Phase values 100 to 200. Smoke clears between Phase values 200 to 300. When off, fire colors remain at full density between Phase values 100 to 200. Fire fades away between Phase values 200 to 300.

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Fury - This spinner varies the churning effect of the Phase parameter. Values greater than 1.0 cause faster churning. Values less than 1.0 cause slower churning. Set Up Explosion - Clicking on this button displays the Set Up Explosion Phase Curve dialog. You enter a Start time and End time, and then click OK. The Phase value animates automatically for a typical explosion effect between the values you set.

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AfterBurn Volume Fog Atmospheric AfterBurn Volume Fog Parameters rollout AfterBurn’s Volume Fog is similar to the native 3ds max Volume Fog atmospheric effect. Volume Fog provides a fog effect in which the fog density is not constant through 3D space. This AfterBurn plug-in provides effects such as puffy, cloudy fog that appears to drift and break up in the wind.

Click on any part of the image to go to that group of controls However, there are some differences between the two. Afterburn’s Volume Fog: 1. Includes an option to have no noise affecting the fog. 2. Adds a feature that gives you more control over Exponential Coloration for the AfterBurn Volume Fog effect. 3. Does not allow you to use the Fog Background feature. AfterBurn Volume Fog is designed to mix properly with AfterBurn. When applied, AfterBurn effects can “fade into it” in the same way as other 3ds Max objects. For the best mixing of the AfterBurn effect and AfterBurn Volume Fog, both Step Size and both Falloff spinner values should be identical. If not, the final look may not be satisfactory. 78

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Source Gizmos group of controls By default, volume fog fills the entire scene. However, you can choose a gizmo (an atmospheric apparatus) to contain the fog. The gizmo can be a sphere, a box, a cylinder, or some combination of these.

Pick - Click this button to enter Pick mode and click an atmospheric apparatus in the scene. The apparatus contains the volume fog when you render. The name of the apparatus is added to the apparatus list. Multiple apparatus objects can display the same fog effect. You can pick multiple gizmos. Click Pick Gizmo and then press H. This displays a Pick Object dialog on which you choose multiple objects from the list. Changing the dimensions of a gizmo changes the region that fog affects, but doesn't change the scale of the fog and its noise. For example, reducing the radius of a spherical gizmo crops the fog, and moving the gizmo changes the fog's appearance. Warning: When you press SHIFT while copying a gizmo, the new gizmo isn't bound to the volume fog. If you want to use the new gizmo, you must use the Pick button to add it explicitly. Remove - Removes a gizmo from the AfterBurn Volume Fog effect. Select the gizmo in the list, and then click Remove. Soften Gizmo Edges - This spinner feathers the edges of the volume fog effect. The higher the value, the softer the edges. Range=0.0 to 1.0. NOTE: Don't set this value to 0. At 0, Soften Gizmo Edges can cause aliased edges.

Volume group of controls This group of controls determines how the AfterBurn Volume Fog effect interacts with other objects within your scene and how dense it is.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide Color - Sets the color for the fog. Click the color swatch, and then select the color you want in the Color Selector. You can also animate the color effect by changing the fog color over time. Exp. checkbox: When the Exponential checkbox is enabled, it increases the density of the volume fog exponentially with distance. When turned off, density increases linearly with distance. Activate this check box only when you want to render transparent objects in volume fog. NOTE: If you turn on Exponential, increase the Step Size spinner value to avoid banding. Falloff - This spinner is only available when you activate the Exponential checkbox and it affects how the volume fog fades over the gizmo's volume. Higher values cause the fog to become more opaque and darker. Density - Controls the fog density. Range=0 to 20 (anything over that tends to obliterate the scene). Step Size - This spinner determines the granularity of the fog sampling; the "fineness" of the fog. A large step size creates coarse (and to some extent, aliased) fog. Max Steps - Limits the amount of sampling so that computing the fog doesn't take forever (literally). This is especially useful when the fog is of low density. NOTE: When both Step Size and Max Steps have low values, aliasing will result.

Noise group of controls Noise options for AfterBurn Volume Fog are comparable to the noise options for the built-in Noise Map with only a few exceptions.

Type: There are four radio buttons to choose the type of noise to apply to your Volume Fog effect or you can choose to apply no noise at all. Regular - This option uses a standard noise pattern. Fractal - This option uses an iterative fractal noise pattern. Turbulence - This option uses an iterative turbulence pattern. None - No noise pattern at all Invert - Reverses the noise effect. Dense fog becomes translucent and vice versa. Noise Threshold

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Reference Guide This set of controls limits the noise effect. Each spinner has a range from 0.0 to 1.0. When the noise value is above the Low threshold and below the High threshold, the dynamic range stretches to fill 0-1. This makes for a smaller discontinuity (First order instead of 0 order) at the threshold transition, and thus produces less potential aliasing. High - Sets the high threshold. Low - Sets the low threshold. Uniformity - This spinner ranges from -1 to 1 and acts like a high-pass filter. The smaller the value, the more transparent the volume is with discrete blobs of smoke. Around -0.3 or so your image begins to look like specks of dust. Because the fog becomes thinner as this parameter gets smaller, you'll probably need to increase the density or the volume will start to disappear. Levels - This spinner sets the number of times the noise is iteratively applied. Range=1 to 6, including fractional values. Enabled only for Fractal noise or Turbulence. Size - Determines the size of the tendrils of smoke or fog. Smaller values give smaller tendrils. Phase - This spinner controls the speed of the wind. If you have Wind Strength also set to greater than 0, the fog volume animates in accordance with the wind direction. With no Wind Strength, the fog churns in place. Because there's an animation track for phase, you can use the Function Curve editor to define precisely how you want your wind "gusts" to occur. NOTE: Wind moves the AfterBurn Volume Fog in the specified direction over time. Wind is tied to the phase parameter so as the phase changes, the wind moves. If Phase isn't animated there will be no wind. Wind from the - Defines the direction the wind is coming from. Wind Strength - Controls how fast the smoke moves away from the wind direction, relative to phase. As mentioned above, if the phase is not animated then the smoke won't move, regardless of the wind strength. By having the phase animate slowly with a large wind strength, the fog moves more than it is churns. Alternatively, if the phase changes rapidly while the wind strength is relatively small, the fog will churn fast and drift slowly. If you want the fog to just churn in place, animate the phase but keep Wind Strength at 0.

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AfterBurn Volume Fog Parameters rollout AfterBurn’s Volume Fog is similar to the native 3ds max Volume Fog atmospheric effect. Volume Fog provides a fog effect in which the fog density is not constant through 3D space. This AfterBurn plug-in provides effects such as puffy, cloudy fog that appears to drift and break up in the wind.

Click on any part of the image to go to that group of controls However, there are some differences between the two. Afterburn’s Volume Fog: 1. Includes an option to have no noise affecting the fog. 2. Adds a feature that gives you more control over Exponential Coloration for the AfterBurn Volume Fog effect. 3. Does not allow you to use the Fog Background feature. AfterBurn Volume Fog is designed to mix properly with AfterBurn. When applied, AfterBurn effects can “fade into it” in the same way as other 3ds Max objects. For the best mixing of the AfterBurn effect and AfterBurn Volume Fog, both Step Size and both Falloff spinner values should be identical. If not, the final look may not be satisfactory.

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Source Gizmos group of controls By default, volume fog fills the entire scene. However, you can choose a gizmo (an atmospheric apparatus) to contain the fog. The gizmo can be a sphere, a box, a cylinder, or some combination of these.

Pick - Click this button to enter Pick mode and click an atmospheric apparatus in the scene. The apparatus contains the volume fog when you render. The name of the apparatus is added to the apparatus list. Multiple apparatus objects can display the same fog effect. You can pick multiple gizmos. Click Pick Gizmo and then press H. This displays a Pick Object dialog on which you choose multiple objects from the list. Changing the dimensions of a gizmo changes the region that fog affects, but doesn't change the scale of the fog and its noise. For example, reducing the radius of a spherical gizmo crops the fog, and moving the gizmo changes the fog's appearance. Warning: When you press SHIFT while copying a gizmo, the new gizmo isn't bound to the volume fog. If you want to use the new gizmo, you must use the Pick button to add it explicitly. Remove - Removes a gizmo from the AfterBurn Volume Fog effect. Select the gizmo in the list, and then click Remove. Soften Gizmo Edges - This spinner feathers the edges of the volume fog effect. The higher the value, the softer the edges. Range=0.0 to 1.0. NOTE: Don't set this value to 0. At 0, Soften Gizmo Edges can cause aliased edges.

Volume group of controls This group of controls determines how the AfterBurn Volume Fog effect interacts with other objects within your scene and how dense it is.

Color - Sets the color for the fog. Click the color swatch, and then select the color you want in the Color Selector. You can also animate the color effect by changing the fog color over time.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide Exp. checkbox: When the Exponential checkbox is enabled, it increases the density of the volume fog exponentially with distance. When turned off, density increases linearly with distance. Activate this check box only when you want to render transparent objects in volume fog. NOTE: If you turn on Exponential, increase the Step Size spinner value to avoid banding. Falloff - This spinner is only available when you activate the Exponential checkbox and it affects how the volume fog fades over the gizmo's volume. Higher values cause the fog to become more opaque and darker. Density - Controls the fog density. Range=0 to 20 (anything over that tends to obliterate the scene). Step Size - This spinner determines the granularity of the fog sampling; the "fineness" of the fog. A large step size creates coarse (and to some extent, aliased) fog. Max Steps - Limits the amount of sampling so that computing the fog doesn't take forever (literally). This is especially useful when the fog is of low density. NOTE: When both Step Size and Max Steps have low values, aliasing will result.

Noise group of controls Noise options for AfterBurn Volume Fog are comparable to the noise options for the built-in Noise Map with only a few exceptions.

Type: There are four radio buttons to choose the type of noise to apply to your Volume Fog effect or you can choose to apply no noise at all. Regular - This option uses a standard noise pattern. Fractal - This option uses an iterative fractal noise pattern. Turbulence - This option uses an iterative turbulence pattern. None - No noise pattern at all Invert - Reverses the noise effect. Dense fog becomes translucent and vice versa. Noise Threshold This set of controls limits the noise effect. Each spinner has a range from 0.0 to 1.0. When the noise value is above the Low threshold and below the High threshold, the dynamic range

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Reference Guide stretches to fill 0-1. This makes for a smaller discontinuity (First order instead of 0 order) at the threshold transition, and thus produces less potential aliasing. High - Sets the high threshold. Low - Sets the low threshold. Uniformity - This spinner ranges from -1 to 1 and acts like a high-pass filter. The smaller the value, the more transparent the volume is with discrete blobs of smoke. Around -0.3 or so your image begins to look like specks of dust. Because the fog becomes thinner as this parameter gets smaller, you'll probably need to increase the density or the volume will start to disappear. Levels - This spinner sets the number of times the noise is iteratively applied. Range=1 to 6, including fractional values. Enabled only for Fractal noise or Turbulence. Size - Determines the size of the tendrils of smoke or fog. Smaller values give smaller tendrils. Phase - This spinner controls the speed of the wind. If you have Wind Strength also set to greater than 0, the fog volume animates in accordance with the wind direction. With no Wind Strength, the fog churns in place. Because there's an animation track for phase, you can use the Function Curve editor to define precisely how you want your wind "gusts" to occur. NOTE: Wind moves the AfterBurn Volume Fog in the specified direction over time. Wind is tied to the phase parameter so as the phase changes, the wind moves. If Phase isn't animated there will be no wind. Wind from the - Defines the direction the wind is coming from. Wind Strength - Controls how fast the smoke moves away from the wind direction, relative to phase. As mentioned above, if the phase is not animated then the smoke won't move, regardless of the wind strength. By having the phase animate slowly with a large wind strength, the fog moves more than it is churns. Alternatively, if the phase changes rapidly while the wind strength is relatively small, the fog will churn fast and drift slowly. If you want the fog to just churn in place, animate the phase but keep Wind Strength at 0.

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AfterBurn Fog Atmospheric AfterBurn Fog Parameters rollout AfterBurn Fog is similar to the native 3ds max Fog Atmospheric effect.

Click on any part of the image to go to that group of controls AfterBurn Fog is designed to mix properly with other AfterBurn effects. When applied, AfterBurn can fade into the fog in the same way as other 3ds Max objects. We recommend you use AfterBurn’s Exponential Fog setting (or Layered Fog) due to better accuracy. If you don't specifically need volumetric fog, then use the regular AfterBurn Fog instead of AfterBurn Volume Fog, because the former has very little impact on overall rendering time. NOTE: AfterBurn Fog interacts best with Raymarcher high-density effects and Hyper Solids. When used with the Octane Shader, you may experience undesirable results.

Fog group of controls This group of controls the color of the AfterBurn Fog effect and if it interacts with the background of your scene.

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Color - Sets the color for the AfterBurn Fog. Click the color swatch, and then select the color you want in the Color Selector. You can animate the color over time as well. Environment Color Map - Derives the AfterBurn Fog color from a map. You can map the background and the fog color, you can animate the procedural map parameters in Track View or Material Editor, and you can opacity-map the fog. The large button displays the name of the color map, or None if no map is assigned. The map must use Environmental mapping coordinates (spherical, cylindrical, shrinkwrap, or screen). To assign the map you can drag a map from a Sample slot or Map button in the Material Editor and drop it on the Environment Color Map button. A dialog asks if you want the environment map to be a copy (independent) or an instance of the source map. Clicking the Environment Color Map button displays the Material/Map Browser, where you can choose a map type from the list. To adjust the environment map's parameters, open the Material Editor and drag the Environment Color Map button over an unused sample slot. Use Map checkbox: This checkbox toggles the effect of this map on or off. Environment Opacity Map - Alters the density of the fog. You assign the opacity map, edit it, and toggle its effect in the same way as the Environment Color Map Fog Background checkbox: Applies the AfterBurn Fog function to the background of the scene. Use Map checkbox: This checkbox toggles the effect of this map on or off. Type: When you choose Standard it uses the parameters in the Standard section and when you choose Layered is selected it uses the parameters in the Layered section. Standard - Enables the Standard group. Layered - Enables the Layered group.

Standard group of controls This group of controls thins and thickens the AfterBurn Fog based on the distance from the camera.

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Exponential checkbox: Increases density exponentially with distance. When turned off, density increases linearly with distance. Activate this checkbox only when you want to render transparent objects in your AfterBurn Fog effect. Near % - Sets the density of the AfterBurn Fog at the Near Range (Camera Environment Range parameter). Far % - Sets the density of the AfterBurn Fog at the Far Range (Camera Environment Range parameter).

Layered group of controls This group of controls thins and thickens the AfterBurn Fog between an upper and lower limit. You can have multiple layers of AfterBurn Fog by adding multiple AfterBurn Fog entries to the list. Because you can animate all of the AfterBurn Fog parameters, you can also animate it rising and falling, changing density and color, and add horizon noise.

Top - This spinner sets the upper extent (in 3ds Max world units) of the AfterBurn Fog layer. Bottom - This spinner sets the lower extent (in 3ds Max world units) of the AfterBurn Fog layer. Density - This spinner controls the overall density of the AfterBurn Fog. Falloff (Top/Bottom/None) - Adds an exponential falloff effect so that the density is reduced to 0 at either the Top or Bottom of the AfterBurn Fog extent. Horizon Noise checkbox: When this checkbox is active, it turns on the horizon noise system. Horizon Noise perturbs just the horizon of the AfterBurn Fog layer to add realism. Size - This spinner sets the scale factor applied to the noise. Larger scale values make the fog tendrils larger. NOTE: If you want tendrils to really pop out, try making the density greater than 100.

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Reference Guide Angle - Determines the affected angle off the horizon line. For example, if the angle is set to 5 (a reasonable value), then starting at 5 degrees below the horizon, the AfterBurn Fog effect will begin to break up. NOTE: This effect is mirrored above and below the horizon, which can produce strange results when the height of the AfterBurn Fog layer traverses the horizon. Typically you'd want the AfterBurn Fog to be either above or below the actual camera horizon. (You can use the horizon line in the camera parameters as an aid to help you position this.) Phase - Animating this parameter animates the noise. If Phase is moving in the positive direction, then the AfterBurn Fog tendrils will drift upward (and deform at the same time). If your AfterBurn Fog is above the horizon you may want to animate Phase in the negative direction to make the tendrils fall downward.

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AfterBurn Fog Parameters rollout AfterBurn Fog is similar to the native 3ds max Fog Atmospheric effect.

Click on any part of the image to go to that group of controls AfterBurn Fog is designed to mix properly with other AfterBurn effects. When applied, AfterBurn can fade into the fog in the same way as other 3ds Max objects. We recommend you use AfterBurn’s Exponential Fog setting (or Layered Fog) due to better accuracy. If you don't specifically need volumetric fog, then use the regular AfterBurn Fog instead of AfterBurn Volume Fog, because the former has very little impact on overall rendering time. NOTE: AfterBurn Fog interacts best with Raymarcher high-density effects and Hyper Solids. When used with the Octane Shader, you may experience undesirable results.

Fog group of controls This group of controls the color of the AfterBurn Fog effect and if it interacts with the background of your scene.

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Color - Sets the color for the AfterBurn Fog. Click the color swatch, and then select the color you want in the Color Selector. You can animate the color over time as well. Environment Color Map - Derives the AfterBurn Fog color from a map. You can map the background and the fog color, you can animate the procedural map parameters in Track View or Material Editor, and you can opacity-map the fog. The large button displays the name of the color map, or None if no map is assigned. The map must use Environmental mapping coordinates (spherical, cylindrical, shrinkwrap, or screen). To assign the map you can drag a map from a Sample slot or Map button in the Material Editor and drop it on the Environment Color Map button. A dialog asks if you want the environment map to be a copy (independent) or an instance of the source map. Clicking the Environment Color Map button displays the Material/Map Browser, where you can choose a map type from the list. To adjust the environment map's parameters, open the Material Editor and drag the Environment Color Map button over an unused sample slot. Use Map checkbox: This checkbox toggles the effect of this map on or off. Environment Opacity Map - Alters the density of the fog. You assign the opacity map, edit it, and toggle its effect in the same way as the Environment Color Map Fog Background checkbox: Applies the AfterBurn Fog function to the background of the scene. Use Map checkbox: This checkbox toggles the effect of this map on or off. Type: When you choose Standard it uses the parameters in the Standard section and when you choose Layered is selected it uses the parameters in the Layered section. Standard - Enables the Standard group. Layered - Enables the Layered group.

Standard group of controls This group of controls thins and thickens the AfterBurn Fog based on the distance from the camera.

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Exponential checkbox: Increases density exponentially with distance. When turned off, density increases linearly with distance. Activate this checkbox only when you want to render transparent objects in your AfterBurn Fog effect. Near % - Sets the density of the AfterBurn Fog at the Near Range (Camera Environment Range parameter). Far % - Sets the density of the AfterBurn Fog at the Far Range (Camera Environment Range parameter).

Layered group of controls This group of controls thins and thickens the AfterBurn Fog between an upper and lower limit. You can have multiple layers of AfterBurn Fog by adding multiple AfterBurn Fog entries to the list. Because you can animate all of the AfterBurn Fog parameters, you can also animate it rising and falling, changing density and color, and add horizon noise.

Top - This spinner sets the upper extent (in 3ds Max world units) of the AfterBurn Fog layer. Bottom - This spinner sets the lower extent (in 3ds Max world units) of the AfterBurn Fog layer. Density - This spinner controls the overall density of the AfterBurn Fog. Falloff (Top/Bottom/None) - Adds an exponential falloff effect so that the density is reduced to 0 at either the Top or Bottom of the AfterBurn Fog extent. Horizon Noise checkbox: When this checkbox is active, it turns on the horizon noise system. Horizon Noise perturbs just the horizon of the AfterBurn Fog layer to add realism. Size - This spinner sets the scale factor applied to the noise. Larger scale values make the fog tendrils larger. NOTE: If you want tendrils to really pop out, try making the density greater than 100.

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Reference Guide Angle - Determines the affected angle off the horizon line. For example, if the angle is set to 5 (a reasonable value), then starting at 5 degrees below the horizon, the AfterBurn Fog effect will begin to break up. NOTE: This effect is mirrored above and below the horizon, which can produce strange results when the height of the AfterBurn Fog layer traverses the horizon. Typically you'd want the AfterBurn Fog to be either above or below the actual camera horizon. (You can use the horizon line in the camera parameters as an aid to help you position this.) Phase - Animating this parameter animates the noise. If Phase is moving in the positive direction, then the AfterBurn Fog tendrils will drift upward (and deform at the same time). If your AfterBurn Fog is above the horizon you may want to animate Phase in the negative direction to make the tendrils fall downward.

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AfterBurn Video Post Effects

AfterBurn Glow Render Effect AfterBurn comes with a special glow routine (called AfterBurn Glow), which enables you to glow the AfterBurn effect based on the particle age.

AfterBurn Glow is also available as a Video Post plug-in. You can use AfterBurn Glow to glow both AfterBurn and AfterBurn Combustion effects. To use AfterBurn Glow, or any other Render Effect or Video Post filter that keys off an Object and/or Material ID, you must select Create Image Channels in the AfterBurn Renderer User Interface.

Glow Animation group of controls These settings allow you to apply strength, size, and color (if you are using a user-defined color instead of the material color) to the glow and animate them over the particle age using Animation Flow Functions (AFFs).

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Reference Guide Size - Lets you specify the size of the glow at birth and death of the AfterBurn effect. You can control the size interpolation using the AFF. Strength - Lets you specify the strength of the glow at birth and death of the AfterBurn effect. You can control how the glow dies off over time using the AFF. This is very helpful for situations like explosions where the glow tends to taper off after the initial bang. Color - This glow is based either on the color information from the AfterBurn effect or a userspecified color.

Color group of controls This group of controls determines what color the AfterBurn Glow will use to create the glow effect.

Material - This option pulls the color of the AfterBurn Glow from the existing AfterBurn effect. User - The User option applies the colors set within the Glow Animation group of controls above and ignores the existing AfterBurn effect coloration.

Source group of controls This setting is where you define what parts of the AfterBurn output should be glowed using the AfterBurn Glow Render Effect.

Channel - Using this parameter, you can specify which Material ID channel should be affected by the AfterBurn Glow. This ID should be the same as the ID you have specified within the AfterBurn or AfterBurn Combustion effects.

AFF (Animation Flow Functions) Animation Flow Functions are used for animation between the birth and death values of the glow, as well as color and strength values within the AfterBurn Glow effect.

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The bottom left corner indicates the birth of the particle while the bottom right corner indicates the death. The space in between is the life of the particle. Low Clip - This spinner, if raised above 0.0, will hold a minimum value until the low clip value is reached. In this way, the birth value is maintained until this point in the particle's life is reached. High Clip - This parameter, if lowered below 1.0 will change the curve so it will reach the maximum value much faster and tends to compress the time it takes to reach the high clip. Presets - There is also a flyout next to the two spinners that contains three preset AFF curves: A standard S-Curve, a Quick-Out and a Slow-Out. S-Curve - This one keeps the start value low to begin, then gradually rises to the end value. Quick-Out - This curve leaves the start value quickly and gradually eases into the end value. Slow-Out - This curve eases out of the start value slowly and rapidly approaches the end value.

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AfterBurn Glow Render Effect AfterBurn comes with a special glow routine (called AfterBurn Glow), which enables you to glow the AfterBurn effect based on the particle age.

AfterBurn Glow is also available as a Video Post plug-in. You can use AfterBurn Glow to glow both AfterBurn and AfterBurn Combustion effects. To use AfterBurn Glow, or any other Render Effect or Video Post filter that keys off an Object and/or Material ID, you must select Create Image Channels in the AfterBurn Renderer User Interface.

Glow Animation group of controls These settings allow you to apply strength, size, and color (if you are using a user-defined color instead of the material color) to the glow and animate them over the particle age using Animation Flow Functions (AFFs).

Size - Lets you specify the size of the glow at birth and death of the AfterBurn effect. You can control the size interpolation using the AFF.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide Strength - Lets you specify the strength of the glow at birth and death of the AfterBurn effect. You can control how the glow dies off over time using the AFF. This is very helpful for situations like explosions where the glow tends to taper off after the initial bang. Color - This glow is based either on the color information from the AfterBurn effect or a userspecified color.

Color group of controls This group of controls determines what color the AfterBurn Glow will use to create the glow effect.

Material - This option pulls the color of the AfterBurn Glow from the existing AfterBurn effect. User - The User option applies the colors set within the Glow Animation group of controls above and ignores the existing AfterBurn effect coloration.

Source group of controls This setting is where you define what parts of the AfterBurn output should be glowed using the AfterBurn Glow Render Effect.

Channel - Using this parameter, you can specify which Material ID channel should be affected by the AfterBurn Glow. This ID should be the same as the ID you have specified within the AfterBurn or AfterBurn Combustion effects.

AFF (Animation Flow Functions) Animation Flow Functions are used for animation between the birth and death values of the glow, as well as color and strength values within the AfterBurn Glow effect.

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The bottom left corner indicates the birth of the particle while the bottom right corner indicates the death. The space in between is the life of the particle. Low Clip - This spinner, if raised above 0.0, will hold a minimum value until the low clip value is reached. In this way, the birth value is maintained until this point in the particle's life is reached. High Clip - This parameter, if lowered below 1.0 will change the curve so it will reach the maximum value much faster and tends to compress the time it takes to reach the high clip. Presets - There is also a flyout next to the two spinners that contains three preset AFF curves: A standard S-Curve, a Quick-Out and a Slow-Out. S-Curve - This one keeps the start value low to begin, then gradually rises to the end value. Quick-Out - This curve leaves the start value quickly and gradually eases into the end value. Slow-Out - This curve eases out of the start value slowly and rapidly approaches the end value.

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AfterBurn Daemons

AfterBurn Wind Daemon The Wind Daemon forces the Noise to move in a certain direction, giving the illusion of wind affecting a volumetric effect.

Click on any part of the image to go to that group of controls On - Enables or disables the Wind Daemon.

Force group of controls Strength - The Wind Daemon is animated automatically, so there’s no need to animate the strength. For a fast-moving wind effect, set it to a high value like 25. If you want a slowlymoving wind effect, use a lower value like 5. The Noise will appear to be moving in the direction of the icon's arrow. If the Strength value is negative, the effect direction will be reversed. Decay - Causes the wind force to fade to zero set from the emitter.

Shape group of controls Planar - When the shape is set to planar, the wind blows in one straight line in the icon’s direction. Spherical - When the shape is set to spherical, the wind blows from the center of the icon outwards in all directions. This is similar to 3ds Max’s Wind Space Warp. The icon size is not important; however, the direction of the wind is important. NOTE: Use Spherical wind with caution as you may experience strange Noise motion after a certain number of frames. This is due to large Strength/Decay values that are used. Lower the Strength/Falloff values to fix the problem.

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Type group of controls Global - This setting causes the wind to affect the volumetric effects globally. This means that whole particles (or AfterBurn Combustion) will be affected with the same amount of Wind. Local - This setting causes the wind influence to be evaluated at each sample. By using this option, you can affect every sample by a different amount of wind (for example, with Decay or by using a Spherical Daemon Shape). You can use the Global Wind Daemon with more than 20 particles without noticing a difference from a Local one. However, if Decay or Spherical shapes are not used, there’s no need to use the Local Daemon due to the effect being the same as using the Global one. Keep in mind that rendering speed will be slower when using the Local type. Icon Size - The size of the Wind Daemon icon. This serves only for displaying the Daemon inside the 3ds max viewports.

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AfterBurn Swirl Daemon The Swirl Daemon enables you to “swirl” your AfterBurn effects, like the effect produced by a dust devil or tornado. You can control how much swirling to apply and how fast it rotates.

Click on any part of the image to go to that group of controls On - This checkbox enables or disables the daemon.

Force group of controls Strength - The strength of the swirl effect. A higher value results in a stronger swirl. You must animate the Strength setting to produce a moving swirl effect. Decay - The decay from the swirl center outwards. As the AfterBurn volumetric puffs get further away from the Swirl icon, the lower the amount of swirl will be applied to the puffs. Radius - The radius of the swirl effect. Volumetrics bounded by Decay and Radius will be affected by the Swirl effect only. As you move towards the Swirl Decay limits, the influence will be lessened.

The left image is the rendering output of the scene on the right. Notice how the whole AfterBurn Combustion is swirled. In the images below, Daemons have been moved to the right and only Combustion parts that fall inside the icon are affected by Swirl.

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Type group of controls Global - The swirl is evaluated at the center of the container and all samples contained are affected by the same amount. Local - A new swirling amount is evaluated for each sample.

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AfterBurn Void Daemon The Void Daemon makes the Noise density fade to zero across some distance. Essentially, it can poke holes within the AfterBurn volumetric effects.

Click on any part of the image to go to that group of controls On - Enables or disables the Void Daemon.

Force group of controls Size - The affected area that is represented by the icon size.

In the images above, the size of the Void is varied from 14 to 35. As you can tell, the bigger the value, the bigger the hole 'drilled' in the AfterBurn Combustion effect. Falloff - The falloff distance from the icon. Below are left and camera viewport.

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The left image is a side view of scene used. Area marked as 1 acts as the point where the noise is to disappear. Along area 2 volumetrics linearly becomes visible, and to become unaffected in area 3. A small Falloff value is used here because if you animate the Void drilling through an effect, noise will gradually disappear in front of Daemon. For this reason, it is always better to use some falloff, because the transition area where the noise disappears will be smoother. Otherwise artifacts can be produced unless an adequate Step Size is set in the AfterBurn effect. The green border represents the effect limit set by size parameter

Shape group of controls There are three different types of shapes you can choose from: Rectangular, Circular and Spherical. The Void Daemon effect is limited by its size and there will be no effect to the volumetrics falling outside the icon size. The Falloff value also sets additional limits to the effect. NOTE: For both the Rectangular and Circular Shape types, the effect extends in the direction of the viewport icon outwards (dependent upon the Falloff spinner setting). Since both of these shape types are 2D, they can be used to form a virtual cutoff plane for the volumetric effects.

Type group of controls Global - Each AfterBurn volumetric puff or Combustion Gizmo (container) will be affected on an individual level. This means that all samples inside a single container will be affected equally by the amount calculated in the center of the container.

Local - Enables the creation of density gradients along each AfterBurn volumetric puff or in an AfterBurn Combustion gizmo. With the Local type feature, you can actually drill a hole through your volumetric effects.

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Affect Noise group of controls Normal - The normal way of calculating the method in which the Void Daemon affects the volumetric puffs. By default, the arrows on the Void Daemon gizmo indicate the direction of the Void effect which is outward. Inverted - When this option is selected, the Void Daemon's affect on the volumetric puffs is flipped. The easiest way to determine the direction of affect is to look at the viewport representation of the Void Daemon.

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AfterBurn Explode Daemon This Daemon lets you add a glowing color based on the sampling position, particle age and the overall 3ds Max time.

Click on any part of the image to go to that group of controls NOTE: The Explode Daemon can be used with the Raymarcher effect type only. HyperSolids and OctaneShader are not supported. On - Enables or disables the daemon.

Color group of controls This group of controls lets you set the coloration of the explosion effect.

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Color - This gradient lets you define the color of the AfterBurn Explode effect based on density or distance from the particle center (you choose it from the AfterBurn Color Parameters rollout). For the AfterBurn Combustion effect, it is always interpolated by radius. The left part of the gradient represents the volume (particle) center or low density. The right part of the gradient represents the volume (particle) border or high density. Color Key Shift with Age - Since the explosion intensity varies with time (the outer parts of the explosion cool down first), this AFC (Animation Flow Curve) can shift the Color gradient keys with time. At the explosion start frame, the hottest parts will be placed on the volume surface. Frame by frame, the explosion then cools down – the hotter parts move toward the particle center and finally fade to the cold smoke color. Key Shift with Age will “shift” the keys on the left side of the gradient. Multiplier - This AFC can vary the Color intensity over the particle life.

Color Blending group of controls There are several methods for this daemon to blend with the AfterBurn effect’s color.

Add - The daemon’s color gradient is added to the AfterBurn effect's color. In the example shown below, the original gradient is pure gray, and the Explode daemon's gradient goes from white to red.

Multiply - The daemon’s color is multiplied by the AfterBurn effect's color. If any color is on the AfterBurn gradient is black, the final result on the resulting volumetric will be black. In the

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Reference Guide example shown below, the original gradient is pure gray, and the Explode daemon's gradient goes from white to red.

Replace - The AfterBurn effect's color is completely ignored and replaced by the daemon’s gradient color. In the example shown below, the original gradient is pure gray, and the Explode daemon's gradient goes from white to red. In the example shown below, the original gradient is pure gray, and the Explode daemon's gradient goes from white to red.

Intensity Blend - The higher intensity of the daemon’s color will provide a higher influence on the resulting volumetric. Brighter intensities (like white) will be blended into the AfterBurn effect's output. In the example shown below, the original gradient is pure gray, and the Explode daemon's gradient goes from white to red.

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Perturbation group of controls The Perturbation parameter controls Noise used to perturb the sampling point. The point is perturbed to avoid any regularity that may occur and serves to make the explosion more grainy.

Scale - This spinner controls the overall scale of the noise pattern. Lower scale values produce more pronounced noise patterns while higher scale values produce more subtle noise patterns.

Amount - Controls the amount of noise used to perturb the sampling point. This spinner goes from 0.0 (no perterbation) to 1.0 (full perterbation).

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Levels - More levels provide a more detailed Noise effect (and slower rendering). Be careful with this parameter, as too many levels can slow the rendering down without adding any new detail to the effect.

Limits group of controls This parameter allows you to limit the effect by the Spherical boundary. This can be helpful in localizing the explode effect to a particular portion of the particle system and volumetric effect.

Limit Effect checkbox: This checkbox tells the Explode daemon to limit the effect. Size - This spinner controls the radius of the bounding Sphere. Everything within that sphere get the Explode effect, while all puffs outside of it's boundary are not affected. Regularity - A relative value to the Size beyond which the influence of the Explode Daemon will gradually fade to zero. Icon Size - Size of the icon (3ds Max viewport only.) It does not have any influence on the final rendered effect.

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AfterBurn VMap Daemon The VMap daemon allows you to use any native 3ds max 3D map for an AfterBurn Noise effect. For the fastest results, set the noise levels in the AfterBurn UI to 0.0. This way only the VMap will be computed while the computation of internal Noise will be skipped.

On - Enables or disables the daemon. Map - Click to select the map that you want to use to create the noise for your AfterBurn volumetric effect. Map Scale - This spinner controls the overall scale of the selected 3D map type. Instead of scaling a Map in the Material editor, you can scale with the Map Scale parameter. Icon size - Size of the icon (3ds max viewport only.) It does not have any influence on the final rendered effect.

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AfterBurn Daemon Link Map Type This map type allows you to alter a map using AfterBurn Daemons. For example, you might use the Swirl Daemon and make the underlying map swirls depending on the daemon settings and movement.

With the Void Daemon, you can achieve effects such as color changing based on the distance from the daemon.

Source Daemons group of controls Pick - Click to select one or more AfterBurn Daemons within the 3ds Max viewports. Remove - Highlight the AfterBurn Daemon you want to remove then click this button to eliminate it from the dropdown list.

Map group of controls Map Slot - This button allows you to pick a map to have the AfterBurn Daemon control and distort.

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AfterBurn Particle Flow Operator With the incorporation of Autodesk Media & Entertainment's Particle Flow Extension into 3ds Max 5, you now have the ability to control AfterBurn in concert with any designed Flow. What this means is that as particles branch into new flows, you can assign independent AfterBurn atmospherics to each one, giving you a whole new level of precision. Explosions, waterfalls, crumbling debris and much more is easily defined and rendered. Say you have a particle animation that simulates water pouring into a hot skillet or pan. For all particles that come in contact with the pan, you would want them to turn into steam and rise, whereas for particles that don't hit the pan, you want them to simply land on another surface, perhaps breaking into smaller water bits as they collide. With the PFlow-ABurn Operator within Particle Flow, not only is this possible, but relatively easy to accomplish.

The image above was created with a single Particle Flow entry, along with two AfterBurn entries; one for the water look, and one for the steam look. To learn more about the process of using the AfterBurn operator, click HERE. To access the controls for the PFlow-ABurn operator, click HERE.

Using the AfterBurn Particle Flow Operator To access the AfterBurn operator, you MUST have the Particle Flow extension installed. When Particle Flow is opened, you will notice a new operator type within the Depot: PFlow-ABurn. You can also access this operator by right-clicking within the main Particle View window. It is located under New -> Misc. Event -> PFlow-ABurn.

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When you add a new AfterBurn operator to an existing flow, AfterBurn also creates a viewport icon as well to indicate the presence of this operator, as shown below.

This icon is handy as it is what you select when you are applying an AfterBurn effect to a specific part of your flow. From within the AfterBurn atmospheric dialog, when you click on the Pick Particles/Daemons button, you won't select the PFlow source, rather the individual PFlow-ABurn icons within the viewport (or by using the H-key). NOTE: If you do pick the PFlow source for AfterBurn, the effect is applied globally to all subsequent portions of your flow. In certain situations, this might be desirable for layering smoke effects and the like, but you will more often want to apply your AB effects to specific areas within your flow. Take the previous example of the water pouring into a hot pan. Below is the sample flow that was created to get the effect:

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As you can see, there are three PFlow-ABurn entries within the system. The first is part of the water emission (PFlow-ABurn (Water Look)), the second is associated with the steam section (PFlow-ABurn (Water Look)), and the third is an instance of the first maintaining the original water look (for all particles that don't collide with the pan). When it came time to select the particle system to apply the AB3 effects to, the PFlow source was NOT chosen. Instead each of the PFlow-ABurn entries was selected instead:

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IMPORTANT: Even instanced PFlow-ABurn entries must be chosen within AfterBurn in order to apply the effect to them. It receives its own icon when created within the 3ds max UI and need to be selected on their own.

PFlow-ABurn Operator Controls Once you've assigned the PFlow-ABurn operator to a flow event, you can access it's parameters in two ways. First, you can select the operator within the Particle View window and set the controls within the Parameters portion of the floating dialog. Otherwise, you can select the PFlow-ABurn icon within the viewports and set its controls via the Modify panel. The interface for PFlow-ABurn operator is very simple.

Particle Scale checkbox - When this checkbox is active, the scale of the AfterBurn volumetric particles is turned over to the Particle Flow system. If you have a Scale operator within your flow, you can force the particles into sizes above and beyond what AfterBurn alone can produce.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide Particle Orientation checkbox - When this checkbox is active, the orientation of the AfterBurn volumetric particles is turned over to the Particle Flow system. If you have a Rotation or Spin operator within your flow, you can force the particles into directions above and beyond what AfterBurn alone can produce. Icon Size - This spinner controls the overall size of the viewport icon that is associated with the PFlow-ABurn operator.

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ThinkingParticles 2 Support: AfterBurn 3.2 now supports multiple ThinkingParticles 2 particle groups within the Master System. From the AfterBurn user interface, you can select ThinkingParticles as your source particle, and a new Group selector dialog will appear. Whichever TP2 particle Groups you pick will be displayed inside the Source Particles/Daemons group of controls (as shown below).

New ThinkingParticles multiple system support To learn more about the ThinkingParticles 2 support, click HERE.

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AfterBurn Shadow Generators Within all of the standard 3ds Max lights, AfterBurn has incorporated two new shadow generator types: AB Ray Trace Shadow and AB Shadow Map. Both are identical to the normal Ray Traced Shadows and Shadow Map in terms of controls - the only difference is that they are AfterBurn "aware", and can produce correct shadows for the AfterBurn effects.

For best results, we suggest you use AfterBurn Raytraced Shadows with very dense selfshadowing Raymarcher effects such as volcanic eruptions and nuclear explosions. Ordinarily, when using shadow maps (and self shadowing effects) you will not gain any speed improvements. In addition, your shadows will look much worse than raytraced ones – you will lose the great look of crisp shadows. AB Shadow Maps are most welcome if you need soft shadows cast on objects or when you want self-shadowing with transparent AfterBurn effects. By using Shadow maps on transparent effect, your speed gains could vary from 2 to 4 times or more, compared with Ray Traced Shadows. If there is no need for self-shadowing effects, but you want shadow casting on other objects, Shadow maps with appropriate map sizes can produce good-looking soft shadows. NOTE: Keep your light Hotspot and Falloff as small as possible, and your Shadow Map size as small as possible as well. This will help you keep your memory requirements low. In addition, you should avoid using Shadow-mapped AfterBurn Omni lights whenever possible, since Omni lights are calculated as 6 spot lights with Hotspot/Falloff angles set to 45 degrees!

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Sticky Particles This particle system enables you to create particles that move along the mesh surface. Particles will be stuck in the same places even if the mesh is animated or morphed. NOTE: No 3ds max Space Warp will affect the position and/or velocity of these particles.

Click on any part of the image to go to that group of controls Pick Object - Click on this button to pick an object in the 3ds Max viewports that will be used as a base for particles distribution.

Particle Formation group of controls This group of parameters lets you position the particles using various methods.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide There are three different places that the Sticky Particles object can place the particles. Vertices - Particles will be placed at vertices of the selected object. Face Centers - Particles will be placed at the face centers of the selected object. UV Coord - This option enables you to place particles on arbitrary locations defined by the ‘U’ and ‘V’ parameters. Reduce - To reduce the total number of particles stuck to the mesh, you need to increase this value. It will effectively "skip" some parts of the selected geometry. Mtl ID - This checkbox, when enabled, can further limit the placement of the particles on the geometry by placing particles only at the faces with the specified Material ID.

Viewport Particles group of controls This group controls the shape of the particles that are displayed in the viewport.

Drops - This viewport option makes the particles appear as drops. Dots - This viewport option makes the particles appear as dots. Ticks - This viewport option makes the particles appear as ticks.

Timing group of controls The timing controls define when and for how long the Sticky Particles live.

Start - This spinner defines the Sticky Particles’ birth time. Life - Once born, the Sticky Particles will exist between the defined start frame and Start+Life frame. So if the start time is frame 10, and the particles are told to live for 40 frames, the particles will die on frame 50.

Icon group of controls Here is where you control the size of the Sticky Particle icon.

Width - This spinner controls the physical size of the icon in the 3ds Max viewports. Hide checkbox: This checkbox controls whether the Sticky Particles icon is visible in the viewports. 122

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Animation Flow Curves Animation Flow Curves (AFCs) are used by AfterBurn to animate many parameters over time from one value to another. By default, they are all disabled and need to be manually enabled to create an effect. Sometimes you don't need to animate a parameter over the particle age, thus you won't need to use an AFC associated with it. However, many times it is advantageous to be able to animate the parameter, such as the Phase of the noise so that the volumetric effects move realistically. In such cases, you must right-click over the AFC icon to open the menu and switch it from the [Disable] state to [Enable]. The right-click menu also provides quick access to AFC options such as Copy, Paste and Reset.

When enabled, the AFC icon will become colored as shown in the image below. On it's left is the icon for the Interpolation Controller.

When you left-click over an enabled AFC icon, the following Graph Editor will appear:

In the Graph Editor, the bottom left corner indicates the Low value for the chosen parameter, and the top right corner indicates the High value. The curve you define will be used to interpolate between these two values. To refine the curve further, you can add keys simply by left-clicking on the curve. You can also animate each key over the entire 3ds max scene time. (Note: in 3ds max 4, the Animate button must be turned on. In 3ds max 5, you must turn on the Animate->Auto Key buttons.)

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Reference Guide You can change the key type by right-clicking on the points as shown below. Be aware that when you click on a point, it turns white to indicate it is active.

When you do you get another pop-up where you can choose the type of curve you want applied to that point. Smooth – Creates a smooth curve, which has automatic tangent adjustment. Corner – Parts of the segment that are closer to the point will have linear characteristics. Bezier – Enables you to adjust the handles, which represent the curve slope at the point location. There’s also a toolbar in the bottom right corner; its buttons are described below. Copy - Allows you to copy all keys. Paste - Lets you paste keys from any other AFC. Delete - Removes all selected points. Reset - Resets the layout. Keyboard Shortcuts when over a curve point: Shift + left mouse button drag - restricts the movement to X-axis Ctrl + left mouse button drag - restricts the movement to Y-axis right mouse button - Pops up a menu (smooth, corner, delete key)

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Interpolation Controllers Interpolation Controllers (ICs) enable you to vary the parameters by particle age (default PA controller), particle velocity, distance from the emitter, distance from any other object in the scene, or by using expressions. The easiest way to visualize how each controller works is to enable the “Show in Viewport” button in the AfterBurn User Interface and to enable the “Sph. radius” AFC. In order to change between the various Interpolation Controller types, you right-click the AFC Controller icon. You'll get the following dialog.

When you click the left mouse button over the Interpolation Controller, its dialog will show up. Not all Interpolation Controllers have user interfaces. Each controller is described below. Particle Age (PA) This is the default controller and it has no user interface. The AFC that uses this controller will interpolate between Low and High values based on the particle's age. Particle Velocity (PV) The Interpolation between Low and High values is based on the particle velocity. Interpolation is calculated using the AFC only if the particle velocity is in the Minimum to Maximum velocity range.

Emitter Distance (ED) The interpolation between Low and High values is based on the particle distance from the particle system emitter. If the particle is further away than specified by the Maximum parameter, the interpolation will be done using AFC, but the High value will be applied. If the particle is closer than specified by Minimum, the Low values will be applied. All other distances ranging from Minimum to Maximum will be used to interpolate the parameter.

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Object Distance (OD) This Controller is similar to the Emitter Distance Controller, but instead of using a particle emitter as the only reference object, you can pick any object from the scene.

Expression (XE) Using this controller, you can write your own expressions that will be used to interpolate between “Low” and “High” values using this AFC.

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Gradient Controls Gradients are used to change the specific colors over the particle age. Gradients are accessible by clicking the small icon located on the AfterBurn User Interface.

Some of the frequently used gradient options are accessible through the menu which is available by right-clicking the Gradient’s icon as shown below.

Keyless mode - In this mode the Gradient will behave as a single color picker where the color is constant throughout the particle life. Copy - Copy the selected gradient. Paste - Paste a selected gradient. Load - Load a previously saved gradient .AGT file. Save - Saves the selected gradient to an .AGT file. Reset - Clears all the keys and sets the Gradient’s state to the default. When you left-click on the small gradient icon within the AfterBurn dialog, a larger dialog box will appear.

The left edge of the gradient is equivalent to the particle’s birth, while the right edge of the gradient is equivalent to the particle’s death. The status line is located above the gradient and shows the ID number of the currently edited key, with its color and position expressed as the particle age. To get the best accuracy out of a particle age status line, you must manually adjust the particle life (the default is 100) in the AfterBurn Particles Property dialog box. There are two types of the Gradient: Linear and TCB. Linear - This gradient type uses the linear interpolation between the color keys. TCB - Tension, Continuity, Bias, Ease To (eT) and Ease From (eF) parameters provide a lot more flexibility than the Linear gradient type. By using these parameters, you can change the influence of each color key on the color interpolation along the segment.

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Gradient Usage Left-click on gradient - After you release the button, a color key will be added at the selected place. Double left-click on key - Opens the color picker. Left-click + drag mouse on gradient – Doing this allows you to select multiple keys simultaneously. Left-click on key + drag mouse - Moves the color key to the desired place. Right-click on key - Opens the key menu as shown below. The options within this menu allow you to copy flag colors from one color key to another quickly as well as delete a key.

Right-click on gradient - Opens the gradient menu where you can also reset the entire gradient as well as copy, paste, load and save them.

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RapidRay RapidRay is a raytracing acceleration system built specifically for Sitni Sati’s 3ds Max plug-in DreamScape. (DreamScape enables you to create dynamic natural scenery in 3ds max, such as realistic skies, clouds, terrains and ocean surfaces.) RapidRay is also used in AfterBurn 3.0 to accelerate intersections with objects during HyperSolids reflection/refraction effects.

Max. Depth - This parameter represents the maximum depth of grid nesting. Higher values might result in shorter rendering times, but nested grids will occupy much more RAM. Max. Faces/Voxel - Each cell of a uniform grid is called a “voxel.” When a voxel contains more faces than specified by this parameter, this cell will be subdivided until the Maximum faces per voxel or Maximum depth limit is reached. Max. Width - Each grid is subdivided into a number of smaller voxels, where this parameter limits the number of grid dividing voxels.

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MAXScript Controls MaxScript Support Methods: AddPartsDaemon particle_daemon - This method allows you to add particles or Daemons to AfterBurn AddLight light - This method allows you to add lights to AfterBurn RemovePartsDaemon particle_daemon - Use this method to remove particles or Daemons from AfterBurn RemoveLight light - Use this method to remove lights from AfterBurn

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Tutorials Tutorial 1: Octane Shader In this introductory tutorial you will learn how to use the Octane Shader. The Octane Shader is AfterBurn's ultra-fast rendering algorithm that helps you quickly create dust and vapor trails. 1. In 3ds Max, select File->Open, and from your /Scenes/AfterBurn/Tutorials folder, select the file AB-Tut1.max. 2. After the file loads, scrub the Time Slider. You'll see a Super Spray emitter, moving left to right (trailing a line of particles) across the top of a flat Box primitive. You're going to add the AfterBurn effect to this particle system and adjust it so that it looks like light smoke.

3. To create the AfterBurn entry go to Rendering->Environment then from the Atmosphere rollout click Add. 4. Select AfterBurn from the list and click OK.

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Tutorials When the AfterBurn entry is added into the Effects list, you should notice that an AfterBurn Renderer entry is added automatically as shown below. All AfterBurn Environmental effects need this rendering engine in order render, and therefore it is added when any of these effects is selected. Make sure that This entry is located somewhere in your AfterBurn Environment Effects queue whenever you render with AfterBurn.

5. Click the Pick button in the Source Particles/Daemons list box. The button will turn yellow to indicate that you should select a particle source from within your scene.

6. To pick SuperSpray01, press H on your keyboard to bring up the Select by Name dialog box. From the Selection list, choose SuperSpray01. NOTE: You can also move the mouse pointer over the SuperSpray01 object in the 3ds max viewports and click it directly. The Pick button will switch off automatically after you've picked the Super Spray emitter. Next, we want to have the light in the scene affect the AfterBurn effect that we're creating. 7. From the Source Lights list box, click the Pick button, then select Spot01. Again, you can do this either by clicking on the Spotlight itself in the 3ds Max viewports or use the Select by Name feature (H-key) to pick the light. 8. From the AfterBurn Manager rollout, change the Rendering type to Octane Shader.

As was mentioned earlier, the Octane Shader is AfterBurn's very fast rendering engine and is good for creating dust and vapor effects. 9. In the Noise Animation Parameters rollout, change the Density from 3.0 to 0.1. 10. Advance to frame 100 and render the Camera01 viewport.

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Notice that the smoke trail is way too light and does not look realistic since it should spread as it moves away from the emitter. In order to make the smoke trail grow as the emitter moves away, you'll need to animate the size of the volumetric effect over time. You do this within AfterBurn through its AfterBurn Flow Curves. 11. In the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters rollout, right-click over the Sph. Radius AFC button and select Enable.

Once set, the AFC button will highlight, and you should also see that the High value spinner control becomes enabled. By default, the AFC controller will animate a value in a linear fashion over the course of the AfterBurn effect from the Low to the High value. 12. Set the High value Sph. Radius to 50.0 13. Next, in the Noise Animation Parameters rollout, enable the Noise Size AFC. 14. Set the High value for the Noise Size parameter to 30.

This will make the noise grow together with the volumetric spheres. 15. Now, render frame 100 again.

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It looks better now, but some shadows would help provide depth to the image. 16. Select Spot01, then from the 3ds Max Modifier panel, go to the Shadow Parameters rollout. 17. Turn the spotlight’s Shadows checkbox On. 18. From the Shadows dropdown list, choose AB Ray Trace Shadow.

NOTE: This is still not sufficient for AfterBurn to cast shadows, but you’ll fix that in a second. 19. Back in the AfterBurn Environment rollout, within the Illumination/Shading Parameters rollout, check the Self Shadows checkbox.

This will make AfterBurn cast shadows on the AfterBurn effect itself. 20. Enable the Shadow Cast checkbox as well so that the AfterBurn effect cast shadows on the ground plane. 21. Render frame 100 again.

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This looks okay, but the shadow is too dark for light smoke. We'll adjust that. 22. Set the Shadow Opacity spinner to 0.3. With Shadow Opacity, you can control the darkness of the shadows. Higher values will produce darker shadows. Since this is supposed to be light smoke, we don't want it as high, so the lower value produces a more realistic look. 23. Render frame 100 again.

If you like, render out the complete animation (either an .AVI or an image sequence) This introductory tutorial should have given you some idea of what is needed to create an AfterBurn effect. As you can see, it's easy to get started, yet there are plenty of options available to refine your effects. In the next tutorial, we'll start working with the color gradients and the look of the noise that AfterBurn uses.

Tutorial 2

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Tutorial 2: Colors and Noise In this tutorial, we'll start working with the gradient controls to affect the coloring of your AfterBurn effect. 1. In 3ds Max, select File->Open, and from your /Scenes/AfterBurn/Tutorials folder, select the file AB-Tut2.max. This tutorial picks up where Tutorial 1 ended, with a Super Spray emitter, moving left to right across the top of a flat Box primitive. 2. Select Rendering->Environment, and click on the AfterBurn entry in Atmosphere->Effects to open the AfterBurn atmospheric. 3. Go to the Color Parameters rollout and left-click on the Color1 Gradient field (the white box) to bring up the Gradient Editor. This floating window is fully resizable.

4. Right-click on the rightmost color key, and from the dropdown menu, select Key Color.

5. Change this key color to Black (RGB: 0, 0, 0). Do not close the Gradient Editor yet. 6. Now, activate the Camera01 view and render frame 100.

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Notice how the smoke gradually changes from white to black. Those particles that are just born are white, and as they get older, they turn black. This follows the gradient settings you just made. You can add as many Color keys to the Gradient as you want to achieve the result you want. 7. Return to the Gradient Editor, and in the middle of the color gradient, left-click to create another Color key. The position of the key is not critical. 8. Change this new color key to Red (RGB: 255, 0, 0), then close the Color Selector and Gradient Editor. Next, you'll add another color gradient and blend between them. 9. In the AfterBurn atmospheric dialog, go to the Color Parameters rollout and activate the Color 2 radio button.

Now you have two separate color gradients affecting the AfterBurn effect. The first is the white/red/black one, and the second is this new, all-white one. 10. Activate the Camera01 viewport and render frame 100.

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You should see that the Color 1 gradient is visible at the center of the effect while the new Color 2 gradient is visible at the edges of the volumetric effect. This is due to the fact that the c1>c2->c3 option is set to Distance. This option changes the color of the volumetric puff from Color 1 to Color 2 based on the distance from the particle center. However, you can affect where the cross-over occurs between the two color gradients by using the Pos. spinners. The Pos. (Position) spinners adjust the distance where Color1 starts to face into Color2. And by using the AFC (Animation Flow Curve), you can also vary this blending over the particle age. 11. Right-click over the Color1 Pos. AFC button and select Enable. The AFC default transition function is linear, which is good enough for this tutorial. 12. Leave the left Pos. spinner at 0.0 and set the right Pos. spinner to 0.3.

These numbers indicate the relative distance from the particle center. 0.0 is the particle center and 1.0 is the particle surface. By the end of the particles' lives, the Color 1 positioning is 0.3 (roughly one-third) away from the particle centers before the transition to Color 2 begins. 13. Activate your Camera01 viewport and render frame 100 again.

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Note that the red color is much closer now to the surface towards the end of the smoke trail than it was before. 14. Go to the Noise Shape Parameters rollout and change the Noise type from Turbulence to Fractal.

15. Now, render frame 100 again.

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Tutorials The Fractal noise seems to be more voluminous than the Turbulence noise setting. As you can see, the color gradients that AfterBurn uses can be a powerful tool in creating it's effects, especially when you start blending multiple gradients together to get complex looks out of the volumetric puffs. In the next tutorial, you'll discover other ways of coloring your AfterBurn volumetric effects. Specifically, you'll get to work with the new AfterBurn Explode Daemon to see how to create a convincing explosion.

Tutorial 3

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Tutorial 3: Raymarcher & The Explode Daemon One of the improved features of AfterBurn 3.0 is the Explode Daemon. In this tutorial, you'll work more with the AfterBurn color gradient and noise settings as well as the AfterBurn Explode Daemon to set up a burning, fiery smoke effect. The AfterBurn Explode Daemon lets you add color to an AfterBurn effect. This color can vary by distance from particle center or by density. 1. In 3ds Max, select File->Open, and from your /Scenes/AfterBurn/Tutorials folder, select the file AB-Tut3.max. When the file loads, you'll see a Plane object with a Noise modifier applied to make it look like terrain. If you scrub the Time Slider, you'll see a Snow particle emitter spraying particles upwards, like a geyser. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Go to Rendering->Environment dialog and from the Atmosphere rollout click Add. Select AfterBurn to add an AfterBurn entry to the Effects list. From the Source Particles/Daemons list box, pick the Snow01 particle system. From the Source Lights list box, pick the Direct01 light. In the AfterBurn Manager rollout, check the Show in Viewport button under the Tools group of controls.

7. Advance the 3ds max Time Slider to frame 60. This will help to visualize the Sphere radius parameter we are going to tweak. As you can see, the particles show up as small spheres. These spheres represent the size of the AfterBurn volumetric puffs that are to be applied to the Snow particle system. Unfortunately they are much too small right now, but we can change that. 8. Under the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters rollout, right-click over the Sphere Radius AFC and select Enable. 9. Set the Low value to 50.0 and the High value to 120.0.

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As you do, you'll see the spheres in the scene increase in size. 10. Select the Camera01 viewport and render frame 60.

As you can see, the size looks right, but the noise is too small and looks incorrect. You'll change this next to something more appropriate. 11. In the Noise Animation Parameters rollout, set Density to 2.0. 12. Right-click over the Noise Size AFC, enable it, and set the Low value to 30.0 and the High value to 80.0. 13. Render frame 60 again.

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The noise size now looks about right for the explosion effect you're designing. Now we'll start to spice up the smoke effects with the Explode Daemon. 14. In the 3ds Max Command Panel, go to Create->Helpers and choose AfterBurn Daemons from the dropdown menu.

15. Select Explode then left-click and drag to create its icon anywhere in the viewport. (It creates an X-shaped gizmo)

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NOTE: The Explode Daemon has another unique capability to limit the range of its influence to the AfterBurn effect. As you don't need this capability it doesn't matter where you create it in the viewports. 16. In the Command Panel, go to Modify mode. 17. Right-click over the Color Gradient field (the white rectangle) and choose Load. 18. From the /Scenes/AfterBurn/Tutorials folder, load the explode.agt gradient.

To associate any Daemon with an AfterBurn effect, you have to make AfterBurn "aware" of the Daemon by selecting it within the AfterBurn Source Particles/Daemons list box. 19. Back within the AfterBurn atmospheric, click the Pick Particles/Daemons button, and add the Explode01 Daemon to the source list.

20. Inside the Color Parameters rollout, right-click over the Color 1 gradient field and select Keyless mode. In this mode, the gradient is functioning just like a standard 3ds Max Color Selector box.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide 21. Left-click on the gradient to bring up the Color Selector, then set the color to Dark Gray (RGB: 50, 50, 50). This is necessary as we want the Explode Daemon to control the color of the fire and smoke entirely. Be aware that by not setting the color to black, that there will be some subtle shadowing contributed from the original gradient when we eventually have the effect cast shadows. 22. Activate your Camera01 viewport and render frame 60.

You're getting there, but right now you should notice that the entire smoke plume is colored the same way. This is incorrect. We want to avoid that and make the explosion more fiery at the beginning and black at the tail. 23. Go back to the Explode Daemon rollout. 24. Right-click the Key Shift with Age AFC and enable it. 25. Right-click the Multiplier AFC and enable it. You will tweak the multiplier to make the beginning of the smoke look more “hot” than the tail. 23. Set the first Multiplier value to 10.0 and leave the second Multiplier value at 1.0.

24. Now, render frame 60 again.

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This is now starting to look like an explosion. But the AfterBurn effect still needs some shadows to add some realism. 25. To add some shadows, go to the AfterBurn Illumination/Shading Parameters rollout and check the Self Shadows box. Before you render again, you also have to enable the Direct01 light shadows. 25. Select the Direct01 light, and from the Modify panel, enable the light’s Shadows checkbox, then from the dropdown menu directly below, choose AB Ray Trace Shadow. 26. Render frame 60 again.

That looks pretty good. If you like render out the entire animation to see how the rising fiery plume looks over time. With this tutorial, you've learned how to associate AfterBurn daemons with specific AfterBurn volumetric effects. Moreover, you've seen how easy it is to build some thick, dense smoke by combining standard AfterBurn color gradients and the special effects look of the AfterBurn Explode daemon. Moving ahead, you'll next get to see how to quickly model clouds using standard 3ds Max geometry.

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Tutorial 4

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Tutorial 4: Cloud Modeling One of the abilities of AfterBurn is to create convincing clouds to populate your environments. In this tutorial, you'll be taught how to convert a simple box object into a very effective cloud generator. 1. In 3ds Max, select File->Open, and from your /Scenes/AfterBurn/Tutorials folder, select the file AB-Tut4.max. When the file loads, you'll see a Box primitive, a Direct light, and AfterBurn Particles called Sticky Particles01. If you scroll the Time Slider, you'll see the Box move left to right across the Perspective viewport. The first thing you need to do is add an AfterBurn atmospheric effect. 2. Go to Rendering->Environment and from the Atmosphere rollout, click Add. 3. From the resulting dialog, select AfterBurn to create an AfterBurn entry in the Effects list. 4. From the Source Particles/Daemons list box pick the Sticky Particles01 particle system. 5. From the Source Lights list box pick the Direct01 light. Next, you'll define how AfterBurn is going to use the box primitive to create the clouds. 6. Go to the Perspective viewport and select Sticky Particles01. 7. Go to the 3ds max Modify panel. 8. From the Sticky Particles01 UI, click the Pick Object button, then select the Box01 object in the viewports. 9. Change the Viewport Particles display option to Ticks. Notice that one particle is created at each vertex of the object. The AfterBurn Sticky Particles system works by literally reading the selected geometry and then places particles over the surface as defined by the user. 10. We do not want Box01 to be visible in renderings, so select the Box01 object, then right-click on it and choose Properties. 11. Within the Properties dialog, un-check the Renderable box and click OK.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide 12. Go back to the AfterBurn atmospheric, and activate the Show in Viewport button from the Tools menu. 13. If you scrub the 3ds max Time Slider you will see that Sticky Particles are following the motion of the Box vertices. 14. In the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters rollout set the Sph. Radius to 50.0.

As shown above, you can quickly see that the volumetric puffs are much larger now. It is also important to note that when you start scaling the size of the volumetric effects up, that you have to be aware of the rendering Step Size, since this directly impacts rendering times. Since we have increased the Sphere radius to 50.0, a Step Size of 0.5 will be too small and will produce longer rendering times. This can be fixed rather easily. 15. In the AfterBurn Manager rollout, under Volume Rendering, set Step Size to 2.0.

Now, let's go ahead and further refine the look of the AfterBurn volumetric puffs. 16. Go back to the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters section and set the Squash Low Value to 2.0.

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By doing this, you are compressing the spherical shape of the volumetric puffs so that they are flattened. 17. Under Type, make sure Sphere is present in the dropdown menu, then activate the Hemisphere button directly below. 18. In the Noise Animation Parameters rollout, set Noise Size to 40.0 and Noise Levels to 5.0. 19. Select the Perspective viewport and render frame 30.

Not too bad for a first attempt. But the clouds still look too regular and not shaded correctly. Let's correct this problem. 20. In the Illumination/Shading parameters rollout, right-click on the Ambient Color gradient field and choose Keyless mode.

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21. Left-click on it to bring up the Color Selector and set the Ambient Color to a Dark Blue Green (RGB: 25, 50, 58). By altering the Ambient Color swatch, you can effectively tell AfterBurn what color the non-lit surfaces of the volumetric effects should be. 22. Select the Direct01 light and from the 3ds Max Modify panel, go to the Shadow Parameters rollout. 23. Under Illumination/Shading Parameters, enable the Self Shadows checkbox. 24. Turn the light's Shadows on, then from the dropdown menu below Shadows, choose AB Raytrace Shadow for the shadow type. 25. Activate the Perspective viewport and render frame 30 again.

The frame renders, and you see several white, puffy clouds that are self-shadowing, and also cast shadows on one another. 26. To vary the look of the clouds, you can play with Noise settings and Falloff. 27. Select File->Open, and from your /Scenes/AfterBurn/Tutorials folder, select the file ABTut4v2-done.max. Then, render another test frame and note the difference.

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In this sample file, there are several more changes. Falloff has been set to 0.2, Ambient color to (R=8, G=14, B=16), Shadow Falloff to 1.0 (un-check the Global button) and Regularity to 0.3. Continue to alter and refine these settings to get a good feel for how they interact with one another. You can also tweak each individual cloud by applying an Edit Mesh modifier to a Box01 object. By editing the Box01 primitive in Vertex mode, you can even add additional vertices, producing more clouds! Next, you'll work briefly with the AfterBurn Daemon link map to create some unique material effects for your scenes.

Tutorial 5

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Tutorial 5: AfterBurn Daemon Link Map In this tutorial you will learn how to use the AfterBurn Void Daemon to affect an AfterBurn Daemon Link-based material, depending on the source object’s relative position to the Void gizmo. 1. In 3ds Max, select File->Open, and from your /Scenes/AfterBurn/Tutorials folder, select the file AB-Tut5.max. When the file loads, you'll see a Sphere primitive, and an AfterBurn Daemon called Void01. If you scroll the Time Slider, you'll see the Sphere move towards you in the Perspective viewport. The Void Daemon does pretty much what you might expect - it creates a void in the AfterBurn effects. This can be used to literally punch holes in your volumetric effects and much more. In this tutorial, you're going to use it in concert with the AfterBurn Daemon Link Map type to change the color of the material assigned to the sphere in your scene as it moves away from the gizmo. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Open the Material editor and select Material#1 in Slot 1. Open the Maps rollout and click the map slot of the Diffuse Color channel. From the Material/Map Browser, choose Mix for the map type. Click the Mix Amount map slot and choose the AfterBurn Daemon link map for the map type.

The AfterBurn Daemon link map lets you pick one or more AfterBurn daemons within your scene to use to affect a map beneath it. Since it is being used in this tutorial within the Mix Amount slot, it will be responsible for blending between two other materials based on the proximity to the Void daemon gizmo. 5. Within the Daemon link map, select Pick, then click Void01 for the Source Daemon. 6. Click the Map slot beneath the Source Daemons group of controls and choose Noise.

7. Under the Noise Parameters, change both Noise colors to White (RGB: 255, 255, 255).

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Tutorials Changing both colors within the Noise map is done so that the AB Daemon link map's influence is uniform over the entire sphere as it moves away. Any parts of the underlying map that are white will affect the change from Color #1 to Color #2 in the Mix map. If you'd left the noise colors at their defaults, only the white areas would change colors as the sphere moved away from the Void daemon. Now you'll set the colors to blend between. 8. Click the Go to Parent button twice to return to the root of the Diffuse Color Mix Map. 9. Then, change the Mix colors to the following: • Color #1 - Red Orange (RGB: 255, 117, 15) • Color #2 - Teal (RGB: 0, 222, 255)

10. Now, assign this material to the Sphere01 object. 11. Finally render out several frames from the animation.

Sphere rendered at frame 0, 30 and 60 You can see how the sphere color changes based on the Void01's influence. You could now play with the Void daemon's Falloff setting in order to tweak the range of influence of the Void gizmo. In the next tutorial you'll learn about the HyperSolids rendering method and how it can be used to create blobby, fluid volumetric effects.

Tutorial 6

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Tutorial 6: AfterBurn HyperSolids (1) In this tutorial, you'll get to create a procedural liquid using a unique feature called HyperSolids. AfterBurn’s HyperSolids feature makes rendering solid procedural objects very easy and fast. 1. In 3ds Max, select File->Open, and from your /Scenes/AfterBurn/Tutorials folder, select the file AB-Tut6.max. When the file loads, you'll see a Spray particle emitter, Wind Gizmos, an Omni light and a Camera. If you scrub the Time Slider from frames 0-150, you'll see a fountain of particles flying up in the Camera01 viewport, spreading out at the top and then falling down. As always, the first thing to do is add an AfterBurn effect to your scene. 2. Go to Rendering->Environment and from the Atmosphere rollout, click Add. 3. From the resulting dialog, select AfterBurn to create an AfterBurn entry in the effects list. 4. Under Source Particles/Daemons, click the Pick Particles/Daemons button and then pick the Spray02 particle system. 5. Under Source Lights, click the Pick Lights button and pick the Omni01 light. Now that AfterBurn is entered and you have a source, it's time to apply the HyperSolids technology to the particles. 6. From the Rendering type dropdown menu, choose HyperSolids.

Now, since we're looking to create a liquid type of effect here, we want to change the way the blobbly particles look. 7. In the Illumination/Shading Parameters rollout, go to the Shading Type dropdown menu and choose Phong.

8. Set Shininess to 0.7, then set Shin. Strength to 0.2.

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Tutorials 9. Change the Normals option from Shape to Noise.

By doing this, you can apply Bump maps to your HyperSolids objects. 10. Set Shape Influence (the spinner marked S Inf. located to the right of the Normals radio buttons) to 0.0. This setting means there is no shape influence. 11. Go to the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters rollout and under Type, change the Shape Type from Sphere to Metaball.

12. Next, change the Mb. Radius spinner to 30. 13. In the Noise Animation Parameters rollout, set Mball Effect to 0.2. By lowering the Metaball Effect value, the metaballs will be smoother. 14. Set Noise Size to 20.0. 15. Drag your Time Slider to frame 66 and then render a single test frame from the Camera01 viewport.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide The result looks rather jagged and it has no texture to it. We are now going to add some colors and reduce the bumpiness that is present. 16. Go to the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters rollout and change Regularity to 0.95. The metaball bumpiness is controlled by the Regularity parameter; the higher the regularity value, the smoother the bumps are. 17. Re-render frame 66.

You can see that the jaggedness is reduced. The only thing left to do is to add some color to the Metaballs. 18. Go to the Color Parameters rollout, then activate the Color 2 radio button. 19. Right-click the Color1 and Color2 Color gradient fields and choose Keyless mode for both. 20. Choose the following colors for the Color1 and Color2 swatches: • Color 1: Yellow (RGB: 255, 246, 0) • Color 2: Purple (RGB: 170, 0, 170) 21. In the Color1 area, make sure that the Pos. spinner is set to 0.0. 22. Under c1->c2->c3 click on the Density button. This way the colors will match the bumpiness of the surface. 23. Render frame 66 again.

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If you like, you can render out the full animation to see how the HyperSolids behave over time. Beyond just surface bump maps, AfterBurn's HyperSolids can also have their surface normals displaced to create all sorts of craggy, rocky surfaces. In the next tutorial, you'll learn how to use the HyperSolids displacement capabilities.

Tutorial 7

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Tutorial 7: AfterBurn HyperSolids (2) In this tutorial you will learn how to use the HyperSolids displacement feature. 1. In 3ds Max, select File->Open, and from your /Scenes/AfterBurn/Tutorials folder, select the file AB-Tut7.max. When the file loads, you'll see an Omni light and a Particle Cloud (PCloud) Gizmo. 2. Go to Rendering->Environment and from the Atmosphere rollout, click Add. 3. From the resulting dialog, select AfterBurn to create an AfterBurn entry in the effects list. 4. Under Source Particles/Daemons, click on the Pick Particles/Daemons button, and pick the PCloud01 object in the scene. 5. Under Source Lights, click the Pick Lights button and pick the Omni01 light in the scene. Now that the AfterBurn effect is present, we need to activate the HyperSolids again. 6. Under Rendering Type, change this to HyperSolids. 7. Winin the Particle Shape/Animation rollout, change the Sphere Radius value to 40.0. 8. Under the Noise Shape Parameters rollout, change the Noise Type from Turbulence to Spots.

This noise type is what we'll use to displace the surface of our HyperSolids later on. 8. Select the Perspective viewport and render frame 0.

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When you do, you'll see simply a cluster of big white circles. This is because there is no Shading model assigned to the effect. 8. Go to the Illumination/Shading Parameters rollout, then change the Shading Type to Lambert. 9. Next, re-render frame 0.

Now the volumes render as shaded spheres. NOTE: Be aware that AfterBurn’s Normals and Shape parameters influence the controls underneath the shading model. This influences how much the surface interpretation is affected by the shape of the volume object (Spherical, Cylindrical, Cubic, etc.). With Normals set to Shape, a lower shape influence will cause a “flatter” look, while a higher value will impose more bumpiness. With Normals set to Noise, lower Shape influence values will produce a highly irregular appearance derived directly from the system’s Noise parameters, while the higher Shape influence values will result in a more regular surface appearance. 10. Within the Illumination/Shading Parameters rollout and set the Normals options to Noise and the Shape Influence spinner to 0.0. 11. Re-render the Perspective viewport.

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We now have a bunch of spheres with mottled lumpy surfaces. It’s only the surface appearance that is being affected now; the profile is still smooth. 12. In the Noise Shape Parameters rollout, change the Affect dropdown to Surface Displacement.

13. Re-render the scene.

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Tutorials The spherical shapes are now displaced and no longer smooth. The shape of the AfterBurn volumetric puff has changed but is still contained by the same spherical boundary. NOTE: In the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters section there is a parameter called Regularity. As with Raymarcher-based AfterBurn effects, Regularity controls the "severeness" of the effect. By increasing the Regularity, the rendered effect will resemble its original container shape more closely (Sphere, Cubic, Cylindrical, etc.) and will become more regular. As Regularity decreases, the effect will degenerate and resemble the underlying Noise structure. Lower Regularity values in HyperSolids provide a bumpier effect or greater displacement. In the next tutorial, you'll work with the AfterBurn Glow Render Effect to enhance the final look of your AfterBurn effects.

Tutorial 8

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Tutorial 8: AfterBurn Glow In this tutorial you will learn how to glow AfterBurn rocket exhaust. 1. In 3ds Max, select File->Open, and from your /Scenes/AfterBurn/Tutorials folder, select the file AB-Tut8.max. When the file loads, scroll the Time Slider. Zoom! You see the rocket fly past you, spewing a stream of particles behind it. If you examine the existing AfterBurn atmospheric, you'll see that under Source Particles/Daemons, the Snow01 emitter (attached to the Rocket’s tail) is picked, and the Omni04 light is in the Source Lights box. NOTE: You should also notice that we have used the Octane Shader. This is because the rocket smoke is built out of 800 particles and we want it to render quickly. 2. In the Atmosphere->Effects field, click on the AfterBurn Renderer entry and check the Create Image Channels box. You must use this option to apply any of the 3ds Max program’s Rendering Effects or Video Post filter effects to AfterBurn.

3. Go to Rendering->Rendering Effects dialog and within the Effects rollout, click Add. 4. From the resulting dialog, choose AfterBurn Glow and click OK to add it to the effects list.

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Note that most of the parameters have a birth (Low) value and a death (High) value. This is because the AfterBurn Glow can apply glowing effects based on the particle age. 5. Set the Low Size value to 17.0, and the High Size value to 10.0. 6. Set the Low Strength spinner to 0.7 and the High Strength spinner to 0.5. 7. Left-click on the Strength AfterBurn Flow Function (AFF) button to open it and set the High Clip value to 0.5.

You use the AFF to control how the Birth and Death values will be interpolated over the particle age. The Low and High Clip values define the time interval over which the interpolation occurs. With High Clip set to 0.5 and the Snow01 emitter Particle Age set to 100, all particles will be “glowed” with some Glow Strength until the age of 50 is reached (0.5*100). For any older particles, Afterburn Glow assume that the Strength is 0.0. 8. Click OK to close the AFF dialog box. 9. In the AfterBurn Glow Parameters rollout, make sure the Source Channel value is set to 2 and that the Color option set to Material.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide The Channel value has to correspond with the AfterBurn Material ID, and the Color option will pull the glow color from the AfterBurn effect itself. 10. Scrub the frame slider to frame 90, and then render the Camera01 viewport.

If you look at the Material ID of the resulting render, you'll see that their are two MatIDs being produced by the AfterBurn atmospheric, as shown below (ID 1 is in pink, and ID 2 is in green). This kind of control is critical in creating believable explosions where you only want the hot center of the volumetric effect to glow as if on fire, while the smoke around it does not.

To set the Material IDs for each portion of the AfterBurn effect, you should go to the Color Parameters rollout and set the MatID spinners to the appropriate setting.

Tutorial 9

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Tutorial 9: Tendrils In this tutorial, you will create some tendril-like effects similar to those you might see inside the human body or brain. This tutorial takes advantage of AfterBurn's ability to react to lighting in the scene, and its flexibility in creating different kinds of volumetric effects. This scene contains a particle cloud, a camera, and some lights. For the initial steps you will concern yourself with just one basic spot light, and later you will add the rest of the lights to spice up the animation. 1. Start up 3ds max and open the ABTenderilStart.max scene.

Start Scene opened 2. Go to > Rendering Menu > Environment or press 8 on the keyboard to bring up the Environment and Effects dialog.

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Environment Panel 3. Click the Add button in the Atmosphere Rollout and add AfterBurn. This will add both the AfterBurn effect and the AfterBurn Renderer that is always needed to render volumetrics. 4. Select AfterBurn in the Effects: list and go to the AfterBurn Manager Rollout. Click on the Pick Particles/Daemons button and choose PCloud01.

AfterBurn Manager Rollout with Particles Chosen This adds the particle system to AfterBurn. 5. Click the Pick Lights button in the Source Lights section and choose Spot01.

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AfterBurn Manager Rollout with Light Chosen This adds the light to AfterBurn that will illuminate the volume. 6.

Do a quick render of the Camera view.

Render of smoke with default AfterBurn settings This gives you some volumetri c puffs but it’s not quite what we are looking for. The fist thing to edit is the overall size of the volumetric puffs. 7. Scroll down to the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters Rollout and adjust the Sph. Radius: Low Value to 75.

Sphere Radius adjusted This will make the spherical volume very large so the viewer will feel immersed in it. 8. Click the Show in Viewport button in the Tools section of the AfterBurn Manager Rollout so you can see the volumetric spheres.

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Spherical Volumes displayed in the Viewport Only about 10% of the PCloud particles are being displayed in the viewport but this will give you an idea of the sphere size and placement. Now that the size is adjusted, you will lower the density and change some of the noise parameters to add some wormlike tendrils. 9. Scroll down to The Noise Shape Parameters Rollout and click the Interactive Update button under the preview window.

Turning on Interactive Update 10. Scroll down the Noise Animation Parameters Rollout and adjust these values:

Density: 0.2 Noise Size: 20 Noise levels: 1.0

When adjusting the Noise parameters you should be able to see the effects in the preview window above. If you do a quick render you will see it is starting to take a long time. Next you will change the rendering type from Raymarcher to Octane Shader. The Octane Shader is much faster and better suited for an immersive effect like this. 11. Scroll up to the AfterBurn Manager Rollout and choose Octane Shader form the Rendering Type dropdown and render the scene. 12. Render frame 300.

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Frame 300 render The frame renders much faster. The result is very interesting but not quite what we are after. 13. In the Noise Shape Parameters rollout click on Tendril to enable this type of noise, and render. You can see the preview window update and the render is basically washed out with white. To get the tendrils thinner, you will have to adjust the Lo Threshold values. 14. Scroll down to the Noise Animation Parameters and adjust the Lo Threshold to about 0.98. Try to click and drag on the Lo Threshold value while looking at the noise shape preview window to see the transition from thick to thin tendrils. 15. Render frame 0 to see the result. This is much closer to what we are looking for. Now you will set up the Lo threshold AFC so the farther away form the camera the particles are the lower the value will become, making the particles off in the have larger more washed out tendrils. 16. Right click on the AFC button next to Lo Threshold and Enable. Set the Hi Value to 0.0. 17. Right click on the PA button and choose Object Distance. Left click on the OD button to bring up the Object Distance dialog and enter 200 for Minimum and 700 for Maximum. 18. Click the Pick Object button in the Object Distance dialog and choose Camera01.

Object Distance dialog None of the particles between 200 and 700 units away from the camera will use the AFC to go from a Lo Threshold of 0.98 to 0.0. Now let’s set up a similar AFC for Density. 19. Right click on the AFC next to Density and Enable. Set the Hi Value to 0.05. 20. Right click on the Lo Threshold AFC and choose Copy. Right click on the Density AFC and choose Paste. Since you just set up all the object distance parameters for the Lo Threshold AFC, you can just copy and paste them over to Density. Since the volume color is white and the lighting is white the scene is looking pretty bland. Next you will change the volume color to give it a more cerebral look.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide 21. Scroll up to the Color Parameters rollout and right-click on the color swatch next to Color in the Color 1 section. Select Keyless Mode, then double-click on the swatch to bring up a color picker. Set the Color to about RGB 0,50,75. 22. Render frame 0 to see the result.

Render with color and AFC changes. Next you will work with the lighting to make the scene come alive. 23. Right-click in any Viewport and choose Unhide By Name from the Quad Menu. Select Omni02 and Omni03 and click Unhide. These lights are animated to flash on and off with a bright green light. 24. Go to frame 40 in the timeline and you should be able to see the lights flash in the Camera01 viewport. If you render the scene you will not see any lighting effect because these lights have not been added to the AfterBurn effect. 25. Add both Omni02 and Omni03 to AfterBurn as you did with Spot01.

Both Omni lights Added 26. Render frame 40 to see the result of the lighting.

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Render with green flashing lights 27. Unhide the rest of the lights in the scene and add them to AfterBurn. There are two more green Omni lights that float off in space and one white Omni light that is linked to the camera. 28. Lastly, adjust the Falloff in the AfterBurn Manager rollout to 0.6 to give the scene a more liquid feel. 29. Render the animation to see the final result.

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Frame 40 from the final animation

Tutorial 10

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Tutorial 10: Cigarette Smoke In this tutorial, you will create some cigarette smoke. AfterBurn is often used for big puffs of smoke, but can be very fast and effective for more wispy types of effects. For the this you will be using the Octane Shader as it is very fast and lends itself to this type of effect very nicely. This scene contains a cigarette model with particles emitting from the tip. The particle system has Wind and Drag SpaceWarps bound to it so the particles have a smoke-like motion. Now you will make these particles look like smoke at render time. 1. Start up 3ds max and open the ABcig.max scene.

Start scene opened 2. Go to > Rendering Menu > Environment or press 8 on the keyboard to bring up the Environment Panel.

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Environment Panel 3. Click the Add... button in the Atmosphere Rollout and add AfterBurn. This will add both the AfterBurn effect and the AfterBurn Renderer that is always needed to render out volumetrics. 4. Select AfterBurn in the Effects list and go to the AfterBurn Manager Rollout. Click on the Pick Particles/Daemons button and choose Superspray01.

AfterBurn Manager rollout with particles chosen This adds the particle system to AfterBurn 5. Click the Pick Lights button in the Source Lights section and choose spot01.

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AfterBurn Manager rollout with light chosen This adds the light to AfterBurn to illuminate the smoke. 6. Do a quick render of the Camera view.

Render of smoke with default AfterBurn settings This gives you some nice volumetrics puffs but it’s not quite what we are looking for. Let’s adjust some settings to get this looking more like cigarette smoke. The first thing to edit is the overall size of the volumetric puffs. 7. Scroll down to the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters Rollout and adjust the Sph. Radius: Low Value to 1.5. Right-click on the AFC to enable it so you can set the Hi Value to 20.

Sphere Radius adjusted This will make it so the spherical volume starts out small and gets bigger over the particles age.

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8. Click the Show in Viewport button in the Tools section of the AfterBurn Manager Rollout so you can see the volumetric spheres.

Spherical volumes displayed in the Viewport Now that the size is adjusted you will lower the density and change some of the noise parameters to reduce the smokes thickness and noise. By increasing the noise size and lowering the noise levels, you will smooth out the noise pattern applied to the volumetric puffs. To see this more clearly while you work, you will turn on Interactive Update. 9. Scroll down to The Noise Shape Parameters Rollout and click the Interactive Update button under the preview window.

Turning on Interactive Update 10. Scroll down the Noise Animation Parameters Rollout and adjust these values:

Density: 0.1 Noise Size: 15.0 Noise levels: 1.0

When adjusting the Noise parameters you should be able to see the effects in the preview window above. 11. Go to frame 300 and render.

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Frame 300 render The smoke is looking better but still needs some more tweaking. Next you will change the Density so that the smoke is thicker in the middle and trails off at the end. 12. In the Noise Animation Parameters Rollout right click the AFC controller next to density and enable it. Set the Hi Value to 2.5 .25and open up the AFC graph by clicking the AFC button. The default graph is a linear progression form .1 to .25.25 over the particle’s life. We want the smoke to have a .1 Density at the beginning and end of its life and 2.5.25 in the middle. To do this you will just adjust the graph to look more like a half circle. 13. Adjust the curve in the Graph to look like the image below by adding two points in the middle and moving the endpoints.

Adjusted Density AFC graph 14. Render frame 300 and see the smoke is much thicker in the middle. Now that we have adjusted the AFC for Density, you can do the same for the Sph. Radius.

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide 15. Scroll to the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters Rollout and click on the AFC button for Sph. Radius. Adjust the graph to look like the image below.

Adjusted Sph. Radius AFC graph Now the particle volumes grow and fade in both size and density over the particle’s age. 16. Render frame 300 to see the result. Next you will change the rendering type from Raymarcher to Octane Shader. The Octane Shader is much faster and better suited to thin smoke of this type. 17. Scroll up to the AfterBurn Manager Rollout and choose Octane Shader from the Rendering Type dropdown, and render the scene. 18. Scroll down to the Noise Animation Parameters and adjust the Hi threshold to 0.5 and Lo Threshold to .1. This should ad some contrast to the smoke. These parameters are just like the Hi and Lo in a standard 3ds Max noise map. Next you can adjust the Ambient Color of the smoke to add the bluish tinge cigarette smoke often has. 19. Scroll to the Illumination/Shading Parameters Rollout and right-click on the black color swatch next to Ambient Color. Choose Keyless Mode form the popup and then doubleclick on the swatch to bring up a color picker. Set the color to RGB 25, 50, 75. To give the smoke a bit more realism when you can turn on Auto stretch. This will stretch the volumetric puffs according to the particle velocity. 20. Scroll to the Particle Shape/Animation Parameters Rollout and click the part. Velocity button under Alignment and set the Auto Stretch value to 35. Try to render with and without Auto stretch so you and see the difference it adds to the animation. You might also want to play with the Seed in the AfterBurn Master Rollout a bit to get the smoke you are looking for. This is a great way to reuse a setup as a preset and not have it always look exactly the same. A Seed of 3 works well. 21. Render the animation.

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Final render

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Index 3 3ds max’s Wind Space Warp ................. 100 3rd-party......................................... 23, 32 A AB Ray Trace Shadow .......................... 120 AB Shadow Map................................... 120 ABN ................................................ 23, 32 ABN file........................................... 23, 32 About - The About ........................... 23, 32 Absorption checkbox .............................. 41 Absorption Color .................................... 41 Access AFC ................................................. 124 Access ................................................ 124 Activate Use.............................................. 62, 70 Activate................................................. 62 Activate................................................. 70 Adjusting............................................... 60 AFC Controller icon............................... 124 AFC icon.............................................. 124 AFCs access ............................................. 124 use.................................................... 60 AFCs .................................... 23, 32, 50, 55 AFCs ..................................................... 60 AFCs ................................................... 107 AFCs ................................................... 124 Affect Z-Buffer ....................................... 23, 32 Affect.................................................... 23 Affect.................................................... 32 Affect Noise......................................... 104 Affect Z-buffer ............................23, 32, 48 AFFs ............................................... 94, 97 After ................................................... 128 AfterBurn benefits ............................................. 50 Daemons ......................................... 131 lights ............................................... 131 modify ......................................... 23, 32 rendering ..................................... 23, 32 shadows .......................................... 120 AfterBurn ...................................... 4, 9, 22 AfterBurn .............................................. 23 AfterBurn .............................................. 32 AfterBurn .............................................. 41 AfterBurn .............................................. 48 AfterBurn .............................................. 50 AfterBurn .............................................. 55 AfterBurn .............................................. 62 AfterBurn .............................................. 70

AfterBurn .............................................. 78 AfterBurn .............................................. 82 AfterBurn .............................................. 86 AfterBurn .............................................. 90 AfterBurn .............................................. 94 AfterBurn .............................................. 97 AfterBurn .............................................104 AfterBurn .............................................107 AfterBurn .............................................112 AfterBurn .............................................120 AfterBurn .............................................124 AfterBurn .............................................131 AfterBurn 3.0 .......................................130 AfterBurn Color Parameters rollout .........107 AfterBurn Combustion burning ........................................62, 70 change .........................................62, 70 glow.............................................62, 70 illuminate .....................................62, 70 AfterBurn Combustion .............................. 9 AfterBurn Combustion ............................ 62 AfterBurn Combustion ............................ 70 AfterBurn Combustion ............................ 94 AfterBurn Combustion ............................ 97 AfterBurn Combustion ...........................100 AfterBurn Combustion ...........................104 AfterBurn Combustion ...........................107 AfterBurn Combustion Parameters rollout 62, 70 AfterBurn Combustion rollout part..............................................62, 70 AfterBurn Combustion rollout.................. 62 AfterBurn Combustion rollout.................. 70 AfterBurn Combustion volumetrics .....62, 70 AfterBurn Daemon Remove - Highlight............................113 AfterBurn Daemon ................................113 AfterBurn Daemon Link Map Type ..........113 AfterBurn Daemons ... 9, 23, 32, 62, 70, 113 AfterBurn dialog ...................................128 AfterBurn Effect scale ............................................23, 32 AfterBurn Effect..................................... 23 AfterBurn Effect..................................... 32 AfterBurn Environment............................. 9 AfterBurn Explode.................................107 AfterBurn Explode Daemon....................107 AfterBurn Fog...................................86, 90 AfterBurn Fog Parameters rollout .......86, 90 AfterBurn Glow color ............................................94, 97 AfterBurn Glow...................................... 48

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide AfterBurn Glow ...................................... 94 AfterBurn Glow ...................................... 97 AfterBurn Glow Render Effect............ 94, 97 AfterBurn HyperSolids ...................... 41, 50 AfterBurn IDs .................................. 62, 70 AfterBurn lifespan ............................ 23, 32 AfterBurn Manager rollout...... 23, 32, 41, 48 AfterBurn Noise ........................ 23, 32, 112 AfterBurn Particles Property dialog......... 128 AfterBurn Raytraced Shadows ............... 120 AfterBurn Renderer ................................ 22 AfterBurn Shadow Generators ............... 120 AfterBurn Shadows........................... 23, 32 AfterBurn UI 0.0. ................................................. 112 AfterBurn UI ........................................ 112 AfterBurn Use button enabling....................................... 23, 32 AfterBurn Use button.............................. 23 AfterBurn Use button.............................. 32 AfterBurn User Interface................124, 128 AfterBurn VMap Daemon ...................... 112 AfterBurn Void Daemon ........................ 104 AfterBurn Volume Fog Exponential Coloration................... 78, 82 AfterBurn Volume Fog ............................ 78 AfterBurn Volume Fog ............................ 82 AfterBurn Volume Fog ............................ 86 AfterBurn Volume Fog ............................ 90 AfterBurn Volume Fog Parameters rollout 78, 82 AfterBurn volumetrics want............................................ 23, 32 AfterBurn volumetrics ............................. 23 AfterBurn volumetrics ............................. 32 AfterBurn volumetrics ............................. 41 AfterBurn Wind Daemon ....................... 100 AfterBurn wireframe ......................... 23, 32 AfterBurn’s ...................................... 23, 32 AfterBurn’s Exponential Fog .............. 86, 90 AfterBurn’s HyperSolids .................... 23, 32 AfterBurn’s Illumination/Shading Parameters rollout.......................................... 23, 32 AfterBurn’s Volume Fog .................... 78, 82 AfterBurn's Video Post ...................... 23, 32 Age..................................................... 107 AGT file............................................... 128 Aliased ............................................ 78, 82 Alignment.............................................. 50 Ambient Color........................................ 41 Amount - Controls................................ 107 Animation Flow Curves .......23, 32, 107, 124 Animation Flow Functions ................. 94, 97

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Antialias................................23, 32, 62, 70 Anti-aliasing ..........................23, 32, 62, 70 Atmospheric Apparatus Gizmos ..........62, 70 Auto Stretch.......................................... 50 AVI file ............................................23, 32 B Benefits AfterBurn........................................... 50 Benefits ................................................ 50 Besides Raymarcher..........................62, 70 Bezier ..................................................124 Bias............................................... 55, 128 Bias - This............................................. 55 Blobby .............................................23, 32 Blur - This............................................. 55 Blur/sharpen ......................................... 55 Box Sphere .............................................. 50 Box ...................................................... 50 Box - This ............................................. 50 Box Height ............................................ 50 Box Length ........................................... 50 Box Width ............................................. 50 Bump ........................................ 23, 32, 55 Burning AfterBurn Combustion....................62, 70 Burning................................................. 62 Burning................................................. 70 C C1->c2->c3 .......................................... 48 Camera Environment Range ..............86, 90 Cast Shadows...................................23, 32 Cellular ............................................62, 70 Change AfterBurn Combustion....................62, 70 Change................................................. 62 Change................................................. 70 Characteristics..................................62, 70 Checkbox.........................................62, 70 CHM Help file ...................................23, 32 Choose Helper ..........................................62, 70 Volumetric ....................................62, 70 Choose ................................................. 62 Choose ................................................. 70 Circular Shape ......................................104 Clamp Output checkbox ......................... 22 Clear Explosion checkbox .......................62, 70 Clear .................................................... 62 Clear .................................................... 70 Clicking New button...................................23, 32

Index Yes.............................................. 23, 32 Clicking ................................................. 23 Clicking ................................................. 32 Cloud .............................................. 23, 32 Color AfterBurn Glow ............................. 94, 97 specular....................................... 62, 70 Color..................................................... 48 Color..................................................... 62 Color..................................................... 70 Color..................................................... 94 Color..................................................... 97 Color................................................... 107 Color - This ......................................... 107 Color checkbox Use.............................................. 62, 70 Color checkbox ...................................... 62 Color checkbox ...................................... 70 Color Key Shift..................................... 107 Color Parameters rollout ......................... 48 Color Selector ....................... 62, 70, 78, 82 Colored Shadows checkbox ..................... 41 Combustion ..................................... 62, 70 Combustion Gizmo ............................... 104 Combustion™ .................................. 62, 70 Continuity............................................ 128 Control grayscale ........................................... 60 Metaball............................................. 60 Control.................................................. 60 Controller ............................................ 124 Copy ................................................... 124 Copy - Copy......................................... 128 Create Image Channels .................... 94, 97 Create Image Channels checkbox ............ 22 Creating AfterBurn .............................................9 Creating ..................................................9 Cubic - The Cubic................................... 55 Cyl........................................................ 50 Cylinder Sphere............................................... 50 Cylinder ................................................ 50 Cylinder ................................................ 62 Cylinder ................................................ 70 Cylinder - This ....................................... 50 Cylinder Height ...................................... 50 D Daemon depending........................................ 113 disables ........................................... 112 displaying......................................... 100 Daemon .......................................... 23, 32

Daemon...............................................100 Daemon...............................................102 Daemon...............................................107 Daemon...............................................112 Daemon...............................................113 Daemons AfterBurn..........................................131 Daemons .......................... 9, 23, 32, 62, 70 Daemons .............................................131 Decay..................................................100 Decay - Causes ....................................100 Density set .................................................... 60 use ..............................................62, 70 Density ................................................. 60 Density ................................................. 62 Density ................................................. 70 Density - Controls .............................78, 82 Density - This........................48, 60, 62, 70 Density checkbox Use ..............................................62, 70 Density checkbox................................... 62 Density checkbox................................... 70 Density Falloff ..................................55, 60 Depending daemon............................................113 Depending ...........................................113 Depth - This.........................................130 Detail - This .......................................... 55 Determine Noise ................................................ 55 Determine............................................. 55 Directly............................................50, 55 Disables daemon............................................112 Void Daemon ....................................104 Wind Daemon ...................................100 Disables...............................................100 Disables...............................................104 Disables...............................................112 Discreet ...........................................62, 70 Displace..................................... 55, 62, 70 Displacement ...................................23, 32 Displacement Space Warp ...................... 55 Displacement/bump ............................... 50 Displays Daemon ...........................................100 Set Up Explosion Phase Curve dialog... 62, 70 Displays................................................ 62 Displays................................................ 70 Displays................................................ 78 Displays................................................ 82

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide Displays .............................................. 100 Distance - This....................................... 48 Dividing voxels .............................................. 130 Dividing............................................... 130 Doing.................................................. 128 Dots - This viewport ............................. 121 Drag ............................................... 86, 90 DreamScape ........................................ 130 Drift - Sets....................................... 62, 70 Dropdown ............................................. 50 Dropdown list ...................................... 113 Dropdown menu ................... 23, 32, 62, 70 Drops - This viewport ........................... 121 During HyperSolids reflection/refraction......... 130 During................................................. 130 E Ease From ........................................... 128 Ease To............................................... 128 Edit - This button ............................. 23, 32 EF....................................................... 128 Effect Phase .......................................... 62, 70 volumetrics ...................................... 104 Effect .................................................... 62 Effect .................................................... 70 Effect .................................................. 104 Emitter Distance .................................. 124 Emitter Distance Controller ................... 124 Emitter’s.......................................... 23, 32 Enables AfterBurn Use button .................... 23, 32 Use button ................................... 23, 32 Enables ................................................. 23 Enables ................................................. 32 Enables ............................................... 100 Enables ............................................... 104 Enables ............................................... 112 End particle’s ............................................ 55 End....................................................... 55 End....................................................... 62 End....................................................... 70 Enter Start ............................................ 62, 70 Enter .................................................... 62 Enter .................................................... 70 Environment Color Map .................... 86, 90 Environment Map reflect................................................ 41 refract ............................................... 41 Environment Map ................................... 41

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Environment Opacity Map..................86, 90 Environmental ......................................... 9 ET .......................................................128 Every Nth.........................................23, 32 specify .........................................23, 32 Every Nth.............................................. 23 Every Nth.............................................. 32 Excl .................................................23, 32 Exclude button .................................23, 32 Explode ...............................................107 Explode Daemon ..................................107 Explosion .........................................62, 70 Explosion checkbox clear ............................................62, 70 Explosion checkbox................................ 62 Explosion checkbox................................ 70 Exponential checkbox........................78, 82 Exponential Coloration AfterBurn Volume Fog....................78, 82 Exponential Coloration ........................... 78 Exponential Coloration ........................... 82 F Face Centers ........................................121 Faces/Voxel .........................................130 Falloff use ..............................................62, 70 Falloff ..............................................23, 32 Falloff ................................................... 62 Falloff ................................................... 70 Falloff ..................................................104 Falloff ..................................................120 Falloff - The ............................. 23, 32, 104 Falloff - This.....................................62, 70 Far % - Sets ....................................86, 90 Far Range ........................................86, 90 FBm Fractal........................................... 55 FBm Turbulence .................................... 55 Fire Effect like...............................................62, 70 Fire Effect ........................................23, 32 Fire Effect ............................................. 62 Fire Effect ............................................. 70 Fireball - Creates ..............................62, 70 Fireball - When Fireball .......................... 55 Fireballs best .............................................62, 70 Fireballs................................................ 62 Fireballs................................................ 70 Fit ...................................................23, 32 Flame Size .......................................62, 70 Flame Type ......................................62, 70 Fog Atmospheric...............................86, 90 Fog Background ...............................78, 82

Index Fog Background checkbox ................ 86, 90 Fractal ............................................ 78, 82 Function Curve ................................ 78, 82 Fury - This....................................... 62, 70 G Gain...................................................... 55 Gain - This ............................................ 55 Get screenshot................................. 23, 32 Gizmo ................................................... 41 Global - Each AfterBurn ........................ 104 Global - This ........................................ 100 Global - Uses ......................................... 41 Global Falloff ......................................... 41 Global Step Scale ................................... 22 Global Wind Daemon use.................................................. 100 Global Wind Daemon............................ 100 Globals..................................... 62, 70, 100 Globals rollout.................................. 62, 70 Glow AfterBurn ..................................... 94, 97 AfterBurn Combustion ................... 62, 70 Glow ..................................................... 62 Glow ..................................................... 70 Glow ..................................................... 94 Glow ..................................................... 97 Gradient types ............................................... 128 Gradient.............................................. 128 Gradient Controls ................................. 128 Gradient Usage .................................... 128 Gradient’s sets ................................................. 128 Gradient’s............................................ 128 Gradient’s icon right-clicking .................................... 128 Gradient’s icon..................................... 128 Graph Editor ........................................ 124 Grayscale control ............................................... 60 uses ............................................ 62, 70 Grayscale .............................................. 60 Grayscale .............................................. 62 Grayscale .............................................. 70 H H 23, 32 Height - Cylinder .................................... 50 Help - This button ............................ 23, 32 Helpers choose......................................... 62, 70 Helpers ................................................. 62 Helpers ................................................. 70 Hemisphere

selected............................................. 50 Hemisphere........................................... 50 Hemispherical producing .......................................... 50 Hemispherical........................................ 50 HERE...............................................23, 32 HGS ..................................................... 41 Hi 60 Hi Threshold ......................................... 60 High ..................................................... 60 High ..................................................... 60 High Clip..........................................94, 97 High-resolution...................................... 60 Hit Stop ................................................ 50 Horizon Noise...................................86, 90 Hotspot ...............................................120 Hotspot/Falloff .....................................120 However, AfterBurn ..........................23, 32 Hyper Solids.....................................86, 90 HyperSolids rendering...........................23, 32, 62, 70 select ................................................ 55 use ................................................... 60 HyperSolids............................................. 9 HyperSolids........................................... 23 HyperSolids........................................... 32 HyperSolids........................................... 41 HyperSolids........................................... 50 HyperSolids........................................... 55 HyperSolids........................................... 60 HyperSolids........................................... 62 HyperSolids........................................... 70 HyperSolids..........................................107 HyperSolids reflection/refraction during ..............................................130 HyperSolids reflection/refraction ............130 I Icon Size..................................................112 Icon ....................................................112 Icon’s ..................................................100 ID shows ..............................................128 ID ........................................62, 70, 94, 97 ID .......................................................128 IDs..................................................62, 70 Illuminate AfterBurn Combustion....................62, 70 Illuminate ............................................. 62 Illuminate ............................................. 70 Illumination/Shading Parameters rollout .. 41 Inner ...............................................62, 70 Inner Color ......................................62, 70

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AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide Intensity Blend .................................... 107 Interactive called........................................... 50, 55 Interactive............................................. 50 Interactive............................................. 55 Interactive Preview window opens .......................................... 23, 32 Interactive Preview window .................... 23 Interactive Preview window .................... 32 Interpolation........................................ 124 Interpolation Controllers ..................48, 124 Inverted - When .................................. 104 IOR....................................................... 41 J Jello................................................ 23, 32 K Key menu Opens.............................................. 128 Key menu............................................ 128 Keyboard Shortcuts .............................. 124 L Lacks latter’s ......................................... 23, 32 Lacks .................................................... 23 Lacks .................................................... 32 Lambert .....................................41, 62, 70 Latter’s lacks............................................ 23, 32 Latter’s.................................................. 23 Latter’s.................................................. 32 Layered AfterBurn Fog............................... 86, 90 Layered................................................. 86 Layered................................................. 90 Let’s................................................ 23, 32 Levels smooth/simple.................................... 60 Levels ................................................... 60 Levels - More....................................... 107 Life - Once .......................................... 121 Life - This........................................ 23, 32 Lifespan .......................................... 23, 32 Light Scattering ..................................... 41 Light’s rollout dialog ......................... 23, 32 Lights AfterBurn ......................................... 131 Lights.................................................. 131 Like Fire Effect .................................... 62, 70 Shape Preview window........................ 55 Like ...................................................... 55 Like ...................................................... 62 Like ...................................................... 70

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Limit - Instructs AfterBurn .................23, 32 Limit - This............................................ 41 Linear..................................................128 Linear - The Linear ................................ 55 Linear - This.........................................128 Lo ........................................................ 60 Lo Threshold ......................................... 60 Load - Load..........................................128 Local ........................................... 100, 104 Local - Enables .....................................104 Local - This ..........................................100 Local Daemon ......................................100 Localize Noise ....................................... 60 Low.....................................................124 Low AFC ............................................... 60 Low Clip...........................................94, 97 Lower Strength/Falloff .................................100 Lower ..................................................100 M Map scaling..............................................112 Map.....................................................112 Map - Click...........................................112 Map Scale ............................................112 Map Slot ..............................................113 Material ...............................................112 Material ID use ..............................................62, 70 Material ID.......................................22, 48 Material ID............................................ 62 Material ID............................................ 70 Material ID............................................ 94 Material ID............................................ 97 Material ID...........................................121 Material IDs .....................................62, 70 Material/Map Browser .......................86, 90 MAX 3D Texture ...............................62, 70 Max Steps ........................................78, 82 Maximum..................................... 124, 130 MAXScript Controls ...............................131 MaxScript Support ................................131 Mb ....................................................... 50 MBall .................................................... 60 Metaball controls ............................................. 60 Metaball................................................ 50 Metaball................................................ 60 Metaballs ..............................23, 32, 50, 60 Minimum .............................................124 Mixing AfterBurn......................................78, 82 Mixing .................................................. 78

Index Mixing................................................... 82 Modify AfterBurn ..................................... 23, 32 Modify................................................... 23 Modify................................................... 32 Most ............................................... 23, 32 Motion Drag .......................................... 60 Moves ................................................. 128 Multiplier - This AFC ............................. 107 N Name dialog .................................... 23, 32 Near % - Sets.................................. 86, 90 Near Range ..................................... 86, 90 Need photorealistic................................ 23, 32 Need..................................................... 23 Need..................................................... 32 New button Clicking ........................................ 23, 32 New button ........................................... 23 New button ........................................... 32 Node>light .......................................... 131 Node>particle_daemon ........................ 131 Noise determine .......................................... 55 Noise .............................................. 23, 32 Noise .................................................... 55 Noise .................................................... 62 Noise .................................................... 70 Noise .................................................. 100 Noise .................................................. 104 Noise .................................................. 112 Noise - Noise-based ............................... 41 Noise Animation............................... 62, 70 Noise Animation Parameters rollout ......... 60 Noise Levels ...............................60, 62, 70 Noise Preview window turning............................................... 55 Noise Preview window ............................ 55 Noise Preview window ............................ 60 Noise Shape Parameters rollout......... 55, 60 Noise Shape rollout ................................ 41 Noise Size ............................................. 60 Noise/density values................................................ 55 Noise/density......................................... 55 None - When ......................................... 41 None - When None........................... 50, 55 Normal - The ....................................... 104 Normals - These .................................... 41 NOT..................................... 23, 32, 62, 70 NOTE ....23, 32, 50, 55, 60, 62, 70, 100, 104 Nth ................................................. 23, 32

NTSC.................................................... 60 O Object Distance ....................................124 Octane Shader use ................................................... 60 Octane Shader .................................23, 32 Octane Shader ...................................... 60 Octane Shader ...................................... 86 Octane Shader ...................................... 90 OD ......................................................124 OFF .................................................23, 32 Off - When.......................................62, 70 Off, Lambert ....................................62, 70 Offset ..............................................23, 32 OK ..................................................62, 70 Omni ...................................................120 Open - Clicking.................................23, 32 Opens Interactive Preview window............23, 32 key menu .........................................128 Opens................................................... 23 Opens................................................... 32 Opens..................................................128 Outer Color ......................................62, 70 P PA .......................................................124 PAL ...................................................... 60 Part AfterBurn Combustion rollout .........62, 70 Part...................................................... 62 Part...................................................... 70 Particle Age..........................................124 Particle Flow ........................................114 Particle Formation.................................121 Particle Life ......................................23, 32 Particle Orientation ...............................114 Particle Quantity ...............................23, 32 Particle Scale........................................114 Particle Shape/Animation Parameters rollout ...................................................50, 55 Particle Start set ...............................................23, 32 Particle Start ......................................... 23 Particle Start ......................................... 32 Particle System Information...................... 9 Particle Velocity set .................................................... 50 Particle Velocity ..................................... 50 Particle Velocity ....................................124 Particle’s end ................................................... 55 Particle’s ............................................... 55 Particle’s ..............................................128

189

AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide Particles Property ............................. 23, 32 Paste .................................................. 124 Paste - Paste ....................................... 128 Percentage ...................................... 23, 32 Perlin Marble ................................... 62, 70 PFlow-ABurn Operator .......................... 114 Phase effect........................................... 62, 70 Phase.................................................... 62 Phase.................................................... 70 Phase.................................................... 78 Phase.................................................... 82 Phase.................................................... 86 Phase.................................................... 90 Phase.................................................. 124 Phase - Controls............................... 62, 70 Phase - The Phase ................................. 60 Phong ........................................41, 62, 70 Photorealistic need............................................ 23, 32 Photorealistic ......................................... 23 Photorealistic ......................................... 32 Pick ..................................... 23, 32, 78, 82 Pick - Allows .................................... 23, 32 Pick - Click........................................... 113 Pick - Lets ....................................... 23, 32 Pick button ...................................... 78, 82 Pick Gizmo ...................................... 78, 82 Pick Gizmos/Daemons ...................... 62, 70 Pick Object dialog ............................ 78, 82 Pick Source Lights ............................ 62, 70 Pick Sources/Daemons .............................9 Planar - When...................................... 100 Play ...................................................... 50 Pos ....................................................... 48 Preferences - Lets ............................ 23, 32 Press Apply...................................... 23, 32 Preview render ......................................... 23, 32 Preview ................................................. 23 Preview ................................................. 32 Preview ................................................. 55 Preview - Clicking............................. 23, 32 Preview Window ................... 23, 32, 50, 55 Producing Hemispherical..................................... 50 Producing.............................................. 50 Program’s...................................23, 32, 55 PV ...................................................... 124 R Radius................................................. 102 Radius - Cylinder.................................... 50 Radius - The.......................................... 50

190

Radius - The metaball ............................ 50 RAM ........................................ 62, 70, 130 RapidRay ................................. 23, 32, 130 Ray Traced Shadows.............................120 Rayleigh ............................................... 41 Raymarcher self-shadowing..................................120 Raymarcher ..... 9, 23, 32, 60, 62, 70, 86, 90 Raymarcher .........................................120 Raytraced ............................................120 Raytracing ...........................................130 Rectangular .........................................104 Rectangular, Circular.............................104 Reflect MtlID checkbox................ 41, 62, 70 Reflection/refraction .........................23, 32 Reflections ............................23, 32, 62, 70 Reflections checkbox.............................. 41 Refract Environment .............................. 41 Refract Environment checkbox................ 41 Refractions.......................................23, 32 Refractions checkbox ............................. 41 Regularity - Lets .................................... 50 Regularity - This ...............................62, 70 Remove ...........................................78, 82 Remove - Highlight AfterBurn Daemon.............................113 Remove - Highlight ...............................113 Remove - Removes...........................23, 32 Remove Gizmos/Daemons .................62, 70 Remove Source Lights.......................62, 70 Render Effect .................. 41, 62, 70, 94, 97 Rendering AfterBurn......................................23, 32 HyperSolids .......................23, 32, 62, 70 Preview ........................................23, 32 Type .................................23, 32, 62, 70 Rendering ............................................. 23 Rendering ............................................. 32 Rendering ............................................. 62 Rendering ............................................. 70 Rendering->Environment ............ 22, 23, 32 Rendering->Environment dialog................ 9 Rendering->Environment->Atmosphere>Effects ............................23, 32, 62, 70 Reset...................................................124 Reset - Clears.......................................128 Reset - Clicking ................................23, 32 Right-clicking Gradient’s icon ..................................128 Right-clicking .......................................128 Rollout..................................23, 32, 55, 60 S S 23, 32

Index S Inf ..................................................... 41 Samples .......................................... 62, 70 Save - Saves............................. 23, 32, 128 Scale - This ......................................... 107 Scale - Used .................................... 23, 32 Scale Up.......................................... 23, 32 Scaling AfterBurn Effect............................ 23, 32 Map................................................. 112 Scaling .................................................. 23 Scaling .................................................. 32 Scaling ................................................ 112 Scanline .......................................... 23, 32 S-curve ................................................. 55 Seed - This ...................................... 23, 32 Select Hemisphere........................................ 50 HyperSolids ........................................ 55 Select ............................................. 23, 32 Select ................................................... 50 Select ................................................... 55 Self Shadows checkbox........................... 41 Self-shadowing Raymarcher...................................... 120 Self-shadowing .................................... 120 Set Up Explosion .............................. 62, 70 Set Up Explosion Phase Curve dialog displays ....................................... 62, 70 Set Up Explosion Phase Curve dialog ....... 62 Set Up Explosion Phase Curve dialog ....... 70 Sets 10 ............................................... 23, 32 Density .............................................. 60 Gradient’s ........................................ 128 Particle Start ................................ 23, 32 Particle Velocity .................................. 50 Sets ...................................................... 23 Sets ...................................................... 32 Sets ...................................................... 50 Sets ...................................................... 60 Sets ...................................................... 62 Sets ...................................................... 70 Sets .................................................... 128 Shading......................................41, 62, 70 Shading Type ........................................ 41 Shadow Bias .......................................... 41 Shadow Cast checkbox ........................... 41 Shadow Falloff ....................................... 41 Shadow Map........................................ 120 Shadow Opacity ..................................... 41 Shadow Receive checkbox ...................... 41 Shadow Samples.................................... 41 Shadow Tracing ..................................... 41

Shadow-mapped AfterBurn Omni ...........120 Shadows AfterBurn..........................................120 Shadows..............................................120 Shape........................................ 41, 62, 70 Shape - Shape..................................62, 70 Shape - Shape-based ............................. 41 Shape Infl ........................................62, 70 Shape Influence ......................... 41, 62, 70 Shape Preview window Like................................................... 55 Shape Preview window .......................... 50 Shape Preview window .......................... 55 Shift ....................................................107 Shininess ................................... 41, 62, 70 Shininess - The Shininess ..................62, 70 Shininess - When................................... 41 Shininess Strength...................... 41, 62, 70 Show ID ....................................................128 Show....................................... 23, 32, 124 Show...................................................128 Shrinkwrap ......................................86, 90 Sitni Sati d.o.o......................................... 4 Sitni Sati’s 3ds......................................130 Size icon..................................................112 Size ......................................... 50, 55, 100 Size .....................................................112 Size - The ............................................104 Smoke ....................................... 55, 62, 70 Smoke checkbox...............................62, 70 Smoke Color ....................................62, 70 Smooth/simple levels ................................................ 60 Smooth/simple ...................................... 60 Source Daemons ..................................113 Source Gizmo/Daemons ....................62, 70 Source Lights ........................23, 32, 62, 70 Source Particles/Daemons .................23, 32 Space Warps ....................................9, 121 Specify Every Nth .....................................23, 32 Specify ................................................. 23 Specify ................................................. 32 Speckle............................................62, 70 Specular color ............................................62, 70 Specular ............................................... 41 Specular ............................................... 62 Specular ............................................... 70 Specular Color ............................ 41, 62, 70 Sph ...................................................... 50

191

AfterBurn 3.2 Reference Guide Sphere Box.................................................... 50 Cylinder ............................................. 50 Sphere .................................................. 50 Sphere - This ......................................... 50 Sphere, Box................................50, 62, 70 Sphere, Cylinder .................................... 50 Spherical ................................ 50, 100, 104 Spherical - When ................................. 100 Spherical Daemon Shape ...................... 100 Spherical Hemispherical .......................... 50 Squash.................................................. 50 Squash Height ....................................... 50 Squash Len ........................................... 50 Squash Length....................................... 50 Start enter ........................................... 62, 70 Start ..................................................... 62 Start ..................................................... 70 Start - By ........................................ 23, 32 Start - This .......................................... 121 Step................................................ 23, 32 Step Size ................... 23, 32, 62, 70, 78, 82 Sticky Particle icon ............................... 121 Sticky Particles..................................... 121 Strength.............................................. 100 Strength - The Wind Daemon................ 100 Strength - This............................41, 62, 70 Strength/Decay.................................... 100 Strength/Falloff Lower .............................................. 100 Strength/Falloff.................................... 100 Stretch Use.............................................. 62, 70 Stretch .................................................. 62 Stretch .................................................. 70 Stretch - Scales................................ 62, 70 Surface Bump ........................................ 55 Surface Displacement ............................. 55 Swirl ................................................... 102 Swirl Daemon use.................................................. 113 Swirl Daemon ...................................... 102 Swirl Daemon ...................................... 113 Swirl Decay ......................................... 102 Swirl icon ............................................ 102 T TCB .................................................... 128 Tendril best............................................. 62, 70 Tendril .................................................. 62 Tendril .................................................. 70 Tendril - Creates .............................. 62, 70

192

Tendril - When Tendril ........................... 55 Tension ...............................................128 The Drift ............................................... 60 The Octane Shader ...........................23, 32 The Offset .......................................23, 32 The Raymarcher ...............................23, 32 The Shininess Strength .....................62, 70 The Vertical Stretch ............................... 60 There’s ................................................100 These IDs ........................................62, 70 This button ........ 23, 32, 50, 55, 62, 70, 113 Threshold Spinners ................................ 60 Ticks - This viewport.............................121 Toony................................................... 48 Top/Bottom/None.............................86, 90 Turbulence.......................................78, 82 Turning Noise Preview window ........................ 55 Turning................................................. 55 Type Gradient ...........................................128 Rendering..........................23, 32, 62, 70 Type..................................................... 23 Type..................................................... 32 Type..................................................... 41 Type..................................................... 50 Type..................................................... 62 Type..................................................... 70 Type....................................................128 Type dropdown ................................50, 55 U Uniformity - This...............................78, 82 Use activate ........................................62, 70 AFC................................................... 60 Color checkbox..............................62, 70 Density.........................................62, 70 Density checkbox ..........................62, 70 Falloff...........................................62, 70 Global Wind Daemon .........................100 grayscale ......................................62, 70 HyperSolids ....................................... 60 Material ID ...................................62, 70 Octane Shader ................................... 60 Stretch .........................................62, 70 Swirl Daemon ...................................113 Use ...................................................... 60 Use ...................................................... 62 Use ...................................................... 70 Use .....................................................100 Use .....................................................113 Use button enable..........................................23, 32

Index Use button ............................................ 23 Use button ............................................ 32 Use checkbox .................................. 62, 70 Use Gain ............................................... 55 Use Map checkbox ........................... 86, 90 Use Spherical....................................... 100 UV Coord ............................................ 121 V Value 0.0 .........................................60, 62, 70 0.5 .................................................... 55 1.0 .........................................60, 62, 70 noise/density...................................... 55 Value .................................................... 55 Value .................................................... 60 Value .................................................... 62 Value .................................................... 70 Var ................................................. 50, 55 Variation ......................................... 23, 32 Variation - There.................................... 48 Video Post ............................ 62, 70, 94, 97 Video Post Effects .................................. 41 Viewport ...........................23, 32, 104, 112 Viewport AfterBurn........................... 23, 32 Viewport icon....................................... 104 Viewport Particles ................................ 121 Viewports .....................................100, 113 VMap .................................................. 112 VMap daemon...................................... 112 Void.................................................... 104 Void Daemon disables ........................................... 104 Void Daemon....................................... 104 Void Daemon....................................... 113 Void>AddLight..................................... 131 Void>AddPartsDaemon......................... 131 Void>RemoveLight............................... 131 Void>RemovePartsDaemon................... 131 Volume Fog ..................................... 78, 82 Volume Rendering............................ 23, 32 Volumetric - Noise............................ 62, 70 Volumetric HyperSolids ........................... 41 Volumetrics choose......................................... 62, 70 effect............................................... 104 Volumetrics .......................... 22, 23, 32, 55

Volumetrics ........................................... 62 Volumetrics ........................................... 70 Volumetrics ..........................................104 Voxel voxel. ...............................................130 Voxel...................................................130 Voxel...................................................130 Voxels dividing ............................................130 Voxels .................................................130 W Want AfterBurn volumetrics ....................23, 32 Want .................................................... 23 Want .................................................... 32 Width - Each ........................................130 Width - This .........................................121 Wind ...................................................100 Wind Daemon disables ............................................100 Wind Daemon ......................................100 Wind Daemon icon ...............................100 Wind Strength ..................................78, 82 World ................................................... 60 World Z-axis.......................................... 60 X X - This................................................. 50 X - This button ...................................... 50 X-axis ............................................ 50, 124 XE .......................................................124 Y Y 50 Y-axis ............................................ 50, 124 Yes Clicking ........................................23, 32 Yes....................................................... 23 Yes....................................................... 32 You’re..............................................62, 70 Z Z 50 Z-axis ...................................50, 60, 62, 70 Z-Buffer affect ...........................................23, 32 Z-Buffer ................................................ 23 Z-Buffer ................................................ 32

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After Burn 3Dmax

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