Tire wheel burnout effect

Hi there,

I’m trying to make a tire or wheel burnout effect but with more fire than smoke. YouTube has lots of examples but no tutorials on how to achieve it. It doesn’t need to be super realistic but it needs to look neat. It’s for a 10-second video with text and the wheel stays centered as if we’re tracking it down the road.

Here are two examples:


I posted this request over at the Boris FX Particle Illusion forum because I at least have a little experience with that software, but they suggested I look into Embergen as well. I would like to see which one I can get closest with. Having downloaded the trial of Embergen and played around a little I think this should be something somewhat simple, except that it’s a very different interface than I am used to AND I don’t have any 3D animating knowledge.

If I am thinking correctly, I assume I need to get the tire in 3D and rotate it, bake the animation, then export that and bring it into Embergen, then attach the flame to the rotating 3D wheel to get the effect.

At the end of the day I am doing all of the compositing in After Effects, so I don’t even need the wheel, I just need the fire and smoke.

I saw there was a “004_Burnout” preset mentioned in the forum but I don’t see it in the presets and it may not have anything to do with what I’m looking for.

Is it worth it for me to spend time working on this or is it too ambitious for a first project? Should I keep trying in Particle Illusion instead? Just not sure the right tool to use.

Thank you,
-Stephen

Hi Stephen, this should be very doable in EmberGen, and I think your mind is in the right spot for how to achieve it. The only thing I would caution is that fast moving or fast rotating objects can be a bit wonky in EmberGen, you should still be able to make it work, but if it is too fast you can use a primitive shape and combine the two in After Effects.

Let me know if you have any other questions about this!