An in-house Niagara burst: fire, embers and heat haze, built to find out how far real-time combustion can go.
Void of Fire is a self-driven R&D piece, no client, no brief, just a question: how convincing can a fully real-time fire burst look before the frame budget breaks? It became a testbed for our Niagara fire pipeline.
Every layer (core flame, rising embers, smoke and the shimmer of heat haze) is a separate Niagara system, so each can be re-timed and re-coloured without touching the others. The looks below are pulled straight from the editor.
Techniques proven here feed straight back into client ability and environment work: that's the whole point of keeping an in-house lab burning.
Project details · subject to NDA where applicable
Flame, embers, smoke and haze split into independent systems you can re-mix per shot.
Tuned to stay real-time: the look survives a frame budget, not just a render farm.
The pipeline proven here drops straight into client ability and environment FX.
Click any plate to break the burst apart: each layer is a separate Niagara system, captured straight from the editor and explained.
Every system playing together: core flame, embers, smoke and heat haze stacked into a single looping burst. This is the target the breakdown works back from: once the silhouette and timing read here, each layer can be tuned in isolation without losing the whole.
“The best R&D never ships on its own. It shows up six months later inside someone's hero ability.”
Prefer email? Write to impact@studiosgz.com.
