Hazel Stagner | Portfolio

Explosion

An explosion effect made in Unreal Engine 4 as part of a project to create one particle effect per day.
The goal of this one was to practice using Blender’s fluid simulation pipeline to create a realistic flaming explosion as a spritesheet animation.

I used Blender’s fluid simulation to render a flipbook for the explosion. I captured the smoke and flames in R+G color channels in the spritesheet which let me apply a flame color ramp as well as add faked lighting to the smoke in UE4

A quick flash sets up the impact of the explosion

Some added glow to simulate lens bloom from the bright flames

A very quick spark effect at the start of the explosion

Some very quick flames jutting out from the center of the explosion along with the sparks

Hey there’s that rock texture again. I used it to create debris & shrapnel from the blast.

A simple refractive distortion shader looks like a pressure wave from the explosion

I added some scorch marks and a layer of burning ground embers that linger after the main flames.

Some small embers linger and drift erratically after the main flames.