Quick Flames

Flames are not easy. This quick approach yields good, quick flames. We will use a Temple Menorah (7-armed Jewish lampstand) because it holds several flames. 

The model of the lampstand is not covered here. It is a series of skins, lathes, shapes and subdivisions. The starting model is here, in case you want to follow along.

This is the Menorah with the lamps off.

Since we want to have several flames, we will create a new shape called Flame and use an instance for each flame.

The Flame shape

The flame object is an elongated sphere, converted into a Bézier surface, and with the top point dragged up.

A possibility is playing with the Bézier handles on top to make a pointed or a rounder flame.

The Flame texture

The texture is a glowing texture, with color, stencil and glow maps. The Glow Factor is high, 500% and it is controlled by a map.

 

It is applied to the flame object using planar mapping.

 

The point light

An orange-yellow point light with a small Total Falloff distance is what we need for each flame to cast its light. If we overdo the Total Falloff Distance we will end up with a scene with too much light. The distance will depend on what scene we are using.

The render

It is strongly advised to use Raydiosity rendering. It will take into account the glow of the flames, will soften the shadows and will produce a nicer looking image, at the expense of time, of course. See the difference.