Smoke simulator

[Dune]

Does anyone know, or does anyone have good experience with smoke simulating software? Preferably something small and free, for the occasional smoke column (preferably output on black or transparent, so it can be pasted over in PS).
Just yesterday I made a setup for a local fire in TG, which is fickle, and I'm afraid to say it took ages to render, which I don't understand. So either it'll be painting smoke in PS, or use some kind of simulator.

Any suggestions are welcome.

[Kevin Kipper]

For these types of smoke and fire effects my go to program was Particle Illusion.  It's available from BorisFX now-a-days.  There's a free trial and I think a stand-alone version too.

[Dune]

I'll check that out. Thanks Kevin.

[KlausK]

Oh yes, I remember Particle Illusion. Very fast and efficient. The Demo today is Non-Commercial, though.
Don`t know about the Standalone version.

But,... don`t you have DaVinci Resolve installed? I think I remember something along those lines. Anyway.

Well, if you have that, there is a nice preset effect for smoke and steam as well in there.
On the "Fusion" page under the menu you have a "Media Pool", "Effects", "Clips" and "Nodes" button.
Click the "Effects" button ad a list pops up. Then go to "Templates" --> "Fusion" --> "Particles".
You`ll find "Smokestack" and "Steam". These presets are a good starting point to composite the effect or
render out different image sequences or single frames to composit in your footage.

I`ll a attached a --very-- quickly done fire and smoke thingie in the image you posted and the corresponding project.
That was done in DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.1.4.\
I hope, that these particle effects would be in the free Non-Studio version as well. But i cannot say for sure.

Hope that helps.

CHeers, Klaus

[KlausK]

sorry, the forum won`t let me upload anything else than the image...even though the file sizes are way below the limit it tells me "File size too big".
I`ll try later again.
CHeers, Klaus

[Dune]

Thanks Klaus. I've checked that out too. It looks like a huge software, and in the meantime I've painted some clouds in PS, which was actually pretty fast. And the client was happy. But I'll keep it in mind and in time will look for a decent smoke simulator, or learn Blender ...

[KlausK]

Blender might be a good option, I guess. But before you dive into that did you consider Lightwaves VDB creation tools?
Depending on the LW version, of course. But I saw some videos which gave the impression that the they have
quite a nice toolset in 2020 and even better in the latest 2024 version.

And there is always SideFX Houdini Indie. The Swiss Army Knife for almost everything.

CHeers, Klaus

[Dune]

My LW version is a bit older than that, I'm afraid, and I don't need a heavy package, that I have to learn again. It's just for an occasional smoke column or fire. I found something on the internet that can generate cloud on black: https://2d-smoke.vercel.app/  Pretty nifty, and reasonable enough for some stuff.
Thanks for thinking along, Klaus. One day, when GPU rendering is there in TG, I can just use TG.

[gao_jian11]

You should take a look at EmberGen, it was unlimited when it was in beta, I remember one test file was a smoke column, it was great, GPU rendering was very fast. Now they have a 14-day trial.

[gao_jian11]

[Dune]

That looks typically like something I could use. I'll check it out. Thanks!