Recommendation: NSDT scene editor helps you quickly build 3D application scenes that can be redeveloped
Animating Fire in 3ds Max
This is easy to do if you can find the "Atmospheric Devices" setting. Basically, you pick a "Gizmo" (BoxGizmo, SphereGizmo or CylGizmo), and add a "Fire Effect". Then open the settings, where you can change the parameters of the effect to your liking.
Then set the Time Configuration to the desired number of frames in the animation. Click on AutoKey and move the slider to the last frame, then enter values for Motion Phase and Drift in the Environment and Effects window.
Render the output as an AVI file since the flame animation does not display in the 3ds Max viewport. This is what I do. I also created a spooky animated scene of a dungeon with different fire effects . Scroll down to the bottom of this tutorial to see the images. And don't forget to watch my AVI output in the video below.
3ds max flame animation
Start by creating an Atmospheric Gizmo from Create > Assistants > Atmospheric Gizmo > SphereGizmo. You can use any gadget you like. I will use Sphere Gizmo and Box Gizmo for the scene. Check Mark Hemisphere to cut it in half.
Select the gizmo and go to the edit panel. In Mood & Effects , click Add , and choose Fire Effect .
Now select Fire Effects in the list and click Settings to open the Environment Effects window. In that window, scroll down and look for Settings.
You can change the inner and outer color of the fire at render time. Now change Stretch: 2; Regularity: 0.05; Flame Size: 2; Flame Detail: 10; Density: 200, Samples: 50.
These values may vary depending on the scaling of the gizmo. My widget has a value of 11.694 radius. I render my scene at 640×360 resolution.
Now we're going to animate the fire. Open the time configuration window (bottom right corner), change the start time to 0 and the end time to 200.
Turn on AutoKey . Go to end frame 200 and change Motion Phase to 200 and Drift to 100 in the Environment and Effects settings window .
Turn off autokey. Now pull the time slider back and forth a few times and check that the values are keyed in. Watch as the phase and drift numbers change from 0 to the maximum value you entered. If you don't see the numbers change, redo the steps above.
Once you have the transition in the timeline, it's time to render the fire. Use perspective viewports. Then go to Render > Render Setup from the menu. Change the Range to 50 to 150. The animation of the fire starts out slow and slows down towards the end, so I just cut out the first and last 50 frames.
Typically, you would automatically type in more value changes for phase and drift on the time axis. I made this animation simple so that's why I set the output range from 50 to 150 to skip slow frames.
Scroll down to Render Output . Create a save file to render the frames into an AVI movie file.
Make sure to set the renderer to default scanline .
Click Render and frames 50 to 150 will be output to the AVI file you selected above. Below is frame 50 (using a perspective viewport before rendering).
Let's make it more interesting by adding a scene. I simulated a stone fire pit. All textures are brick bitmaps. I also added some lights and cameras to the scene.
This is frame 50 rendered with shadows.
Remember, you can use any gadget you like, even multiple gadgets. You can also rotate or scale the gizmo.
In the scene, I also created the torch using a sphere gizmo scaled like so:
I changed settings for different effects. Flame Type: Tendril; Stretch: 0.8; Regularity: 0.2; Flame Size: 18; Flame Detail: 10; Density: 200, Sample: 50. Below is a rendered frame.
Finally, I used a BoxGizmo to make the flame wall below. I used the same parameters as SphereGizmo for the stone fire pit. Note that the fire effect is not visible in the viewport.
The rendered frame.
This tutorial has only scratched the surface of what you can do with Fire in 3ds Max.
Now that you know the art of creating fire in 3ds max, try making some animations of your own.
Original link: 3ds Max without plug-in to create burning flame animation effects (mvrlink.com)