Stealth | Breakdown
Stealth was a big project; by the end of it, I utilized many different solvers, some like the ripple solver that I had hardly ever touched. The idea behind this project was to combine liquid and fire FX to create a single project. Nothing better than an assassin in the ocean stalking her prey while the enemy rains down a barrage of fire arrows.
Process
Most of the reference I collected for this piece was to look dev how the fire arrow would look and behave (i.e., how turbulent it would be, the length of the flame, and how it behaves in the wind). A lot can be referenced from Nordic movies/tv shows that depict the Vikings as it was one of the most used defense tactics of the time. Reference for the lighting and mood was more or less a stormy day in the ocean with turbulent winds and rain.
Before starting Stealth, I did some low-res sims testing different materials, viscosity, and whitewater.
Procedural Fire Arrow Setup
I set up the primary path/trajectory of the arrow using a Pyro Trail node, and then I deleted all the paths except one. On a basic level, all paths from which the arrows travel are based on instances of that original pyro trail node with different length and velocity parameters. Each arrow also has a VDB encompassing its length to get collisions when the arrows come in contact with the FLIP tank, in turn causing splashes as they enter the water.
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