I have been trying to make big volumetric explosions for some days, but I can’t get any decent looking result and I can’t find any tutorial about it.
How should I approach making that? Sprites+Vector Fields? Vertex animation? Or is there a more proper way?
This is exactly what I’m trying to achieve.
Looks like a flip-book texture to be honest, you do a fluid simulation in Maya or something then render it out as images. Combine the images into a big texture and flip through them over the particles lifespan.
ImbueFX.com has a bunch of great VFX Tutorials. Most are for UDK but the same techniques still apply.
Jamsh,
Sorry for the noob question, but when using flipbook texture material animations, how do you slow the animation down? I can easily increase the speed…
Thanks!
I personally just use a ParticleSubUV texture sampler in the Material usually, then I can use the ‘Sub Image Index’ Module and use a Curve for the Framerate, thus I can slow the animation down or play it back at whatever speed I want.
Thanks for the link. I’ve looked in that site and I’ve found this video.
I didn’t know that that kind of “3d volume” feel could be achieved with sprites, I will definitely take a closer look at it. The only limitation I see is the framerate if trying to make a long lifetime particle but, for a normal explosion, it should work well. 
I already know how to generate a 3d fluid explosion with Blender, making the spritesheet and tweaking the materials. The only part where I’m a bit lost is in achieving that volumetric effect, how to not make it look as a plain 2d animation. For example, the one in this other video is done with sprites in UDK too, but it looks far more plain, while the ImbueFX one looks almost like a real 3d object.
As only that little bit of the tutorial would be useful to me for what I’m trying to achieve, I’m a bit reluctant to pay for it. Do you know which technique does he use for it? Or is it only the high contrast of the sprite what makes it look so “3dish”?