Fire For Effect

FFE is a military term I learned during National Service. The US Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms defines it as: That volume of fires delivered on a target to achieve the desired effect. In Hokkien, it means "hoot ho yi si".

But that's not the kind of fire I'll be handling in the near future. I just thought the term has a nice ring to start this post. This blog has "VFX" in the title, which means sooner or later I'll have to talk about visual effects, my new bread and butter industry.

Fire is one of the many things that can now be simulated rather convincingly using CG. Indeed, you've probably seen quite a fair bit of CG fire already if you are a fan of action movies. Continuing with the other elements, the behavior of water, earth and air can also be reproduced adequately using fluid dynamics, particle systems and other computer simulations. Coupled with modern shaders, renderers and post production techniques, very believable visual effects can be achieved digitally.

We shall explore more VFX in more depth as and when I feel like it... so stay tuned.