How to Make Sparks in Blender

[@blenderguru]

Actually motion blur for GPU was enabled just a few hours after I uploaded this tutorial :P It will work in any build after r52645.

[@SlamTheDragonPersonal]

Can you do this in 2.8?

[@Wzxxx]

@@SlamTheDragonPersonal Not in eevee i guess. Particle info node does not work. :(((

[@supernova12458]

@@SlamTheDragonPersonal Works in blender 2.8 Cycles

[@ojaskumar521]

2.9 blender is out buddy :-)

[@oinkerpoinker_]

@@ojaskumar521 3.0 blender is out buddy :-)

[@saranghae1saranghae]

Just want to say thank you. I know this video is years old, but I've learned a lot.

[@pinywood3077]

This comment too is years old

[@DraconicMaker]

@@pinywood3077 yo comment is a year old

[@DenDanskeKat.12]

This vedio is now 10 years old

[@Akullii]

00:10 andrew: this is gonna be a very quick tutorial me: *looks at the video timer* me: no.

[@jeppetofft]

If you look at his other tutorials this one is actually a very quick tutorial.

[@raketadynej2prime405]

@@jeppetofft It's kinda funny that both of us replying a comment from 2012

[@jeppetofft]

@@raketadynej2prime405 Oh. It is only now that I see it. Haha

[@21PushpakJain]

@@jeppetofft really

[@CarnidevRae]

Well I think you’ve had enough time to learn it

[@ReiAristia]

8 years later, still works in the latest version of Blender (2.9)! Amazing.

[@omermagen824]

9 years later, no particle info node in eevee :(

[@kaninepete]

@@omermagen824 Is there any way to get this effect in Eevee today?

[@blenderguru]

Personal preference. They both do the same thing. I use fStop coz I do a bit of photography in my spare time and am more familiar with those measurements.

[@smsahil9016]

KZbin recommended me this ancient tutorial 9 years later, I feel blessed.

[@Ocean_Carp]

11 years for me

[@Starwarsfun1-Leo]

This video may be old, but everything you mention works - even in 2017 :)

[@StanawalkaWorld]

i know right :D

[@canadiansyrup8733]

even 2018!

[@brandonhernandez1111]

Make that 2019

[@Sam-oi8uh]

Make it 2030

[@thiyagarajank9666]

It will 3020

[@blenderguru]

See the link in the description of the original animation: watch?v=MGRhJf0xdE8 (It's a royalty free track from Big Fish Audio)

[@MohammadAlizade]

very quick tutorial took half and hour

[@myopicvision]

Excellent. Thank you for the in depth look at Cycles and Particles. I cant believe I learned all that as fast as I did.

[@asmoth360]

First of all, thank you Andrew for this tutorial, very quick and fun, it gives an amazing result with only simples things after all. I have used another way to choose the emission color though, so I share it here, if anyone is interested. I think it could give a physically more accurate color. I used the blackbody node (Converter -> Blackbody) to set the color : it naturally gives a color from red to yellow to white, depending of the input value in Kelvin (for example 2700 K gives a lighbult yellow). So you need to have a high value at the particle start (~6000), and a low value at its end (~500). You just need a few math nodes to match these values approximately depending of the particle lifetime, and here you are with a color which goes from white -> yellow -> orange -> red when aging. After a few tries it looked very good for me.

[@goldensparrow1187]

Thanks for your tutorials.....you're making it easier to learn about Blender....not just how to copy.

[@AeleksDesigns]

For anyone havng Problems with this (not finding the Shaders, no emissions...), make sure you are in Cycles Renderer (not using the Blender Internal Renderer). Everything he shows in this Video is 100% possible, even with the latest Blender builds!

[@wpanterka]

You are amazing! I've met Blender couple days ago (I'm 3d max's user for many years) And...due to your lessons I already can do a lot of things here )) Oh, thanks I'm watching your videos every day I just want that you know how I appreciate to you And you are very sweet :)

[@shanedk]

4:45 - You can get a better effect by changing the mesh's shading to Smooth instead of Flat.

[@prodeous]

Another quick and to the point tutorial. Well done.

[@3rdobserver205]

First of all I'm a fun of your blender's tutorials. As you can see many ppl have knowledge of blender but few of them are capable teachers. You are one of my favorite. About this tutorial: I noticed some version differences between yours and v2.73b but if you play with the values you can get the same effect. Also for the Emitter mesh is very important the shading condition (smooth of flat). You have used flat so the particles follow the direction of face-normal in center and in lines. Try to use smooth shading and see the results. No need the subdivision surface mod. to fill the gaps. BLENDER's Particles system is an amazing tool. I used After effect's Particular but now with blender's 3D workflow is more interactive and precise to work only with P.S. inside blender. My blender's version is already outdated. NOW v2.76 evolution-revolution guys!

[@onjofilms]

And, after playing with it some, a better way is PartInfo > Divider > Divider > ColorRamp(with Alpha going to zero on the right side) > Emission > Output. Just run the Alpha from the ColorRamp into the Strength of the Emission Shader. This eliminates 2 nodes (transparent and Mix shader). The colors actually turn out more brilliant. Thanks for the inspiration Andrew, your a true artist.

[@MylesJP]

That's incredible! If someone told me that was rendered I'd either think they were lying or they did it in some $5000 Autodesk program. Blender has really come a long way in recent years.

[@VenkySuppiah]

You Are The Most Time Saving Blender Teacher Ever... Thank You So Much... Love From India

[@revpriest]

Nice one. When I saw you'd uploaded the sparks animation the other day I thought to myself, "Myself, how would you do that" and figured it'd need the material settings for the particles to animate but didn't know how. Now I do. Cheers.

[@blenderguru]

Intel i7-2600 CPU @ 3.4ghz. 16GB Ram. Nvidia Geforce GTX 560.

[@LeMeene]

Awesome tutorial! Inspired me to use blurred particles to create "magical" christmas cards. By the way, you're a great teacher. It's fun to listen to your easy understandable explanations. :)

[@blenderguru]

I use Camtasia Studio.

[@adamg354]

Thank you!, you just helped me make an awesome introduction to my school video class with the use of the particle system, it's not finished but the particles made it awesome!

[@marioCazares]

These look really good even today

[@neweden2813]

Hey Andrew. I just wanted to update that in 2.79b Version, Motion blur does indeed render with GPU :D Wonderful Tutorial :D I am glad to have you on this subject :D

[@jamieedgington7958]

this works great in eevee too ! best spark tut STILL !

[@b3arodactyl]

ah, that makes sense then. yeah i'm kind of bombarding you with questions :P thanks so much for the help, you blender people are really friendly and helpful

[@onjofilms]

Also, the Factor for the Mix Shader goes 0 to 1. So when you run the Divider output into it, it is a number greater than one down to almost 0. So it ignores all the factors above 1. You need to run the output of the divider into another divider node, with just 1 on the bottom and the first divider output on the top input. This will make your range go from almost 0 to 1 which will bring more translucency into the material as the spark ages. That's why your sparks did not fade out that much.

[@esscee96]

If anyone's trying to make electrical sparks, you can try keyframing the lifetime, and using the F-Curve with the Noise and Limits modifiers :) That'll help getting those sporadic bursts of sparks, since the result in the video is one continuous stream.

[@MrAgentMooshroom]

Blender + You = MIND-BLOW

[@kiml42]

I wish I'd seen this a few weeks ago. I did an animation with a lot of burning and explosions, and they look worse than I would have done with 2.49b because I couldn't have the fire change colour as it aged. Thank you so much.

[@roynexus6]

Great demo with excellent functionality explanation. Thank you for posting this.

[@Jlaaag]

Sweet! I've been looking around for a way to vary particle color/transparency/size for some cartoony looking fire made from spheres. This worked perfectly.

[@fuckoff9182]

Sarcasm?

[@Jlaaag]

No?

[@XerulaGraphics]

In the menu bar at the very top of the Blender screen there is a drop-down menu where you can select Cycles Render instead of Blender Render. That will give you access to Cycles materials and texture nodes.

[@onjofilms]

I like the chapter marks. Good idea. The next best thing would be a searchable index :)

[@123eldest]

It's amazing that you can do all this in the Crysis sandbox editor.

[@aleatheawyman4291]

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE TO MAKE IT THIS REALISTIC! O.O I'm using this in my Minecraft Animation when these KZbinrs are on a rollercoaster and one flies out!

[@alfeusshovaleka4961]

how did u get so good man, but u just wait 1 day i will be as good as u or even better. u inspire me

[@unchancy3470]

Thanks for an excellent tutorial, i found it very informative. Keep up the great work its appreciated.

[@MrAgentMooshroom]

FAVORITE: I WILL LIKE THIS VIDEO AND EVERYONE I SEE THANKYOU

[@dgafdezmyn]

really nice effect i like the blender logo on the blade!

[@user-qy5xh8rt7s]

YOU ARE THE GOD OF ANIMATION. I really idolize you, man. Thank you for all your tutorials.

[@JippoUsum]

awesome ! absolutely love how you explain how and why everything works, so great.

[@ericliu1018]

Whoa, it looks so real! Also, very useful. *Mind blown*

[@brodylockwood14]

11:20 when i render mine it isn't dark i can see the lit up sparks but everything is a light grey not black like yours

[@MrFlexNC]

I live for these demonstration videos

[@thebahamiannightmare]

well this is a pretty awesome tutorial thanks so much ive learned alot about blender from this

[@onjofilms]

I think maybe the math is backwards at 14:09. Age over Lifetime would get larger and larger. For example 1 frame over a lifetime of 100 is 0.1. As it approaches 100 the numerator gets larger (the number on top), so does the result, so at frame 100 it is 100/100 or 1. I think nodes take the bottom input and put it over the next above it. Like the Alpha Over node. The channel with Alpha goes into the bottom, and it is 'over' the one above it. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[@curhob]

Fun fact, the direction they emit in also depends on flat/smooth shading because it's using the shading normals to emit from, and smooth shading uses interpolation.

[@StephenE-mx5fe]

Another great tutorial Andrew, many thanks! I'll be using this effect in a project I'm working on :)

[@MultiCreasey]

Brilliant tutorial, thank you. Using mine as a magic sparkler effect on a wand!

[@carlosdiniz6999]

Very nice outcome. Thanks for sharing.

[@curhob]

1:00 Look at the spinning thing that has the Blender logo and blender guru cursive on it

[@MalhaStudios]

Sir, you just got another subscriber!

[@JithinJKumar]

finally after 2 hours .. i figured it out .. CYCLES RENDER .. change top centre tab to cycles render from blender render .. i feel like i'm god ..!! :D

[@BLACKSCIENCEFICTI0N]

Hi Andrew. I love your tutorials. What I absolutely love about your tutorials is how at the end of them, I always have an asset ready to use. Which brings me to this question: will you ever do a tutorial on texturing Makehuman models. All your awesome tutorials have one obvious topic missing. Videos, no matter how beautiful (and some of your work is incredible), are not as interesting without people. Generally your vids have inspired me to use Blender.Thanks so much for your work!

[@arphaxadbasictutorial8339]

This is very helpful in my present job and i wanna try this in my tutorial. Thanks.

[@MrRollie51]

beautiful Video Andrew

[@CodeInKlingon]

18:06 was the most violent key press ever!

[@CalebTheTwig]

at around 10:30 when i went into the node editor none of the stuff he had showed up, it was blank, then when i checked "use nodes" it still wasnt the same stuff but i went with it, then i couldnt find emmision, there wasnt even a shader section. im on blender 2.73, am i using the wrong shortcut to find it? (i used shift+a)

[@reghardtmaree7948]

I think you didn't switch to the Cycles render engine. You are on Blender Render engine. Out of interest why are you still using 2.73?

[@CalebTheTwig]

Reghardt Maree somehow when pressing ctrl+z i switched out of cycles without even realizing it 😂 also im using 2.73 cus its what i've had downloaded for a long time and 2.8 changed a LOT OF THINGS

[@rolibackt]

what a great tutorial! Keep up the good work!

[@kioshimaku]

If you are using 2.68 and don't see the boxes on the nobes view, just click on use nobes box and on the purple circle picture next to the checker board picture. don't know the name of those icons but they are on the bottom, next to the words view, select, add and nobe.

[@aidea_no_baburu300]

Suggestions for sparks on eevee?

[@IAmNumber4000]

You should have put a part in your tutorial about volumetric lighting. I found a way to create spark light without making them look like they're just spheres putting off light and more like glowing points by using volumetrics and creating an emission strength gradient falloff from the center. You can't see the actual outline of the ico sphere if you do it that way.

[@MetapixelatronOmniverse]

+IAN 4000 Use a halo material and display the particles as lines, instead of spheres. Then just composite them as you want. That's a simple way to do it.

[@sailortrash55]

You broke my blender........ im serious i got the blue screen of death..... But i tried again and it turned out amazing so thanks!!!!!!!

[@StormHawksHD]

Sounds like you pushed your pc too far lol

[@kipandcop1]

for anyone having trouble with finding the material nodes at 10:22 make sure you have selected cycles render at the top :)

[@brodylockwood14]

How did you bring the menu up at 10:30?

[@007999999999999999]

I don't get it how you render so fast, for me it takes like 1 minute for a signle picture and for you its like 1 sec at 21:50-

[@YGBHawk]

Also helps to have a good GPU and have blender set to render using said GPU.

[@killergameshit4529]

GPU ,, not CPU...

[@asaucerfulofpixels]

Thank you so much for this great tutorial. I used this on my last logo animation.

[@Panthera-Uncia]

You talk and do stuff really fast, we know that you're a pro! P.S: I use blender in my laptop, and there is no numpad.

[@BebxOfficial]

Fahad Aman in blenders preferences, there is a setting to emulate a number pad.

[@TayDex_]

Andrew back then couldnt have predicted us being able to work with cycles X in the live view with basically instant renders.

[@fytubevw]

Pro as always. Useful once again! :) Thanks

[@MrAgentMooshroom]

also HAPPY NEW YEAR ANDREW AND EVERYBODY ELSE

[@KNOTAnime]

you should do a tutorial on beginner do's and don't to rendering a dynamic scene like a panorama or a zoom out :D great video though it helped a lot

[@CGSiino]

the lower the number the faster it will render. Since my computer doesn't have GPU I use 32x32 for tiles and it renders quite fast.

[@JoshJetStream]

I'm rendering with 'cycles render' selected, but the background is still grey/emitting some light in the rendered image when i follow exactly what you're doing, how do you stop it from doing this? Fantastic tutorials by the way man, everyone appreciates it!

[@versusgame7950]

Hi Andrew, very nice tips, even 2012 I still learn new things of you. I have a cuestion: if I need the particles apear fading in, I mean not just to apear, how can I do this?.Thank you very much for your lesson You are the best Guru. :)

[@SteelShadowAnimations]

This even works in blender 2.8

[@alessandronieto9383]

Its cool to see how even an old tutorial can still be applied to the newest versions of blender even though this was like 25 versions ago lul

[@Ti0Ti0Kan]

No. Blender 2.83.3 .

[@tristanprice1830]

Awesome videos man. Wish everybody went into detail like you do. Nice last name by the way....lol

[@creativeplanet2820]

photorealism level :GOD !!!!

[@Thegunstarhero]

your sparks are so pretty!! ^_^!!

[@breanz2787]

Uhhh, I got a problem...Mine just come out white when I render 16:45 I did everything right up till I rendered. Edit: Realized I had an emission object I forgot to delete.

[@didgeboy287]

Andrew, I love your work and your awesome tutorials to start, but I have a question. I feel like an idiot for asking but the motion blur seems to be working backwards. I even noticed it in your render that the trails seem to come ahead of the particles instead of behind. My scene looks like a game of missle command instead of sparks flying up and out. Is it supposed to look like that? Aren't the trails supposed to follow the object?

[@方エデン]

Thank you for sharing, very detailed.

[@mrmidnight32]

Wow I thought this was over after like 5 min... I got so lost. Awesome tutorial and effects tho!!

[@FXerGerFra]

Hi, I'm not a hundred percent sure but I think you might be able to overcome the motionblure GPU rendering Issue using the vectorblur node in the compositing part of the node-editor.

[@killerriot22]

Where is the music from? This is absolutely mesmerizing. :D

[@janmatys8990]

Text version still available somewhere??? Btw no matter its old this is still SUPERB Andrew!

[@nir3135]

amazing as always

[@ABMultimediaDesigner]

You know the motion blur sparks, could they be used as for a galaxy or vortex in space?

[@stephenhale1250]

"had a very beautiful life but just died, right there"

[@severyansilver8207]

I died laughing XD

[@ArcadeCapture]

Dude i love you!!! Finally got it Thanks so much

[@JithinJKumar]

i'm getting a different set of preferences for Material Tab it doesn't show SURFACE , STRENGTH and all .. i'm stuck .. help needed .. by the way , u r so very helpful Andrew .. with luv from india !

[@b3arodactyl]

How exactly do you download the newest blender builds? I remember that it was on a different site from the official blender.org, but I forget its name. Would 2.64a work? Not sure where to find specific build numbers (ie r52645+)

[@sdfsdfs13]

Make sure you are in Cycles render mode. By the top bar of the page. If your Blender is outdated download the last release on blender.org.

[@andrewaustin4241]

Found this so helpful!!!

[@r4microds]

:l problem being a high-school student with a low end laptop without a CUDA enabled gpu.. You need to OPTIMIZE everything, and STILL, renders take over 20mins for simple things. then you realize you didn't have enough samples, or need to change something... You gotta start it all over. Haha...

[@AdonutwithSprinklez]

And then you realize that while you were rendering an animation, you forgot to set the output file. Then on the second try you forget to set as .mp4, and not .png

[@r4microds]

been there, done that. Lol. There have been times where i ended up with a folder full of individual frames. It took so long to render i just imported them to an external program and complied the animation. "Screw that. I aint starting it again" >.>

[@adamg354]

A Donut with Sprinklez It is better to render with the .png because if your computer crashes on frame 400 and you had 1 more frame to go you would have just lost all progress in the render and would have to start over because you set it to render as a video file. Where if you set it as a picture file every time it finish rendering a frame it saves it as a picture so you wouldn't lose a lot of progress if it crashes on frame 400 because now you have 399 frames already saved to your hard drive. www.blenderguru.com/videos/rendering-animations/

[@AdonutwithSprinklez]

Eh, same difference.

[@Infinatie_]

this is a late reply but I'm in the(high schooler) same situation but there is a way to compile all the frames in blender itself

[@b3arodactyl]

Ok, thanks so much man. I found the gtx 560 448 core for $160 on newegg. Would this be good? I believe its just a 560 TI but with more cuda cores. The normal 560 is like $140. I can also buy a gtx 560 or 570 used on craigs list, I found a 560 in good condition for $110. Is there much of a difference between 560, ti, and ti 448? Also does blender use any of these cuda cores? Or could I just use a amd/radeon card?