ENDA Episode 181→ The time when ENDA gets in a bullet fight with John Wick (Part 7)

Gun smoke is one of those elements that appear and disappear quickly.

So we might be tempted to think it’s not that important…

Grave mistake.

Just like the shells, gun smoke is emitted right after the muzzle flash. That residual smoke can completely reveal whether your muzzle flash as a whole feels integrated or not.

Even if you’ve never seen a real gunshot in person, you’ve seen one countless times on television, cinema, and now on the internet. That residual smoke is always there, and our eyes are used to it. If it’s missing or badly composed, people won’t fully believe your shot.

So, what do we need to look out for?

First, colour. Just like with the smoke from the muzzle flash, the gun smoke picks up the colour of the environment.

In the video below, you can see how one of the smoke elements shifts towards a more cyan tone to match the surroundings. But there’s something else changing too: density.

The smoke coming from the barrel passes through a cyan light source, so it loses density as it crosses in front of it. The smoke from the gun’s chamber, however, doesn’t pass in front of a light, so it keeps more of its original density.

In the end, both smoke plumes gradually lose density until they disappear completely.

Of course, we can’t forget to blur the smoke so it sits softly in the plate — always remembering that this is fast-moving smoke that appears and vanishes just as quickly.

You might think we’re finally done with smoke elements… but no.

There’s still one more type of smoke we need to take care of.

But that will be for a future episode.

So, stay tuned!

The journey continues...