ENDA Episode 213 → The time when ENDA fights with a fire sword (Part 4)

We begin with colour correction!

You might think it’s as simple as dropping a Grade node and calling it a day… but CG is never that easy.

First, let’s look at what we actually have. We’ve got smoke and fire, but they’re merged together. We could separate them with roto masks… but then, why do we have channels in the first place?

In the video below, you can see how we use the subtractive method not only to isolate the density channel, but also to add it back into the comp with its own colour correction. This gives us much more control over a single component of the effect.

So when we start applying other colour nodes to the fire, we can always return to the Density “pipe” and adjust only the smoke, making it sit more naturally in the plate without affecting everything else.

The final touch is the glow… but something still feels off.

Especially the lack of highlights in the fire.

The answer?

Clamp the values.

And suddenly, the fire reads as far more realistic.

The difference between the two versions is clear: our FX simulation is finally starting to feel integrated, but there are still more steps to take.

What’s next?

Well, that will be for a future episode.

The journey continues...