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Choosing a Base Component
I think the simplest approach to creating an effect in DarkTree is to choose a base component, and then tweak it with other components until it looks the way you want. Since an explosion is a cloud of hot gasses, it seems natural to start with the “clouds” component. Using the menu on the left, choose Natural->Clouds and drag the component somewhere onto the middle of your workspace as a Percent component. We’re using a percent component because we’re going to recolor it later using a gradient mask.
A default Clouds component
You can double click a component to change its attributes. Double click the Clouds component and change it to these settings. There’s no magic here—I just fiddled with the values until they looked right.
Adjusting the attributes of the Clouds component
Shaping the Effect
The Clouds effect gives us a nice looking field of puff shapes. Now let’s give it a round shape so that it looks like a fireball. We’ll do this by modulating the “Puff Size” input of the Clouds with a circular gradient. The inside of the gradient will be a middle gray, giving us a medium puff size in the middle of the effect. This will fade to black on the outside, making a puff size of zero, or in this case, no visible puffs.
Create a new Gradient->Absolute Shells component to the right of your clouds as a Percentage componenet. Then double click the Absolute Shells component and change it to have the following parameters.
Values for the Absolute Shells
Now right click on the ridged area of the Clouds component, and choose “Puff Size” from the menu. Then click on the output (the little gray dot). This will link the Puff Size input of the clouds to the Absolute Shells gradient component.
Clouds linked to Absolute Shells
Presto! Now the explosion is taking on the shape of a fireball.
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