Nuke explosion camera focal length

[nico_venster]

Hello, I am  not sure in which category this question is supposed to go. I have an explosion with a very low angle (a lot of sky) and can't decide whether to use a small or big focal length to communicate a nice, massive blow! Is there a rule of thumb for this?

 

Thanks

[old school]

It sounds like you have some reference footage that inspires your effect. Use that as a basis to frame your explosion in camera?

 

Easy enough to add two or more cameras to frame your cached simulation on disk then generate viewport flipbooks from the viewport flipbook icon or use OpenGL ROP.

 

The closer the camera is to the explosion, the explosion will appear to move faster, more violent. The further the camera is from the explosion, the longer it takes tol evolve to fill the same amount of the frame. Beyond this obvious comment, it's really up to you.

 

Massive = very large explosion with distance cam to me.

[nico_venster]

Thanks a lot for the insight!

[jrockstad]

Another thing to consider is that the longer the lens the more the sense of depth is compressed. Take a look at these two images:

 

 

The first is with a 100mm telephoto lens, and the second is a wide angle 35mm. Notice how bunched up the spheres look in the first shot, while in the second you really start to get more sense of the actual distance between them. To emphasize the massive volume of your explosion, you would probably want to choose a lens on the shorter side.

[nico_venster]

Hey John, thanks for the visual reference. The latter definitely has a more voluminous look, I appreciate your time thanks!