Blastoff - how to make a rich nice explosion with smoke and fire

I am trying to model a missile launch, but I have extreme difficulty making a nice looking blastoff…

I have watched tutorials on making fire and smoke, and then tweaked with the emission and smoke density math and everything, but all I get is a real weak puff:


I would like the explosion to be really bright, i.e. lighting most of the scene and also big chunks of smoke going all directions. I got initially the smoke going down by setting the temperature as negative, but what I’d really like, is smoke bouncing everywhere as it hits the submarine deck.

I know my smoke probably has multible issues starting from the smoke simulation cube, but any suggestions with what I should begin with?

Something like this I am trying to achieve:


I’m not a smoke sim expert, but I recently learned a lot about it trying to recreate the “lava bombs” from the movie 2012. Using a particle system to emit the smoke will help with the explosive aspect. You will probably need crazy high divisions to get the resolution you want. Don’t be afraid to add some post processing glow.