How to make SMOKE "Donut / Ring / Shock-wave" like Effect?

Support Particles and Physics Simulations
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Hi All,

I’m not sure how to describe what I’m trying to do but I’ll try to describe it with an example:

When a HEAVY Object crashes the earth from the sky, like a huge block or even a “Super Hero Landing” in the Anime where the smoke is in a ring / shock-wave like around the object but it is usually start fast and spreading out while it’s fading very slow.

I would like to make such thing in the latest Blender 2.8 EEVEE but I don’t really know how to approach it, how to start make it and how to time it right.

Is there a good video tutorial you can recommend or any other visual way I can follow to understand how to make it?

I tried some smoke simulation tutorials but most of them are the same inside a cubic domain… nothing about the timing or controlling the shape of the smoke.

Sorry about my bad English and thanks ahead for any help! :slight_smile:

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I think those style of effects are called “shock waves.”
It’s pretty simple, particles emitting from an expanding torus or cylinder walls are used as the Smoke Flow source.

Here is a basic setup for 2.7 and 2.8. For 2.8 create a new material and drop down a Principled Volume shader to render the smoke.
smoke_shockwave
27_particle_expand_smoke.blend (342.7 KB)

3 Likes
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If you’re looking for quick and dirty…

  1. Create a torus where you want your smoke.
  2. Animate its growth and dimensions.
  3. In the layout tab, on the top left in the Object drop down choose “quick effects” then “quick smoke”
  4. Tweak in the physics tab (circle with a line around it [planetary trajectories])
1 Like
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Thanks @Atom This is EXACTLY what I wanted to make, I appreciate it!
but I tried to apply new material as you suggested since I’m using EEVEE and I’m not sure why I still see tiny circles instead of shader, I did make sure I’m the render view and I did apply the principled material.

I’m also interested to make it from scratch so I can understand the workflow of such effect and I’ll be able to create different variations from scratch to practice this.

It looks like the animated circular object stop the smoke and controlling it’s limits as the main ring, but the rest of the smoke make nonsense to me in a way I can’t recreate such effect from guessing how to do it exactly.

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Thanks @tntcheats it make sense, I did follow your tips and animated the torus easily using scale keyframes but… from the quick effects smoke and controlling it, I guess I’ll need to experiment this a bit more to understand how it works.

@Atom example looked a bit like this in a way but I think I can make more dynamic smoke effects with it? not sure, I’m still scratching my head but I appreciate your help you guys! :slight_smile:

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I did apply the principled material.

Make sure you use the Principled Volume, not the Principled Material. The volume connects to the volume input. To autogenerate this, use the Quick Effects on the default cube and take a look at the material created for the SmokeDomain.