Skip to main content

'Cumulative' Displaced/Lingering Environment Dust

Example: the exterior facade of a building is being shot up by a machine gunner, each bullet hit on the facade throws out it’s own localized dust/debris/smoke, but because they’re obviously separate elements, the individual puffs of dust do not add up into a larger cloud of lingering dust in front of the building, that kinda lingers in the air after the shooting stops.

The closest elements I’ve seen that could work for this are the Isolated Fog and Displaced Fog, but the problem with those is that all the smoke/fog is either blown into frame from the side, is emitted from a single source as a burst, or is already expanded and lingering in the air. This makes it very difficult to make it look like the smoke cloud has been built up from many sources.

I’m wondering if you could make some large lingering fog clouds that emit from different sources over time, and accumulate into a single larger cloud.

I’m imagining a black environment, with a few fog machines behind the back black wall and facing camera so they can emit fog forward (toward camera) into the area in front of the black backdrop.

Maybe three or four fog machines along the bottom of frame, each of which gently injects some fog into the scene in a random order over time. This element, in additional the individual bullet hits, would create a more global kicking up of fog that increases as the building gets shot up, but is not blowing in from the side, or animating it’s scale to appear to be growing.

For bonus points. Some fog machines could be staggered across the back wall, some high up, some lower down. Short bursts of fog/smoke would act as bullet hits, and the lingering fog from each source would combine nicely.

(Sorry, this is a weirder request! Hope it makes sense lol)

Thanks!!

2 comments

Comments2

  • Zachary VanHoy

    Team•

    Mar 18, 2025

    Thanks for this detailed request! The description is very helpful

  • Jesse Speer

    •

    Mar 4, 2025

    LIKE THIS: Atmospheric Fog ‘Smoke Front 1’

    Only imagine multiple additional fog machines spread across frame, as if bullet hits on a large wall, which will then combine naturally and linger.

    The placement of the fog machines, the order of the poofs, and the timing of the poofs can be arranged to create a while library of this type of element. This would allow them to be used on all types of buildings, walls, fences, trucks, treelines, etc.

    I think you would be the first ever to create this type of stock element! lol

    K thanks :)