Install

1. Unzip the download. Keep burn_fx-1.0.0.zip zipped: that file is the add-on.
2. In Blender, open Edit › Preferences › Get Extensions.
3. Open the ⌄ menu at the top right and choose Install from Disk…, then select burn_fx-1.0.0.zip.
4. Press N in the 3D Viewport and open the Burn FX tab.

To update, install the new zip the same way; it replaces the old version.

Quick start

1. Select a mesh, pick a look from the gallery and click Add Burn. The burn appears at 40% so you can see it straight away.
2. Drag Burn from 0 to 1, or click Animate Burn and set a start frame and duration.
3. Choose where the fire starts: Point (move the igniter), Sweep (arrow buttons) or Paint.
4. Optional: turn on Fire Bloom. On heavy scenes, use Bake for Playback.

To burn a picture, click Burn an Image… (also in Add › Image › Burnable Image). You can also right-click any mesh and use Burn FX.

Panel reference

• Burn FX: Burn slider, playback, Animate Burn, Bake for Playback, where the fire starts, Burn Away or Char Only, current look, Remove.
• Fire: Glow, Temperature (with a colour swatch), Real Fire Colors, own Ember and Hot colours, Spread, Breakup, Smolder, Specks, Speck Size, Flicker, Fire Bloom.
• Scorch & Char: scorch colour and browning, char colour, roughness and relief, crack glow and size, how embers cool, char inside, metal heat tint.
• Shape & Stages: raggedness, pattern size, detail, seed; widths of the scorch, char and glow bands.
• Geometry: edge curl, subdivision, delete burned faces, pin to rest pose.
• Ash & Sparks: on/off; amount, size, lifetime; rise, swirl, share of glowing sparks; ash colour, glow and temperature; timing.
• Smoke: on/off (experimental); density, rise, resolution, colour.

Fire and Scorch & Char settings belong to the material; every other setting belongs to the object.

Bake for Playback

1. Click Bake for Playback…. The suggested range runs from the first burn keyframe to the last, plus time for the ash to finish.
2. Choose where to store it: inside the .blend (where your Blender version supports it) or a folder on disk next to the saved .blend.
3. While baked, burn settings are greyed out; the fire's look stays editable. Click Rebake after changing the burn, or Free to go back to live editing.

Tips

• Animate the slider past 1. Animate Burn does this for you, so ash and smoke can finish their flight after everything has burned.
• Keep Char Inside at 0 for single-sided surfaces such as paper or leaves; otherwise their back side shows as charred.
• Raise Subdivide if a low-poly mesh burns away with a stepped silhouette. The panel shows the face count.
• Hand-keyed easing makes ash timing approximate; a linear animation (the default) is exact.
• Bloom in the viewport needs Viewport Shading › Compositor set to Always. It always shows in final renders.