I made this scene for those times I miss the winter!

waking up in a snowy winter and chopping wood for the fireplace and then making a cup of coffee to enjoy the warmth of the cabin.
Published this Cinemagraph a while ago and here’s the breakdown.

 

The Scene was built within 3ds Max and rendered using Corona and Vray.
Fire and Steam simulation using chaos Phoenix. (Phoenix Fd)

Lighting:

To Fully have control over lights I’ve rendered them individually on separate layers.

Here’s the base lighting for the scene. Rendered using corona renderer.

 

 

 

 

By separating light layer I was able to easily add Flickering to the lights in After Effects.

Fire Simulation:

First I wanted to use stock fire footage for the fireplace but finally, I’ve accepted the challenge of creating everything from scratch. I’ve used Chaos phoenix which made it possible to have a beautiful realistic fire.

 

After render:

 

 

Reflection was added on top of the fireplace glass with the mask.

 

Steam simulation:

Every steam effect was simulated separately for maximum realism.

 

 

 

 

The steam footage rendered using Vray and later composited into the scene using after effects

 

 

 

By the way, if you are interested in learning chaos Phoenix and simulate you own smoke there are a complete tutorial on my YouTube channel.

 

If not, there is also a Free steam Stock footage you can download to use it in your projects.

 

Snow:

Mixed several snow footages in After Effects and used the window mask to mask the snowy area.

 

 

Final image:

 

Before vs After:

 

Tools:

3ds max

Chaos Vray: Rendering effects

Chaos Corona: Rendering the scene

Chaos Phoenix: Fire and steam simulation

Adobe: After effect, Premiere Pro, Photoshop: composting and Post production