Alter Logo Fire Animation

Professional 3D animation of the Alter logo with realistic fire effects, created in Blender.

Overview

This project contains a complete Blender animation setup featuring:

• Golden logo with photorealistic metallic material, reflections and glow effects
• Realistic fire simulation using Mantaflow fluid dynamics
• Dynamic camera movement with depth of field
• Professional lighting setup (3-point lighting)
• Advanced compositing with bloom, color grading and lens effects
• High-quality rendering using Cycles engine with GPU acceleration

Animation Details

• Duration: 300 frames (~10 seconds at 30fps)
• Resolution: 1920x1080 (Full HD)
• Key Features:
  • Logo starts far from camera, surrounded by fire
  • Smooth movement towards camera with subtle rotation
  • Fire gradually fades out around frame 200
  • Logo fills frame with golden glow and reflections
  • Professional color grading and post-processing

Requirements

• Blender 3.0 or higher (tested with 3.6+)
• GPU with CUDA or OptiX support (recommended for faster rendering)
• Python 3.9+ (comes with Blender)
• Disk Space: ~5GB for cache and output files
• RAM: 8GB minimum, 16GB+ recommended
• OS: Windows 10/11, Linux, or macOS

🎬 SIMPLEST WAY - Just Double-Click!

⭐ Absolute Easiest (No Commands, No Typing!)

Windows/Mac/Linux:

1. Make sure alter.svg is in the project folder
2. Double-click GO.py
3. Wait ~1-2 minutes
4. Done! Open alter_logo_fire_animation.blend in Blender

What you get:

• ✨ Golden metallic ALTER logo (from your exact SVG)
• 🔥 Realistic fire simulation (fades at frame 200)
• 📹 Professional camera tracking
• 💡 3-point lighting setup
• 🎬 300 frames (10 seconds at 30 fps)

Want Options? Double-click start.py for interactive menu.

📖 Full guide: START.md

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Quick Start (Command Line)

🐍 Python Workflow (For Terminal Users)

⭐ Fastest - Generate Scene Only (1-2 min):

blender --background --python ALTER_LOGO_COMPLETE.py

↳ Creates complete scene with exact SVG logo and fire simulation

In Blender GUI:

1. Open Blender
2. Go to Scripting tab
3. Click Open → Select ALTER_LOGO_COMPLETE.py
4. Click Run Script (or Alt+P)

Full Render Pipeline:

# Generate + render animation (~45 min)
blender --background --python make_animation.py

# Quick preview (10 min)
blender --background --python make_animation.py -- --quick

# With video file
blender --background --python make_animation.py -- --production --video

📖 For detailed Python workflow: See PYTHON_WORKFLOW.md

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Windows Users

One-Command Setup (Recommended)

Option 1: Batch Script

quickstart.bat

Option 2: PowerShell (if you prefer PowerShell)

.\quickstart.ps1

This will automatically:

1. Check system requirements
2. Generate the Blender scene
3. Open Blender with the animation

Manual Steps

1. Generate Scene

scripts\setup_scene.bat

2. Preview in Blender

:: For ALTER_LOGO_COMPLETE.py generated scene:
blender alter_logo_fire_animation.blend

:: Or using full path:
"C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 4.5\blender.exe" alter_logo_fire_animation.blend

3. Render Animation

Quick preview (faster):

scripts\render_animation.bat preview

Production quality:

scripts\render_animation.bat production

Linux / macOS Users

One-Command Setup (Recommended)

chmod +x quickstart.sh scripts/*.sh
./quickstart.sh

Manual Steps

1. Generate Scene

chmod +x scripts/*.sh
./scripts/setup_scene.sh

2. Preview in Blender

# For ALTER_LOGO_COMPLETE.py generated scene:
blender alter_logo_fire_animation.blend

3. Render Animation

Quick preview:

./scripts/render_animation.sh preview

Production quality:

./scripts/render_animation.sh production

Or render directly with Blender:

blender -b alter_logo_animation.blend -a

Tips for All Platforms

• Press Spacebar in Blender to play/pause animation preview
• Press F12 to render current frame
• Press Ctrl+F12 to render full animation
• Animation is 300 frames (10 seconds at 30fps)
• Fire fades out around frame 200

Project Structure

blender3d/
├── alter.svg                      # Source logo file
├── alter_logo_animation.blend     # Generated Blender scene (after setup)
├── quickstart.sh                  # Linux/Mac one-command setup
├── quickstart.bat                 # Windows batch one-command setup
├── quickstart.ps1                 # Windows PowerShell one-command setup
├── scripts/
│   ├── logo_animation.py          # Main animation setup script
│   ├── advanced_setup.py          # Animation with customizable presets
│   ├── animation_config.py        # Preset configuration system
│   ├── check_system.py            # System requirements validator
│   ├── setup_scene.sh             # Linux/Mac scene generation
│   ├── setup_scene.bat            # Windows batch scene generation
│   ├── setup_scene.ps1            # Windows PowerShell scene generation
│   ├── render_animation.sh        # Linux/Mac rendering helper
│   ├── render_animation.bat       # Windows batch rendering helper
│   └── render_animation.ps1       # Windows PowerShell rendering helper
├── assets/                        # Additional assets (textures, etc.)
├── output/                        # Rendered output files
├── README.md                      # This file
├── PROJECT_INFO.md                # Technical documentation
└── USAGE_EXAMPLES.md              # Practical examples and recipes

Technical Details

Fire Simulation

• Engine: Mantaflow (Blender's built-in fluid solver)
• Domain Resolution: 256 voxels
• Flow Type: Fire with smoke
• Emitter: Torus shape parented to logo
• Animation: Density keyframed to fade out

Materials

Golden Logo Material

• Base: Principled BSDF with metallic workflow
• Color: Rich gold (#FFB456)
• Metallic: 1.0 (full metal)
• Roughness: 0.15 (polished)
• Emission: Subtle warm glow
• Anisotropic reflections for realism

Fire Material

• Volumetric shader with emission
• Color gradient: Dark red → Orange → Yellow → White
• Emission strength: 25x
• Smoke absorption and scattering

Lighting Setup

1. Key Light: Area light (500W) - main illumination
2. Fill Light: Area light (200W) - soften shadows
3. Rim Light: Spot light (300W) - edge highlighting
4. Environment: Dark blue ambient (0.5 strength)

Render Settings

• Engine: Cycles (path tracing)
• Samples: 256 (production) / 64 (preview)
• Denoising: OpenImageDenoise
• Volume Steps: 1024 max
• Motion Blur: Enabled (0.5 shutter)
• Color Space: Filmic with High Contrast look

Compositing

• Fog glow bloom effect
• Color correction (saturation +20%, gain +10%)
• Lens distortion for cinematic look
• Chromatic aberration

Customization

Adjust Animation Timing

Edit scripts/logo_animation.py:

self.total_frames = 300        # Total animation length
self.fire_end_frame = 200      # When fire fades out

Change Logo Color

Modify the golden material base color:

principled.inputs['Base Color'].default_value = (1.0, 0.766, 0.336, 1.0)
# Change to your desired RGB values (0-1 range)

Adjust Fire Intensity

Modify emitter settings:

flow_settings.fuel_amount = 2.0      # Fire intensity
flow_settings.temperature = 3.0       # Fire heat
flow_settings.velocity_factor = 1.5   # Fire movement speed

Camera Distance

Adjust start and end positions:

start_pos = Vector((0, 15, 0))   # Starting distance
end_pos = Vector((0, -5, 0))     # Ending distance (closer)

Performance Tips

1. Preview Mode: Use preview quality for testing
2. GPU Rendering: Enable GPU compute in Blender preferences
3. Cache Management: Fluid cache is stored in blendcache_alter_logo_animation/
4. Resolution: Reduce resolution percentage for faster renders
5. Samples: Lower samples for previews (64 is usually enough)

Troubleshooting

Windows: Blender Not Found

If scripts can't find Blender:

1. Add to PATH: Add Blender installation directory to Windows PATH
   • Search "Environment Variables" in Windows
   • Edit System PATH variable
   • Add: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 3.6\
2. Or use full path in commands:

   "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 3.6\blender.exe" --background --python scripts\logo_animation.py

Windows: PowerShell Execution Policy

If .ps1 scripts don't run:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Windows: Script won't run from double-click

Right-click .bat file → Run as administrator (if in protected folder) Or run from Command Prompt/PowerShell instead.

Fire Not Visible

• Ensure fluid cache is baked (Cache → Bake All)
• Check domain viewport display settings
• Verify fire material is assigned to domain

Slow Rendering

• Enable GPU rendering in preferences
• Reduce sample count
• Lower domain resolution
• Disable motion blur for preview

Out of Memory

• Reduce domain resolution (128 instead of 256)
• Lower volume max steps
• Reduce render resolution

Logo Not Importing

• Verify alter.svg is in project root
• Check SVG is valid and not corrupted
• Try opening SVG in Inkscape first

Output

Rendered files are saved to output/ directory:

• Format: MP4 (H.264)
• Quality: High (low compression)
• Frame Rate: 30 fps
• Resolution: 1920x1080

Individual frames are named: alter_logo_animation_0001.png, etc.

Performance Benchmarks

Approximate render times (will vary based on hardware):

Hardware	Quality	Time
RTX 3080	Production	~45 min
RTX 3060	Production	~75 min
GTX 1080	Production	~120 min
CPU Only	Production	~6 hours

Preview mode is approximately 4x faster.

Credits

Animation system designed for professional 3D production workflows. Fire simulation powered by Mantaflow. Rendering by Blender Cycles engine.

License

Proprietary - Alter Logo Animation Project