Now Press Quick Render; you should have a similar image to the shown in Fig.07. This is our basic shape for the fire. The smoke map gives the advantage of being applied as one continuous image on the particles, as if the particles were a single plane, and at the same time you have the option of Face Map toggled on for the use of other maps! Still, the edges of the particles are harsh and need to be smoothed, so let's move onto the next step..


Press the Smoke map button in the upper right corner; from the Material/Map Browser double-click on Mask. Choose Keep old map as sub-map, then press OK (Fig.08).


The mask map we will apply will omit the harsh edges of every particle; the black colour that the mask map will draw around a single particle will be regarded by Max as zero opacity, and thus we will have a smoothed particle with the map shown only on the white part of the mask. An explanation is shown in Fig.09.


Under Mask Parameters Press None (beside Mask); in the Material/Map Browser double-click Gradient (Fig.10).



In the Gradient map panel, under Gradient Parameters > Gradient Type, choose Radial. Click on the Color 2 slot and change to full white; click on the Color 3 slot and change to Red 128, Green 128, Blue 128, Hue 0, Sat 0, Value 128 (Fig.11). Press Quick Render; you should have an image similar to the one shown in Fig.12 – notice how the edges are now becoming smooth!



Now go back up two levels until you are in the Default Blinn Material Panel; under Blinn Basic Parameters press the color slot besides one of the shaders – either Ambient or Diffuse if they are locked, if not just press the lock button beside them – and change to a fierier colour. Let it be orange, with Red 244, Green 176, Blue 30, Hue 29, Sat 224, Value 244 (Fig.13).