How Do I Make Fire and Smoke Follow My Hands in a Video?
Add SMOKE in BeamTracer Performer and set STYLE → FIRE to put flames on an open hand in a camera feed or video. Make a fist to stop feeding the flames. For smoke you can pour and stir, use FROM → HAND in the smoke style and pinch your thumb and index finger.
Each hand can ignite on its own. The last flames keep rising as the fingers close.
How do I turn an open palm into flames?
Start with TRINA · HANDS in the FX Rack so you can check the gesture before switching to your own footage. Leave some room above the hands for the flames. A tight crop can cut off the flame tips even when the hands track well.
- Open Performer and show FX RACK.
- Select TRINA · HANDS, or choose VIDEO · IMAGE to load a clip where the fingers are easy to see.
- Use ADD AN EFFECT to add SMOKE, then select STYLE → FIRE.
- Check OPEN TO IGNITE with an open palm and a closed fist. Lower it a little if a clearly visible open palm is slow to catch.
- Set FLAME HEIGHT for the room above your hands and lower HEAT if the fire hides the fingers.
- Use RENDER to export the clip as MP4 or WebM. Use RECORD to capture a live camera performance.
A thumb-and-index pinch stays unlit in FIRE. If a hand keeps dropping out, first bring the whole palm and fingertips back into view. Lowering OPEN TO IGNITE changes when a detected hand lights; it cannot bring a missing hand back into the frame.
How do I make the fire look like glowing embers?
Choose LOOKS → EMBER HANDS for a darker room and shorter flames. HANDS ON FIRE gives the flames more height. Load either look before you start changing values; recalling a look replaces the current effect stack.
EMBER HANDS uses the same open-palm gesture. Look for the bright veins around the fingers and the warmer light beside the palm.
Turn down FLAME HEIGHT to keep the tongues close to the hand. Raise EMBERS if you want more of the glow on the hand itself; FIRELIGHT changes the spill on the surrounding picture. The factory looks also map music to HEAT. The silent clips show the gesture, so use your own track to judge the music response.
How do I pour smoke from a pinch and push it with my palm?
Add a fresh SMOKE effect and select FROM → HAND. Pinching emits smoke from the palm. Release the pinch and move an open hand through the plume to push it around. The smoke already in the shot can drift after you stop emitting.
- Load a clip with an obvious pinch and a sweeping hand movement.
- Add SMOKE and set FROM → HAND.
- Set DRIFT to 0 if you want to see the puffs without the drifting image trail.
- Adjust HAND RADIUS to set the area your palm can reach.
- Raise HAND STIR if the moving palm barely deflects the plume.
- Use RENDER to export MP4 or WebM, then check the release and the remaining smoke in the saved file.
This pass uses DRIFT: 0 and HAND RADIUS: 0.25. The plume carries on after the pinch ends.
Keep LIFE shorter when you want distinct puffs. Longer life gives the next hand sweep more smoke to move, but it can also cover the gesture. The SMOKE controls explain the remaining settings. For a different hand-tracking technique, try the window between your fingers. See pricing for current export access.
Open a palm, close it, and watch the flames lift away.
Try Hands on Fire