Well from most of the good shows ive seen one thing remains constant, designers are filling their frame or sky with fireworks very well. Shells are bursting high and low, left and right, just as if it were a real display.

Now my question is what is the best way to achive this. Say I have a point in the show where I want several williows to be going off, now I place my shells a good distance apart from each other so i get the left and right filled up pretty good, but where i seem to fall off is the high and the low. They just burst around the same height, so how do most people lay out their mortars to get this effect. Should i lower the ground in a couple of places or just move some of the mortars farther back away from my sets?

This also goes with my problem of having a few shells burst too high for me. Im not good with the AFE yet so i dont want to edit the shells in question, for an example rctxtremes finale peoney i believe is what they are called. I love them, they are huge and look realistic but they just burst so high up in the air that in order to see them i have to set my camera very far back from my sets which makes the sets more or less useless because they are too far away to see. So again should I lower the mortars into the ground, move them farther back from my set or learn to edit them.

Also, in general, how far away from my sets or scenery should i begin to place mortars.

Any mortar layout tips would help better my shows and are also welcome
Thank You

This post has been edited by Racersnare21: May 6 2008, 06:25 AM

The problem of your shells exploding at the same height has nothing to do with the mortar placement, unfortunately. The height of the burst is set in the AFE so some shells explode higher than others.

What you can do to help with this is to place mortars at higher points in the stage/set, using towers for instance that are elevated from the ground. You can also lower the ground.

Placing mortars further away doesn't help with the high/lowaspect. only with the depth feeling of the show.

You place mortars way back from the camera nd you shoot the big shells from there, like willows or giant peonies.

I suggest you to have a set with at least 3 different heights, one at ground level at the front and, as you move back into the stage, going higher and higher like you would see in stadiums rows or certains anfiteathers.

I think another way to achieve multi layering of fireworks is by using different angles by using some of the custom mortars

To make a shell burst lower you can shorten the time if the shell's rise or make it rise slower or add more drag.

This post has been edited by Zoltec: Aug 11 2008, 05:13 PM