[CyberDildonics]

sceptical

(skeptical)

Fire is a fluid simulation and this has been in consumer tools like houdini for a long time now. Even in avatar from 14 years ago there were plenty of CG explosions that people didn't think about.

The moment you comp it in to a live plate our uncanny valley spidey senses kick in

I haven't seen this be the case if the scale is right and the resolution is good. After that it is a matter of compositing. There is actually a decent amount of cg fire out there now. I found this after 10 seconds of searching on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ec3hrkwh8Q

Doing live action integration is tough in general, but fire is additive and that helps quite a bit. LEDs that can be add lighting to the photography helps too.

[nimbleal]

Sceptical (I’m English).

And, I realise. I first learned Houdini c. 2004 so I’m aware of the technology.

Your YouTube link is a perfect example. It looks good but certainly doesn’t pass the bar for mistake-it-for-the-real-thing realism.

[CyberDildonics]

It's easy to say when it's a full resolution demo on a black background and you know it's fake, but sprinkled into a live action shot and I don't think people notice. This is already something that is being done all the time.

Also houdini in 2004 didn't have anything like the fluid simulations it has now.