Candle

The Candle is a real light that looks and moves like a candle: a flame with depth, a wax body and a curled wick, and a light that moves with the flame, so the shadows around it sway instead of simply dimming. Lighting it catches small and blue, flares, then settles; putting it out leaves a thread of smoke.

The flame

A candle flame has three zones, and this one renders all three: a blue base around the wick where there is plenty of oxygen, a dark gap just above the wick of wax vapour that is not yet burning, and the luminous yellow body of glowing soot above it. The flame is a true volume, so it has depth from every angle.

The motion

A real flame bobs at around 11 times a second whatever its size, but never on a loop: its rate, sway and the moment its tip lets go all wander on their own. Here each of those drifts independently, so the eye never finds a pattern, and a draught leans and stretches the flame and can make it gutter.

Settings

• Flame height, Flame width, Movement, Flicker and Draught shape the flame.
• Blue base and Soot balance the blue collar and the yellow body.
• Body: Pillar, Taper, Tealight or None, with Melt, Wax glow and Wax colour.
• Temperature (K): a candle is about 1850K.

Use it for

Romantic, cosy and festive scenes, dinners and memorials. See also the Light Bulb and the Fire effect.