‘Firestarter’, a rebellious and anarchistic term, thrusted further into the mainstream vocabulary thanks to Stephen King and the Prodigy. In this context I’m referring to molotovs and incendary grenades - which both lend themselves to interesting visual effects. Fire is highly captivating when animated, as such I wanted to have a play making a holo/fire effect sticker and thus used the phrase as a word to hang an idea onto.

This sticker is a minor departure from my usual output in that I usually opt for pure vector artwork where possible, and limited colours marry up will with the reductive nature of screenprinting. However with flat vector artwork I typically have to spend extensive time troubleshooting the hologram channels which generate unsightly blocky artifacts when converted using DXT compression - especially in the blue channel, so this time I’ve worked with smoother transitions to save myself a headache, and try something a little different.

The flames admittedly are still vector based - albeit with a blend applied. The explosion cloud I created from taking multiple photos of logs burning in the fireplace, and used the glow as a contrast texture; when combined with further channel blends I ended with up a custom brush, which I randomised in the brush settings then applied throughout. The lettering is custom made: my normal process is to pick a few ‘workhorse’ letters in the phrase - determine thicknesses, proportions and structure, then use that as a template for the other letterforms. I added some scripty tail furnishings at later stage to make it appear more calligraphic. I jumbled the arrangement a little then took it into 3D to apply deformations. The red and black texture is procedurally generated in 3D with some displacement mapping thrown in just to roughen it up. Once I was happy I rendered it out and built the image up.

The main effect is the dancing flames which feature in both holographic versions, it's achieved mostly through the spectrum and green channel. There are two versions I’ve uploaded: A) with extra black smoke clouds around the letters for heightened contrast, and B) Clean clouds for more animation. All feedback welcome.