Usually I don't make product reviews, and when I do, its for not that common stuff or usage scenarios I discovered. This is a bit different since its a brand new shiny product, and there are some other reviews for similar products out there.
Bought a Ulanzi filmog FM01 when it was cheap on presale. Its a vapour based micro fogger. I don't have experience on those kind of devices so, so its not that much of an educated review on it.
what I like - price (although for me current price is again in the "do I really need this" range) I would subscribe to the newsletter and see if the price drops around 100. Ulanzi do some sales from time to time.
- you can mix your own smoke fluid they deliver the ratio vg /pg in the FAQ and a diy video wich saves a lot of money. (Seen some replacement fluid on another site, and for the price of 50ml you can generate a litre of fog fluid) although its a messy process: Especially working with the glycerin
- Batteries are 2 standard 18650 and are replaceable
As for quality in comparison to other devices, can't say since I didn't test other devices of that kind. But I like the output...especially the low hanging fog.
what I don't like Basically its all related to the vape chamber:
- price for an extra vape chamber is quite steep
- vape chamber lower lid might unscrew / leak if not tightly screwed
- The plastic to cover the infill hole seems like a moving target to break
- No plug to close the vape chamber for transport especially if you store it in the shipped case.
-The Vape chamber is hidden by the plastic heat guard when in operation, wich makes it difficult so see if you running out ot liquid during operation wich could harm the chamber.
I would not recommend to use it ti fill up a room with smkoe (as those micro foggers all advertise, but for those cases there are more affordeable, and practical alternatives out there (standard smoke machine wich cost around 40 bucks)
Its also a bit different to cigarette smoke wich is more whispy.
So no buyers remorse from me, nice little tool to play around. Here are two examples how I used it just for joy.
Making of the nebula flyby
I shot a few clips with the bmpcc6k on a small table top, with a black backround, illuminated by a single light. I should have taken more care avoiding folds in the fabric and illuminate only the smoke. But since I do this on a weekend, I wanted to concetrate more, on how the micro fogger behaves / testing the workflow.
I imported those clips in fusion, and selectively exported frames with good looking smoke elements as exr. (Around 250 elements from 5 clips)
In photoshop I isolated those elements, by luminance / manual erasing. And in a new psd file I aranged 7 of these elements to my liking.
In blender I used my python port of my psil plugin for lightwave and imported the psd. (Sorry for not releasing it, but the install process is a bit more complicated, since you have to use pip to get the needed library installed first)
I could have used the sculpting functionality to add some additional depth to the individual elements but due to my time constraints I skiped that part. I did however lighted those elements individually with some additional point lights, to give it more depth. Then I animated the camera and rendered the sequence out.
After rendering out the footage, I imported my WIP conversion of the old qubac model and quickly animated it, on the background.
I used after effects for the comp, since it allows me to work side by side while blender is rendering. Its not ideal, but fusion reserves gpu memory, wich can result in memory errors in cycles.
After rendering I used resolve for some color correction. Sorry for the crappy texture and lighting of the ship, but I'm in progress to convert the old texture maps to pbr, but this will need a full day alone to get this done.
About the banner image
This was shot with the 5 bucks cheap chinese ringlight and a secondary light. The camera was also the bmpcc6k I 3d printed and painted a small platform wich fits into the ring light. (The smoke would simply sunk to the ground not giving this "overflow" look)
Then I filmed 3 passes: One where I fill the ring light and "set" with smoke, and after some dissipation set the filmog in place. A second , with the filmog still at the same position, after some smoke cleared, where I lighted the scene with a light from left. And a third where I move the light to the right side.
Then I exported several frames of the first clip, and one of each of the other clips in fusion as exr. In phoshop I blended them together (additive) removed unwated elements (hand / cable) did some color correction, noise reduction and sharpening.
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