Our VFX artist Aaron Lundquist continues to create new engine exhaust effects. The first of these engines runs on an as-yet-announced fuel (guesses welcome)! The other two are metallic hydrogen and jet engine.
We're all really proud of Aaron's shock diamonds! The score, as always, is by the incomparable Howard Mostrom.
Oh wow, these are pretty! And fast. Really fast! One of my biggest nitpicks over Realplume was that the particle effects felt like they were going only 40 miles per hour. These clearly don't have that problem. The second stage cams on the 100+ odd Falcon 9 launches there have been have really imbued the spaceflight community with an excellent expectation of what a real engine looks like when it's screaming into the void. And this is it!
That said, now I'm brimming with questions about these