Problem w/ using Billboard material for candle smoke

[hypersapien]

I have made a blueprint containing a few components to make up a candle, flame, and smoke. I’m not quite sure what the best approach is to simulate the smoke rising from the candle, but at this time I am using an animated billboard which is positioned above the candle.

The problem is that that this only works when viewing the candle from the side- low or high angles cause the billboard to point up or down thus making the smoke originate from a strange point. What is the best solution to this problem?

Here are the possibilities I am considering:

• restrict axis rotation of the billboard so that it only rotates about its Z axis (Don’t know how to do this)
• use some means other than billboards to do display the animated smoke graphic

Could anyone point me in the right direction?

[hypersapien]

In case my words didn’t explain the situation well, here is a shot video demonstrating the problem: - YouTube

[Patinger]

any solution yet?

[hypersapien]

I’m happy to share my solution with you, though I feel it was a pretty novice and messy way of doing it. I’ll probably need to optimize this in the future…

I made the smoke material with flipbook, Then I imported a simple plane geometry and positioned it vertically above the candle, and applied the smoke material to it.

The attached screenshot is how I got it to face the camera at all times with out tilting up or down.

[hypersapien]

See comment above.