How to make a fire that spreads from one object to another?

Hello,
I’m not quite sure if this is the right section to ask this in, but I suppose it is worth a shot.

I’m currently doing technical tests for elements I will need to do in a future short film at school and I’m having some difficulty figuring out how to even start making this specific fire effect.

Basically, in the film, there will be a witch burning and I have no clue how to make a fire go from a torch, onto a pile of hay and up onto the wooden stake where the witch will burn.

I don’t have a huge amount of experience using Unreal, so I’m very confused about what kind of particle system(s) and blueprint(s) would be necessary to.

If anyone could maybe guide me, just even a little, on how to approach this, I’d be very grateful.
Thank you!

Since your spreading fire effect is to be used in a staged cinematic, you dont have to worry about blueprint and scripting this would be done with a sequencer.

The way that I would approach this would be to make a torch fire particle system which I would attach at the tip of the torch, then I would create a “Hay Fire” particle system which I would place on the hay pile and when the animation of the torch reach the hay pile, I would activate the Hay Fire particle system at the proper frame in the sequencer. I would also create and place the wooden stake fire effect which I would activate after a couple of seconds of the activated hay fire. You can also place many hay fire particle system and activate them subsequentely to give an illusion of spreading fire.

So basically 3 custom particle systems activated at specific timing. I would probably animate some shaders parameters as well on the hay and the wood to give a burning look.

The question is pretty large but I hope that it gives you some hints!
Cheers!

Hey, thanks for answering!
This might be silly to ask, but how exactly do you choose when a particle system starts? (and that works using the sequencer)
I’ve only done ones that start when you push a button or are always activated.

Thanks again!

You can take a look at this tutorial at this time stamp he places a particle system and do pretty much the workflow that you would need to do in the sequencer. Cinematics with Sequencer: Finishing Up | 11 | v4.12 Tutorial Series | Unreal Engine - YouTube

Thank you so much! This is just what I was looking for!