TheSpleen Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 Trying to design my own lightning effects for new video. I had no idea where to start. So I actually modeled my own bolt of lightning. Added some glow effect and got an effect thats not too bad at all. before I spend more hours modeling another bolt of lightning so I have several I wanted to see what the experts here have to tell me. Thanks Gene tessst.mov tessst.mov Quote
itsjustme Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 I'm no expert, but it looks like it would do the job, Gene. Very cool Quote
Luuk Steitner Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 Looks good so far. Maybe you could make it illuminate in parts, starting at the top. 3 parts animated over 3 frames may be enough to make it more look like it really strikes down. Quote
TheSpleen Posted April 24, 2010 Author Posted April 24, 2010 Looks good so far. Maybe you could make it illuminate in parts, starting at the top. 3 parts animated over 3 frames may be enough to make it more look like it really strikes down. how can that be accomplished? Quote
jakerupert Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 See my suggestion in this thread: "creating a line of of thing air" Why not use a transparent material effector?: Create the whole line for the animation beforehand and make it visible one by one with an animated transparent material effector. In case your effector interferes with your other models in the chor, render out just the line separately and join it together with the rest of your animation in post. See Example red line attached Attached File(s) ManniMan_UnternehmerN_Sor3_200.mov ( 375.49k ) Number of downloads: 15 Quote
DarkLimit Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 I like it I have tried this in the past with no decent success. May I see a wire-frame. Quote
TheSpleen Posted April 24, 2010 Author Posted April 24, 2010 I like it I have tried this in the past with no decent success. May I see a wire-frame. Quote
TheSpleen Posted April 24, 2010 Author Posted April 24, 2010 lightningbolt.mdl lightningbolt2.mdl enjoy. some bad patches but with this model it does not matter. Quote
Darkwing Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 Looks good so far. Maybe you could make it illuminate in parts, starting at the top. 3 parts animated over 3 frames may be enough to make it more look like it really strikes down. Actually, strike up, except really really quickly Quote
TheSpleen Posted April 24, 2010 Author Posted April 24, 2010 See my suggestion in this thread: "creating a line of of thing air" Why not use a transparent material effector?: Create the whole line for the animation beforehand and make it visible one by one with an animated transparent material effector. In case your effector interferes with your other models in the chor, render out just the line separately and join it together with the rest of your animation in post. See Example red line attached Attached File(s) ManniMan_UnternehmerN_Sor3_200.mov ( 375.49k ) Number of downloads: 15 I am totaly lost in what a material effector is the file does not download Quote
Fuchur Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 A material-effector is a "dummy"-object that can be placed over another object with an influence-area (a bit like a light). You can assign a material to the material-effector and where it hits the underlying geometry, it will replace the material of the underlying object with the one applied to the material-effector. Like that you can very precisely change a surface-attribute (and other stuff like bump, etc.) at a specific area. The material-effector can be moved in 3d-space as a own very precisly positionateable effect. One of the most famous examples is the burning-planet / burning astroid-example that can be found here: Material effectors in animation See you *Fuchur* Quote
Fuchur Posted April 24, 2010 Posted April 24, 2010 Very cool! It is very cool One thing it laggs so is a "material effector list" (so you can specify which objects are effected and which are not, like a Lightlist does for lights...) In these situation where you have to do that you will need to animate a gradient-material. Gradientmaterials are less not that well to handle and cant be positioned with the mouse-pointer (and cant effect several different objects) but they can be used at only one object. The best thing possible would be a materialeffector with a "material-effector-list" and one that could be specified like a boolen cutter, so that you could give it any kind of shape. With that it would be one of the most powerful tools... today it is very handy too, but we will see what can be done in future... I have written a report for that. *Fuchur* Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 24, 2010 Hash Fellow Posted April 24, 2010 Good looking lightning bolt! I agree that finding some way to make it pulse from the root to the tips is worth investigating. Quote
TheSpleen Posted April 24, 2010 Author Posted April 24, 2010 Very cool! It is very cool One thing it laggs so is a "material effector list" (so you can specify which objects are effected and which are not, like a Lightlist does for lights...) In these situation where you have to do that you will need to animate a gradient-material. Gradientmaterials are less not that well to handle and cant be positioned with the mouse-pointer (and cant effect several different objects) but they can be used at only one object. The best thing possible would be a materialeffector with a "material-effector-list" and one that could be specified like a boolen cutter, so that you could give it any kind of shape. With that it would be one of the most powerful tools... today it is very handy too, but we will see what can be done in future... I have written a report for that. *Fuchur* Would it be possible for you to take my model and show me an example? Right now I am about to pull a brain muscle taking this all in. LOL Gene Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 25, 2010 Posted April 25, 2010 Nice lightning. You should be able to use a gradient material and animate the translation. I'll play around with it and see what I can do. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 25, 2010 Hash Fellow Posted April 25, 2010 A spherical material might work well too. Quote
Gerry Posted April 25, 2010 Posted April 25, 2010 that material effector tute is really great! but your lightning bolt can be accomplished in a number of ways; animating a gradient is probably the *simplest*. EDIT: Hey Gene, it just occurred to me after watching your test mov's that you might search YouTube for videos of lightning flashes. Maybe you have already...but the way you have yours blinking on and off, I think there's more subtlety in the real thing if you want to refine it. The animated material would be the way to go. Quote
TheSpleen Posted April 25, 2010 Author Posted April 25, 2010 that material effector tute is really great! but your lightning bolt can be accomplished in a number of ways; animating a gradient is probably the *simplest*. EDIT: Hey Gene, it just occurred to me after watching your test mov's that you might search YouTube for videos of lightning flashes. Maybe you have already...but the way you have yours blinking on and off, I think there's more subtlety in the real thing if you want to refine it. The animated material would be the way to go. I am using a cartoon look basically so being completely realistic is not needed. using the three I have now randomly along with rain effects should be a great effect. The animated gradient I am deffinantly interested in. Hoping someone will take one of my models and show me how it looks. I am a bit confused but I am sure it is easy once you know how. Gene Quote
TheSpleen Posted April 25, 2010 Author Posted April 25, 2010 newvideo.mov the last strike I made it fade slower. newvideo2.mov Quote
Paul Forwood Posted April 25, 2010 Posted April 25, 2010 Your lightning looks great, Gene! More than good enough for a cartoon. Quote
TheSpleen Posted April 25, 2010 Author Posted April 25, 2010 Your lightning looks great, Gene! More than good enough for a cartoon. Thanks! I figure add in rain and flashes of light it should work pretty good. When I started this thread I had no idea what I was going to do to achieve a good effect. But looks like it will be ok. Still curious about material effecter. But I am quite pleased with results so far. And I posted 3 of my lightning models for anyone wanting them. Gene Quote
Fuchur Posted April 25, 2010 Posted April 25, 2010 Hi, this is an example with an material-effector and the lightening2-model. Hope this makes it clearer. See you *Fuchur* material_effector_example.prj Quote
TheSpleen Posted April 25, 2010 Author Posted April 25, 2010 Hi, this is an example with an material-effector and the lightening2-model. Hope this makes it clearer. See you *Fuchur* Thank you! but here is what I got when I rendered it out material.mov Quote
Fuchur Posted April 25, 2010 Posted April 25, 2010 Hm... seems to be a bug... I tried it and it works in Preview-Rendering (Progressiv / Green Button) but not in Final. I'll write a bug-report for that. You may try it with the material-possiblity... sorry. See you *Fuchur* Quote
TheSpleen Posted April 25, 2010 Author Posted April 25, 2010 never be sorry for helping! I am curious to see it work though. Quote
Fuchur Posted April 25, 2010 Posted April 25, 2010 never be sorry for helping! I am curious to see it work though. You can render it with the Progressiv-Rendering-Button. Just scrapp through the timeline to see the effect and use the Progressiv-rendering-Button. Only Final-Rendering (blue button) and render-to-file doesnt work. *Fuchur* Quote
John Bigboote Posted April 25, 2010 Posted April 25, 2010 Great effect, Spleenster! Today I check into the forum...lightning threads strike twice! Quote
jakerupert Posted April 26, 2010 Posted April 26, 2010 I enclose the project, where I did use a material effector for transparency succssesfully. Right click in chor > new effector , then create a material transparency 100 % and drag it ontop of the effector in PWS, then adjust the effector in chor, that it hides desired modelpart (arrow). (Not quite sure if it`s currently broken within AM though...) TransparentEffectorTest.prj ManniMan_UnternehmerN_Sor3_200.mov Quote
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