How do I make laser fire come out of a ship.

[Pizza Time]

laserbeam.mdlHEY HEY HEY !!!!

Its your favorite slice of pizza! Yummy 

Hey guys I was wondering. What are some ways I can make laser fire come  out of a starship. I'm trying to make Mutiple shots come out of the cannon of the starship it seems like a headache. Check out the zip file "Rwing attack mode" for my progress any help would be great!Please any  method that can be  less of a headache would be nice thank you all! 

this what I would like.

Rember Pizza is good on Friday!!!!!

Rwing attack mode.zip laserbeam.mdl laserball.mdl Rwing attack mode.cho rwingdemo.mdl

[Rodney]

The only thing you seem to be missing is Ambiance Color and Ambiance Intensity on the lasers.

 

You could also add glow but for the most part those two will get the job done.

They can be animated too to change color and intensity.

The transparency can also make them more (or less) intense.

 

You might want to keep the lasers independent of the spaceships as then they can move independently and in straight lines as lasers usually do and you really only need two keyframes to animate the lasers... starting point and end.

 

You've got this!

[Rodney]

As for the duplicate lasers/massive firepower...

There are always mutliple ways to do things.

The most direct might be to just use the Duplicate option to quickly duplicate the lasers.

Then it might just be a matter of staggering the animation in the Choreography to get them timed and spaced.

 

[Rodney]

There are so many ways to do lasers.

How to do it without making it overly complicated... now there's the question.

We could use:

Multiple models

Material Effects

Boolean Cutters (to make lasers models appear)

Patch images

Layers

Action Objects

Odd approaches such as using Hair

Objects on paths

Particles!

Lights!

Let me stop there for a moment because Lights might be the way to go.

Why?  Because they can easily be placed, animated, turned on/off, brightened, and they can have Lens Flair and effects applied to them.

 

Hmmm...

[Rodney]

This is not an great example but I think just creating some models (even if only flat shaped) and overlaying those on top of your shot could be the quickest way to success.  Then you just place the control points for the laser beams where you want them and animate where you need them to be.

 

All this to suggest the shot will dictate the approach.

 

Doing some simple placement such as in a model overlay however will allow precision without the setup becoming overly complicated.

Then once placed and animated you can get as fancy with the look and feel of it as you need.

 

[robcat2075]

I recall we discussed laser blasts at a previous LAT...

https://forums.hash.com/topic/53007-blaster-pistol-blast/

 

[Pizza Time]

Thank you,this helps alot