[video tutorial] force lightning, Dooku style

Hey there,
it's me again. I know there's been released a number of force lightning tutorials on these boards already, but I did not really check out all of them and the ones I've seen didn't exactly give the results I personally prefer, that's why I made my own now. I am always trying to go for something like Dooku's force lightning in AotC, so I tried to cover that look in the tutorial.

I'd like you guys to have a look at it and let me know two things:

1. what you think about the method / result itself, of course.
2. what you think about the tutorial "style". I know my english is not very pleasant, but I'm doing my best. However, since I am making my video tutorials to put them on Youtube from the start, I am struggling with the very small size of the video. I don't have webspace on my own so I could host a hiRes-version permanently, and I don't even want to because I think Youtube is the fastest, most accessable and most intuitive platform right now to share my videos. So let me know if my kinda pan and zoom-experiment in this tutorial turned out OK or if it's too confusing.


So, long story short, here's the video and I hope that you'll let me know what you think about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra22K7-akns


All my video tutorials (both of the two) can be found on the website mentioned in my signature if anyone wants to safe them.
Thanks for your attention.

 

It's fine to point out a set of filters that produce the appearance of an arc with the undulations you like, but I think the tutorial would be more effective if it was actually used to achieve a decent composite. I would suggest trying to fit this into a shot or even a single frame with some perspective, in order to see how well you can integrate the effect.

In my personal experience this animation and integration step is much more of the effect than your 'tutorial' would give it credit for.

-Spiff

 

Yeah, but that would have been a different story as well; one that I wouldn't have been able or liked to cover in the like 2 minutes I had left if I didn't want this tutorial to be split into multiple parts again. Of course I've already tried to comp that kind of lightning into actual footage and I was happy with the result. But then again, I am not as much into that linear grading and bit stuff as you are, but we've just talked about that anyway.

P.S.: Also note that the purpose of this tutorial is not to impress you pros around here, but to help newcomers who can't really think of a way to customize the look of their lightning to their likings.

 

All I'm suggesting is that you show the result. It's really hard to know if an effect tutorial is worthwhile without the finished product.

-Spiff

 

Kaat, I had been working on a new force lightning tutorial which is almost identical to yours. But I like some of your methods better. If you would allow it, I can make a secondary tutorial to go with yours, but I'll give you full credit for the lightning technique. I can shoot some real footage to put it in, however. Let me know what you think.

Most excellent work.

 

That should be fun.

I have to agree with Spiff on this one. I was actually waiting for an end result composited on footage. Good tutorial none-the-less.

 

Sounds great to me, especially when I consider that you will probably be able to provide something with higher quality and resolution than what I can offer on Youtube. Just go ahead and do your tutorial, and let us know when it is done.

Now that I think about it, I understand where you guys are coming from with the lack of an actual result. It's indeed kinda weird that after doing the whole lightning on a black background and showing what it looks like when it's finished, I show you another render of that kind instead of something with live action footage. Hm, I admit I didn't think of that.
Also, I guess I was just a bit lazy. When I tried to composite that lightning into some footage, I added it to a still image to see how it interacts with real footage in general, and into a Star Wars-clip to see how well it goes with a clip with the looks of Episode III. Both satisfied me, so I didn't bother rendering them out, unfortunately. So, yeah, I guess I'll have to capture some footage on my own like next week or such and maybe make a short fx-test with that lightning that I can post as a video response for this tutorial. When people stumble across my tutorials, they often check out some of my other stuff as well, so that might work.

However, PixelMagic's tutorial will probably become what you're looking for. Thanks for the comments and advice so far, everyone.

 

there's advanced lighting in CS3?
I don't remember that...

 

It has since it's implementation not be gone you know.... CS3 definitely has it

 

Yah, sorry, i completely missed it...it was up in the A's...stupid me. (not that I was actually looking for it until now)

 

Hmmm, it's a weird method and I'm not sure if I like it or not...

People used to complain about the normal lightning filter in AE and said it was too wavy and uppy-downy (how else do you put that??), and this tutorial is kind of replicating that, but with more randomness if you get what I mean.
Also, the endpoints shouldn't be fixed to one position. More randomness = better in this case.

But on to your aim, I think you've almost replicated the Dooku lightning. Since that was what the tutorial was for, I'll have to say very nice job overall. Oh and by the way, the screen flying around works... Don't fret about that too much.

 

Hey there,
sorry for digging this up again, but I didn't feel like making another thread just for this.

I made a new little video tutorial for interactive lighting. It's not a perfect method, but it's supposed to give you an idea how to start on this effect. Especially for those folks who are a bit new to this whole digital effects stuff and keep asking me about that IL clip I posted months ago in the lightsaber effects thread.

Tell me what you think. I'd really appreciate ratings from 1 to 10, where 1 is "pretty awesome" and 10 is "badass butt-kicking awesome". Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9jytRrOgpo

 

Really good, Kaat. That's more or less the same way I do my interactive lighting.

 

Yeah, I'll be using that method in the near future. For 'sabers, you're essentially roto'ing your movie twice, but w/ a good difference if you take your time.

I'm glad he at least mentioned you can use the IL method when adding explosions, too. That's one really good way of getting the stock footage method to look pretty good. Too often I see gun flares or explosions that are in the right place, keyframed, comp'ed and all, but there's no ambiance to them.
It helps.

-Vaportrail