Force Lightning with After Effects 6.5 - Help Please

Hi All,

I have been going through the tutorial on "Force Lightning" at: http://www.geocities.com/pixelmagic2002/forcelightningtutorial.html

Has anyone else tried this and run into problems? I am unable to get the lightning to change colors by adjusting the levels on a particular layer (though I can do it if I add an effect to the composition itself). Also, when the tutorial talks about duplicating the layer, does it really mean duplicating the lightning effect? That's the only way I can get more than the 1 lightning bolt to appear. And, when it talks about masking, don't you need to animate the mask to show motion of the lightning bolts from origin to end? I am just a bit confused

Can anyone give any guidance on this? This forum seems like it is full of some seriously talented and helpful individuals, so I would really appreciate any direction. I am an older newb to all of this, and am hoping that you can teach an old dog new tricks

Scott

 

You know, you asked every question about that tutorial except the one everyone else asks (PS+Ripple), but I'm sorry I can't help. I have yet to tackle that effect. Someone else should have an answer, though. Good luck.

 

Make sure you are familiar with After Effects before you try that tutorial. I wrote it for people who have already done Ryan Wiebers's tutorials.

And yes, I did mean duplicate the layer. To get both lightning bolts to appear, change the transfer mode from Normal to Screen. Then both layers will appear.

And you don't need to animate the mask. The mask is just to produce the lightning energy coming out of the fingers.

I really should re-write that tutorial with After Effects 6.5 in mind. But I probably won't. I'm too lazy.

 

then ill write one using wave warp! which will be really hard...

 

Thanks for the EXCELLENT tutorial. I was being a dumbass while trying to do it. I finally re-read it, and realized I wasn't rendering my lightning. Once I did that, I was able to get it looking nice.

Thanks again!!

Scott