Hand touching Van de Graaf static electricity effect?

J_Mac wrote on 11/10/2003, 12:51 PM

When your hand approaches a Van de Graaf static electricity generator, 'lightning bolts' emit towards your finger tips. Any ideas on how to do this for a V4 project i.e., lightning coming from your fingertips? I have PE SE from Digit and no luck there. Thanks, John.

Comments

Grazie wrote on 11/10/2003, 1:08 PM

Others will knock me outta here - I don't care.

Go berserk with some Graph package . . .start being creative with lines and things . . get some pictures of real lighning . . . mix them about with each other . . .draw stuff on screen . . . colour and range stuff . . . make multiple pngs . . . layers and layers . . . you can do it, old style - yeah? Draw stuff and scan it in . . . lots and lots to do here . . if you've seen this "effect" grab and run away . . . if on a black background c/k out the backgound and make it transparent . . . lots and lots to do here . . Tell you what, if you where next to me here in London we'd have it sussed in a couple of hours . . . okay, there's bound to be a s/w package to do this . .BUT the creative thing and allowing you to learn more, would be the way to go . . . I'm listeniing . . go on get arty! You can do it!

Best regards,

Grazie

rcrawfor42 wrote on 11/10/2003, 1:41 PM

Take a look at AlamDV -- Google should be able to find the site. It's a cheap but effective rotoscoping package that has LOTS of lightning effects. They have a new version coming out Real Soon Now, but if you buy the current version you can upgrade for free.

farss wrote on 11/10/2003, 3:14 PM

Just a word of warning in case you try doing this as a practical shoot.
These things don't produce enough current to be a risk to humans unless you've got a dicky ticker but they could well be fatal to a camera.

Tesla coils produce some fairly spectacular lightening, do a search on the web, the guys building these monsters in their garages must be nuts. Next time your misses complains about the money you blow on video show her what these guys do for a hobby. I've yet to hear of anyone frying the cat or burining the house down editing video.