Comments

mjroddy wrote on 11/19/2005, 11:07 AM
I'd like to know a cool way too. But I'd like it more realistic.
The ways I know cost money:
Lightwave has a few methods of doing lightning.
Boris Red has an "electric" filter.
Cool 3D has some decent looking lightning, as I recall.
And, of course, there's always PhotoShop, After Effects and just about any paint program - if you're an artist.
farss wrote on 11/19/2005, 12:21 PM
The Vision series of loops from here includes one set of lightning, you'd need to manipulate it to get what you want.
Of course post isn't the place to start adding lightning, you might get a decent effect using a flash gun with red eye reduction turned on and just cut out the frame with the main flash. Once you've got the flashing lighting happening then you add the lightning bolts in post.
Bob.
ArthurDent wrote on 11/20/2005, 7:59 PM
Look in the Media Generators tab (in the lower left of the Vegas screen). Click on Noise Textures, then scroll down until you see one called..... Lightning!

I used it for an electrode effect, too.
xjasonxisxdeadx wrote on 11/21/2005, 12:42 AM
I actually decided to create some in photoshop. I'm not EXTREMELY artistic so I was hesitant at first. But please check them out. I would love to hear what you guys think. Feel free to use them if you like them.

I created them in Vegas 5.0

http://www.geocities.com/midnightunknown/lightning.zip
farss wrote on 11/21/2005, 2:15 AM
Looks OK to me, there's plenty of pictures of lighning on the web to get you started, dare I suggest you could even 'borrow' a bit of video of it from somewhere, preferably NOT someones stock footage that they deserve to get paid for.
A simple luminance key will then isolate the lightning. The tricky part isn't the lightning, it's simulating the way it lights things up.

BTW, you could just create the images in PS with alpha transparency and avoid having to key them.

Bob.
xjasonxisxdeadx wrote on 11/21/2005, 2:32 AM
i'm not all that great with photoshop. This is what I finally got to work. It is actually perfect for what I needed. It didn't have to be realistic lightning. Just something cartoonish and "scary" like this.

In photoshop I couldn't get it to save as a gif with transparency. there wasn't an option. and as soon as I "flattened" the image I lost the transparent background. what was I doing wrong?

thanks
TorS wrote on 11/21/2005, 3:13 AM
I tried to shoot real lightning in a thunderstorm once. I learnt that this in one shoot where you do NOT use autofocus. It went wild.
Tor
farss wrote on 11/21/2005, 5:11 AM
Don't know about gif, I only use png which works with Vegas and supports transparency.
Bob.
J_Mac wrote on 11/21/2005, 6:40 AM
Look at this. Has lightning and many others. John.

http://fxhome.com/
FuTz wrote on 11/21/2005, 7:30 AM
Like farss said, I'd go with PNG file too for transparency.If you have some shading or gradual fades into your design (ie not just straight , plain uniform lines - vectors) GIF will not give you the same quality as PNG, even with dithering cranked up. PNG is told to be very Vegas-friendly also.
At least, it's what I've experienced so far with this whole thing.
MUTTLEY wrote on 11/21/2005, 10:23 AM
And there's no need to flatten the image, Vegas supports Photoshop files so just save it as a PSD and you'll have your transparency. What Vegas doesn't support is Photoshop's layers, so if you have some layers on or off you will only see the ones that we're on when you saved it. I haven't yet found a need to save as anything but PSD.

- Ray

www.undergroundplanet.com
FuTz wrote on 11/21/2005, 1:53 PM
...even quicker!

Never tried the PSD way, having the impression it would be "heavy" to manage but I realise I was naive thinking this way... especially after -even- reading a few posts throughout time where people said Vegas handeled these files very easily.
: )
winrockpost wrote on 11/21/2005, 3:29 PM
After effects, simple , million ways to adjust it.