| Animated Lightning Show Any wants to share their lightning experiences? 
I have started with creating lightnings with Paint Shop Pro for a while now and so I thought maybe we could share some ideas of how it's made since everyone makes them differently. Here's one I made for myself. 
[text was edited by author 2002-02-02 21:13:17] |
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| I cheat and let PhotoImpact make mine.  |
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 CyberRagePremium,MVM
join:2001-03-21
Jasper, AL | reply to Meteor Dive
Cool. Needed a break from trying to make spool spin and have enough contrast to show up small.
Here's a quickie.
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CyberRagePremium,MVM
join:2001-03-21
Jasper, AL | reply to Meteor Dive
Was I suppose to give a description of how I made it?
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 ZupePremium,MVM
join:2001-11-29
New York, NY | CyberRage,
Since I know you use Photoshop and I have no clue how to do lightning, I'd be interested in knowing. |
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| reply to Meteor Dive
Lead on CyberRage. That's main the discussion here, it's all about lightnings |
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| »www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/···ing.html
»newdawn.gzinc.com/tutorials/lightning.html
Here were some two tutorials I used as reference making lightnings with Paint Shop Pro. There were more though |
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ValkyrePremium,ExMod 2002
join:2000-12-25
Valhalla | Thanks for those links Meteor Dive. I had no clue how to even make lightning. I can use these and then post my results in this thread tomorrow.
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CyberRagePremium,MVM
join:2001-03-21
Jasper, AL | reply to Meteor Dive
The easy way to make lightning in PhotoShop is to use the Difference Clouds filter. I'm sure everyone has probably played with Clouds and Difference Clouds filter making backgrounds or just making clouds.
This will look like a long drawn out procedure, but it's actually a quick task. You can make lightning in PhotoShop in about 20 seconds. Okay, let's give ourselves a minute to load PhotoShop and start a new image.
To make the lightning animation above I made a layer above the background. I set the foreground color to black and the background to white. On the new layer I used the Linear Gradient tool. I began the gradient in the middle of the image and dragged the tool to the right at a slight angle off vertical (about 86 to 87 degrees from horizontal) just so it would be a purely vertical stroke.
I then used the Difference Clouds filter on the gradient layer; click Filters then Render then Difference Clouds (just in case a PhotoShop beginner is reading. ) If you don't like what you see you can always hit Ctrl Z and try again. If you repeat the filter the results will get wilder. You won't see anything that looks exactly like lightning at this point. You look for the meandering black bands crossing through the clouds. (See example with this post.) The black bands are where your lightning will appear.
So, let's dig the lightning out of that mess. Click Image then Adjust then Invert. Ahhhh, there it is, those bright jagged lines in that foggy mess.
Since I was going to animate this stroke I stopped here to make some duplicates of that layer. I made five copies before I moved to the next step. I kept the original layer as a template just in case I needed more copies. After I had turned all of the new layers except the first copy off, I clicked Image then then Levels. Usually the graph will be pretty empty on the left side. Grab the black slider (that's the black triangle on the left side just under the graph) and pull it to the right until you see the results you want. The further to the right you go, the more defined the stroke becomes. If you want a slightly fuzzy stroke and end up with some small patch of leftover clouds, a black paint brush can fix that. Just paint over the patches you don't want in the final image.
If all you wanted to do is make lightning, you're done. You can leave it black and white or use one of the coloring techniques to make it what ever color you like. I usually add a layer over it, fill it with a color and then set the blending mode to Overlay or Color depending on the effect I want. You could also have skipped duplicating the layer if just making stationary image.
For the animation, I adjusted the levels until I had a well defined stroke. I then moved to the next duplicate layer. I adjusted levels to produce a wider stroke with more clouds surrounding the stroke. I did have to paint over two small cloud globs in the bottom right of the image. I then moved to the next duplicate layer and adjusted the levels until a lot of clouds were showing. Around the stroke the clouds were very bright and almost faded out at the left of the image. I moved to the fourth duplicate and adjust the levels a little differently. This time I went to the lower sliders and dialed in more white by sliding the left slider to the right until it was almost saturated with white but not quite. (That's again the black triangle on the lower slider bar in the Levels adjustment box.) So, I ended up not needing my template nor the fifth layer duplicate.
I turned off all of the layers except the first layer I adjusted with Levels. With that layer active, I added another layer, I used the Rectangular selection tool to select the lower two thirds of the image. I filled the selection with black. Turned the layer off. With the layer I just filled with black active (just click on a layer to make it active), I added another layer (on the layers palette, just click on the icon to the left of the trash can....second from the right in PS6). Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select the lower third of the image and filled that selection with black. I used these layers to make the lightning stroke drop from the top to the bottom of the screen.
All of the work in PhotoShop is finished. Send it to ImageReady and make the animation. To send your work to ImageReady, click on the right icon on the bottom of the tool palette (long bar on the left side of the screen).
If anyone wants to know the steps I took in ImageReady, let me know. You can load my animation in ImageReady and see the order I put the different layers we just made in PhotoShop into the animation. Started with a black screen, next frame turned on the well defined stroke and the mask I made when I filled two thirds of a layer with black. That allowed only the top of the stroke to be seen. Next I used the stroke and the lower third mask. I just stepped through my layers after that repeating the brightest once to give it a double flash.
I attached my psd file here so you can look at if if you like. I didn't need the template layer or the fifth copy. Should have deleted them but this was just a quickie.
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CyberRagePremium,MVM
join:2001-03-21
Jasper, AL | reply to Meteor Dive
Just in case anyone wants to see what the example in my previous post would look like finished.
The first pic is what it looks like when the image is inverted. You can begin to see the lightning stroke.
The second is after I adjusted the levels and added some color. I created a new layer above the lightning, filled it with a medium to light blue then set the blending mode of that layer to Color. You can get different effects by choosing different blending modes. Using something other than Linear Gradient at the beginning will offer different results. Experiment, have fun.
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Have beer? Will follow. |
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 jeffsulPremium
join:2001-05-15
Mobile, AL
| reply to Meteor Dive
Very cool, easy too.
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[text was edited by author 2002-02-03 08:40:42] |
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jeffsulPremium
join:2001-05-15
Mobile, AL | These are fun. |
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| reply to Meteor Dive
CO-05!!! |
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| Those tutorials I linked before were references I used and so I changed more of the look if lightning. I've been practicing it for about two weeks.
I also use the bright/contrast tool to brighten the lightning. What I did was outline the jagged line and inverted the selection so I can have control over the glowing outline of the lightning, thus I used the bright/contrast tool to brighten and, or, darken the lightning the way I wanted it. I played around with it and make some final touches if need
This animated one I made was done by brightening the glow and darkening the glow in every frame. Also use the opacity slider at times to make it fade. As for it's entrance, well I basically added another raster layer on top of the original, flood filled black. And I simply dragged that layer lower and lower, showing more of the lightning, for each frame to produce the trial in which the lightning travels. On this I only lowered it twice.
[text was edited by author 2002-02-03 17:04:43] |
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CyberRagePremium,MVM
join:2001-03-21
Jasper, AL | reply to Meteor Dive
Animating lightning is a new thing for me. I've made lightning, it just didn't move. I'm trying to pick up a few tips on timing and fading from Meteor.
Attempt number 2.
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CyberRagePremium,MVM
join:2001-03-21
Jasper, AL
| Hmmmm, does it not show because the file size is large?
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[text was edited by author 2002-02-03 19:19:47] |
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| Yeah, I'm not sure what the file size have to be to show but it seems that animated files has to be somewhere under 300k for it to display. |
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| Which is a good question, does anybody know what the file size have to be to present such animations? |
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CyberRagePremium,MVM
join:2001-03-21
Jasper, AL | reply to Meteor Dive
I'll try to keep that in mind. I guess if they want to see it they can click it.....not that there is anything great there to see.
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jeffsulPremium
join:2001-05-15
Mobile, AL | Must have been the file size. I liked it, nice animation.
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