VFXHack Reference Guide: Lightning
There are certain stock visual effects that I’m asked to create over and over again for multiple projects. Creating realistic lightning seems to be one of those things that never goes out of style. If you ever need a shove in the right direction here is some of the reference footage I use most often when starting a project like this
The Real Deal
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY-AS13fl30&NR=1[/youtube]
To get lightning right, you have to look at the subtleties. A good charge has just the right amount of randomness and flow. My favorite reference of the real thing is this big-ass Tesla coil in Oklahoma. Yee-haw!
The Prestige
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOdtR_s9Yjw[/youtube]
Speaking of Tesla, this shot of Bowie walking under the coil is the best example of lightning I’ve come across in recent years. It looks organic and has a great sense of depth to it. That is hard to achieve since the bots themselves have no shading. Subtle differences in the thickness and amount of glow in the bolts realy help this shot out. Interactive lighting at the contact points is key.
Big Trouble In Little China
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2qyeZw9KaM[/youtube]
Now I’m a sucker for hand drawn lightning. In fact I’ve never seen a software solution that looks as good as an animator creating it the old fashioned way, painting it frame by frame. In this clip from the John Carpenter classic, check out the way the bolts contour around body. You just can’t do that with a plug-in. One major drawback to the hand drawn method is that if the client comes up with changes, the frames need to be painted all over again.
Star Wars Episode 6: Return of the Jedi
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsl7bVmLnMw[/youtube]
In my opinion this is the granddaddy of all lighting VFX shots. The lightning looks hella-angry and the smaller discharges on Luke between burst really make you feel the charcge. The illuminated Vader skeleton is just icing on this delicious electric cake. One thing still bothers me though. Would it have killed Yoda to say “Oh, yeah and watch out the emperor shoots lightning out of his fingers so don’t put down your light saber or anything.” before he kicked the bucket?
January 10th, 2008 at 1:06 am
Uh lightning in Jedi? Hmmm No. Check the interactive light on DV and the emperor but none on the guy being hit, Luke. Plus it is rather “thick” animation (size and style) The Big Trouble work is much better as is the work in Poltergeist. But I prefer Toho Style Yellow randomly spewing from KingGhidorah’s 3 Heads, as bad ass as it gets; or anything coming out of any Markalite type device, and of course if you really want to see how it’s done go study DISNEY. I believe most of the hand animated work in Big Trouble (and probably Jedi as well) is pencil on paper in some cases shot through opal plex ( Multi pass back lit style), sometimes on High Con or B&W stock. It was usually an element and colored with filters in front of the lens when photographed or on the optical printer when composited later. And as far as Granddaddy(not counting Josh Meador or the other Disney FX animators, or the incredible Italians working for Fleisher) , well in the US, that would be the late Adam Beckett, Check his animation of the lightning on R2D2 in StarWars and see the mystic letter that appears right before the animation fades off (at least in the original version. I believe he was responsible for the Animation design and very influential). There is also some nice very real looking electrical animation in STTMP that looks like it is real high freq. tesla discharge. And some of it actually is.