Making a physically realistic laser beam....

Artwork Focused Critiques
1

Here is one attempt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qr_qYaanCM
Its not very good at all…

Due to the physics of light scattering a laser beam should appear dimmer when viewed from the side and rapidly get brighter as your viewpoint moves to looking along the beam- ie the scattered light of the beam is peaked along the beam’s direction of travel…

So, when the camera views the beam from the side it should appear dim, as the camera line of sight becomes more along the beam it should get brighter… any ideas how to get that effect?

2

Well , you could use a halo material for the laser beam, and then have the alpha value change with the camera angle,

another thing, you can always see the particles in the beam path,

what type of laser are you going for? this is a plasma laser bloom,

Attachments

wrectifiedTurret.png960×540 113 KB

3

Well, Halo isnt an option in cycles… I am just trying to find a general way to make a laser behave more physically ‘real’ in my renders… Since I work with lasers for my day job it could be I am getting too up-tight and most viewers won’t care…