So I’m making a video with spaceships in it. Lasers are necessary and I’d like it so I could make lasers shoot out from the ship but I don’t want a constant stream. How should I do that?
I’d probably model the beams or bolts as cylindrical meshes with high emit values and maybe do some blurring, flaring, and motion blurring in the composite nodes.
You know, these are the sort of things that are probably done most easily in 2d using something like After Effects. Far too often I see 3D artists doing tons of work when they could have had great results much faster by going 2D (and vise-versa).
I agree, but AE is a little expensive for a hobbyist. Any suggestions in the Open Source world? (I’m on Windows, so that rules out CinePaint for now, but I’m hoping!)
CinePaint is for mac? what is it? and I don’t have AE. Could I make some kind of controllable particle system?
Hmm great point ammusionist. I’m just used to thinking about the tools in my set that I forget sometimes!
I can’t think of any open source program off the top of my head that would work well. Cinepaint can certainly be used if you’re not on windows but it doesn’t have a lot of animation friendly abilities. It’s pretty much a ‘paint every frame by hand’ scenario. Since we’re not dealing with high dynamic range film you could use the GIMP to do frame by frame painting. For a laser beam this would be relatively easy since there would be very few frames and the effect simplistic.
I know some people who don’t want to buy After Effects go for the software package(s) available at fxhome.com. They’re pretty inexpensive (comparatively) and rather useful. Their “Effects Lab” software sells for $110 (lite version) and $150 (full version). It’s not open source but it might be worth looking into.
Re particle system: Yes most likely! That was my thought as well (using After Effects). I’m not familiar enough with blender to know what is and is not possible with its built in particles.
You can use SpotLamps set to Halo and stick IPO’s on the Intensity and Distance values. Just render the first three frames here to see Dist:
http://uploader.polorix.net//files/111/LazerLamps.blend
You’ll probably have to jazz it up in Nodes to get some glow though.
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There is a common technique used in Lightwave, I don’t know if it will work in Blender.
You use the Gimp or other 2D program to make a texture with a ragged horizontal laser beam, from extreme left to extreme right, centered midway between the top edge and the bottom. The beam is colored, but the non-beam part of the texture is set to be transparent (using the Alpha channel). The image is saved as PNG, Targa, or other format that preserves the alpha channel.
In Blender, you make an elongated rectangle to contain the beam, or beam bolt segment. You map the texture to the rectangle so that the beam image is along the long axis of the rectangle.
You then use the spin dup tool to make duplicates of the rectangle, spun around the long axis. The result is a ragged edge laser bolt that is sort of dimensional.
You can use the same technique to make a tear drop shaped photon torpedo.
Again, I don’t know how well this works in Blender.
Go to
http://www.mohhs.com/lw/pdf/
click on the image with the laser beams
I would think the particle system could do something like that
I think that, all things considering, I am seriously agreeing with the folks who are saying, “why don’t you do this in two-dee?”
“Almost categorically,” I think I could say that boatloads of folks think that the finished shots which they see in the movies “emerged from the foam of the sea fully formed, like Venus.” (Well, not “like Venus,” but fully-formed anyway … 
) 'Tisn’t so.
The actual world of visual effects production realizes that, no matter how much computer resources you have, it isn’t “enough.” And anyhow, ultimately what you do not have is time.
Let’s face it: no matter how wizardly that CG-geek may be, the odds are still “not good” that the shot which s/he just spent XX-hours on will be “ready to go ‘in the can’” … therefore, the odds are (unfortunately!) “very good” that all of those XX-hours will have been totally wasted. Therefore, given that “the deadline” has not moved, how do you stack the deck in your favor?
Answer: you “cheat.” In fact, you “cheat” like hell! 
You stop looking for the “best” way to get “the necessary arrangement of pixels” and you start looking for the “cheapest, safest” one that gives you the greatest number of options. Three-Dee is expensive, Two-Dee is cheap. Both work just as well.
start looking for the “cheapest, safest” one that gives you the greatest number of options. Three-Dee is expensive, Two-Dee is cheap.
Blender is cheap, AfterEffects is (comparatively) expensive. You can set up glowing animated cylinders in about five minutes in Blender, and that’s just the first, simplest option that came to my mind. Blender gives plenty more options as others have pointed out.
At the end of the day, what you do depends on how you want your “lasers” to look. If you want them to have depth or dimension (like Star Wars lasers or light sabers) you’ll want 3D. If you just want glowing lines, frankly that’s pretty darn easy in 3D too, and animating things moving through 3D space accurately is always going to be easier in 3D.
It’s all well and good to say “it’s easy in 2D” but if you say that, you should also explain exactly how it would be done that would be easier than just slapping it together in Blender in 3D.
Make a simple cylinder parented to the the ship (scaled to zero along it’s length, an octagonal one will work fine), set smooth, add an object ID, a basis key, a shape key, tab into edit mode and scale it really long, tab back out to set the key, process a selective glow effect in the nodes vi the ID mask node, blur, etc… 2 to 3 minutes max.
Edit: If you can’t accept the jaggies associated with the object ID mask then just create a separate render layer that only contains the laser and use the alpha channel from that render layer as your mask source.
At the end of the day, what you do depends on how you want your “lasers” to look. If you want them to have depth or dimension (like Star Wars lasers or light sabers) you’ll want 3D. If you just want glowing lines, frankly that’s pretty darn easy in 3D too, and animating things moving through 3D space accurately is always going to be easier in 3D.
You make some valid points but your information isn’t quite correct. Star wars lightsabers, laser guns, and other visual effects ARE done in 2D.
Granted, After Effects is rather expensive and not many people have it. My point is a general one and presumes perhaps too much. My main point is that some tasks are easily done in 2D while others are best left to 3D. The real magic happens when you combine their strengths. Compositing is a field where many render specific effects are often left to the compositor because they can be faked easier and faster than they can be rendered while still providing good results.
Star wars lightsabers, laser guns, and other visual effects ARE done in 2D.
I assume you’re talking about recent episodes (that is, since the dawn of 3DCG). If so, I have to say, I’m slightly suprised. Things like General Grievous’s swinging lightsabers seem to me much easier to accomplish in 3D, but I admit that I don’t actually know the details of how these effects were done… I guess I better go watch some DVD extras…
I do agree with the general point that the best way to do things is the simplest and most effective combination of 2D and 3D. So I think with something like lasers it really depends on what you want your lasers to do.
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With regard to the lightsabers, a big, big difference is whether you’re working with underlying video footage or not. If you’ve got video of somebody fighting with sticks, then making the sticks glow like lightsabers is definitely 2D work. The original poster seemed to want lasers in an all CG scene, which is a different kettle of fish, IMO.
here is what I got by using dupliverts in the particle system. I first had 2 points and subdivided alot them and then used the halo. I then went into thenodes and blured them to get that glow on the outside
The original poster seemed to want lasers in an all CG scene, which is a different kettle of fish, IMO.
Ah great point. In that respect I’m honestly not sure. I’ll have to see if I can dig something up on that now. I’m really curious!
