what image should i use for a lightning particle?

bobtheturtle

HI, I was wondering what image I should use for a lightning particle? Should it be a circle of lightning? or what.

I am really new to particles and cant find much documentation on it.

thank you for your time

DeadlySeriousMedia

depends on the effect you want. Im fairly competent with making particles look perdy. if you can find a video or gif of the effect you are trying to create, and the style, i can prolly whip something up quickly. i love working with particles!

bobtheturtle

If you could whip something up real fast that would be awesome! I have been searching for tutorials on it, but I'm not having much luck at all.

DeadlySeriousMedia

Well, are you looking for a realistic lightning strike? Or more cartoony? Also, are you wanting the lighting to strike the ground or light up clouds?

Particles are really great at emulating nature because they can be set up randomly, however, you also have to be a bit precise for it to look right. So if you want to give me a bit me description on what the lighting should looks and act like I can throw something together. Even a google image search to find something close to what you are looking to make can help tremendously.

DeadlySeriousMedia

To answer the question easily. Use the image of the lightning you want. Play with the particle emitter count. Have is change colors from white to white transparent over a random period of time, say 0.3 to 1.5 secs. (just a guess) Have the x and y directional at random between0 and 0.2(this is a guess too, should give it a bit of a blur and shake, but not too much.) then have it run in a timer for however long you want the lightning to show up.

If you want it to strike random places and the object making the lightning change to a random x position every 'x' seconds.

LumpApps

I have a lightning template somewhere. Look dr. Ludwig evil eyes up on the app store. When you press the chickenhead buttons there is lightning. Is this what you want? I can post the template if you like. Send me a pm do I don't forget.

LumpApps

Here is the template (OSX 0.10.00): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21686348/Lump App Lightning.gameproj.zip
Have fun!

TesseractEngine

That lightning is awesome work, @LudwigHeijden! Great stuff.

LumpApps

Thanks. It takes some work to get multiple beams but it is possible. I've done it in some apps. (dr. Ludwig's evil eyes and Kung Fu Finger)