Quote - Grrrrrrr....

On second thought, if I could change this to green, it might work....

maybe a whacky idea but theres a free posable rope knocking about somewhere

maybe with ur nice green shader u can get the aim and the wavy looking good

Quote - maybe a whacky idea but theres a free posable rope knocking about somewhere

maybe with ur nice green shader u can get the aim and the wavy looking good

Hmmmm, not so whacky if you think outside the box. There may be some merit to it.

Another thought this brings to mind is using the ray blast from a couple different Star Wars-type props I've collected.

Thank you for spawning a new thought process!

Which version of Poser are you using, and is your computer 32bit or 64bit?

I can generate a seamlessly-looped AVI of lightning on a black background, which can be used as a transmap.  For the prop, you could use a billboard, but maybe a capped cylinder would be better.  Does it need to be poseable?

I am using Poser 8 on a 32-bit. It should be posable because I will be animating him using his powers on bad guys and other things.

I am toying with the idea of him using his power in a Green Lantern type fashion, only not as advanced (it won't morph into a giant hand et al, but will lift an armoured truck).

Thank you for the offer!

OK.  I can make such a thing, but it will take a bit of time to get it all done.  I can post progress reports.

Interesting subject. I look forward to seeing what you end up with.

Quote - Interesting subject. I look forward to seeing what you end up with.

As do I.

On a side note, I attempted to morph out the naval yesterday. Didn't turn out too bad, but I don't know how to save it so I can use it later.

I am also embarassed by the fact that I don't know how to save my second skin texture for my hero... oh, what a life...

would say it easier to save your guy as a new character, then u have the second skin loaded and the morph ready for when u need him

or if u made the morph in a modeler then u need to load the morph target (the obj file u made) from the properties tab, to save the second skin ?? guess u have it saved but want to apply it in one go ?? if so make a mat pose file for it

Quote - would say it easier to save your guy as a new character, then u have the second skin loaded and the morph ready for when u need him

or if u made the morph in a modeler then u need to load the morph target (the obj file u made) from the properties tab, to save the second skin ?? guess u have it saved but want to apply it in one go ?? if so make a mat pose file for it

Thank you! I will do that! The texture and morphs were all done in Poser, so I will just save him as Green Lightning. Makes it easier to use him later, I think.

I did a quick (about 4 hours total time) render of him shooting a lightning bolt. It's kind of cool, but not really what I am looking for.

It's on YouTube at the link below if you want to see it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcIzaStkpfI

hour render for a secs vid reminds me why I dont do it much ;-) lol

looks pretty good to me , not sure why it starts in left hand an moves to right but sorta know its charging up so nice one, keep trying if its not what you want but what u got aint so shabby! well done

Thanks! I was going for that charging effect. But I don't think I will use it once I get going on the real thing. Takes too much time, making his power useless in battle. So...

I am patiently waiting to see what seachnasaigh comes up with...

progress report:  modeling done, consisting of a capped tube with an inner layer added.  This has been UV mapped by "unwrapping" and flattening it.  Model was then rigged as an "EZ-Posed" figure. 

Currently doing material IDL test renders.

Oh, snap.  I have an unneeded extra material zone.  Anyone remember how to remove that?  I don't see specific mat zones named in the cr2. 

Do you want the animation to show a beam starting from his hand, firing outward, then leaving his hand to finally arrive at the target?  If so, then I shouldn't use a seamless loop, but rather a conventional start-run-stop sequence.

interesting project! the material zones are in your obj file. if you've got a separate obj then running it thru uvmapper should remove the useless zones. if you've got geom custom in your cr2 then i'm not sure how you handle it. someone smarter will have to answer that one.

Quote - Do you want the animation to show a beam starting from his hand, firing outward, then leaving his hand to finally arrive at the target?  If so, then I shouldn't use a seamless loop, but rather a conventional start-run-stop sequence.

Would it be too much to ask for both? Opens up many more doors to it's usage, i.e. does he wanna shoot a short blast at someone, or completely fry them with a continuous stream of electricity.

Quote - Do you want the animation to show a beam starting from his hand, firing outward, then leaving his hand to finally arrive at the target?  If so, then I shouldn't use a seamless loop, but rather a conventional start-run-stop sequence.

No. I am looking more for something along the lines of the Sith power. But also something close, but not too close, to Green Lantern. When he fires his bolts, they stay connected to him, like in the animation I did.

I can't wait to see what you did. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas day!

Quote - > Quote - Do you want the animation to show a beam starting from his hand, firing outward, then leaving his hand to finally arrive at the target?  If so, then I shouldn't use a seamless loop, but rather a conventional start-run-stop sequence.

 

Would it be too much to ask for both? Opens up many more doors to it's usage, i.e. does he wanna shoot a short blast at someone, or completely fry them with a continuous stream of electricity.

Like I said, I want to leave the lightning attached to his hand, but control how long he emits it.

Aubrey looks really cool, btw. I didn't get a chance to post in your thread when you unveiled it.

Quote - interesting project! the material zones are in your obj file. if you've got a separate obj then running it thru uvmapper should remove the useless zones. if you've got geom custom in your cr2 then i'm not sure how you handle it. someone smarter will have to answer that one.

     The OBJ is separate, though not in geometries - it's right beside the cr2.  I opened it in UV Mapper;  it shows only the two intended mat zones, so I figured the extraneous mat zone is either in the cr2 or in the pz3.  

I already have a continual lightning blast AVI made;  I can generate another which will start-run-stop, so that you'll have both.

Even with the seamlessly looped SFX, I would think you'll want to start and stop the effect.  The simplest way is to render the animation in three sections:  pre-blast, during blast, and post-blast.  But if you want to be able to render the whole animation in one continuous session, the movie can be switched off/on/off in the material room.  I'll set this up in case the feature is wanted;  you can use the simplified mat if you don't need the switching.  TinkerBell is busy doing mat render tests,  so in lieu of the lightning mat, here are marked screen shots showing how it's done.  These are old shots;  I won't have the "reflection light mult" box ticked.  The reason for the "jump movie past the first loop" node is that Poser drops a frame the first time around.

.

Quote - Thanks! I was going for that charging effect. But I don't think I will use it once I get going on the real thing. Takes too much time, making his power useless in battle. So...

I am patiently waiting to see what seachnasaigh comes up with...

I like the charging effect but I would start it from his chest/heart area and have it channel down whichever arm he's firing. Starting from the left hand as the charge source doesn't make as much sense to me.

Hmmm.  To do that, we could overlay the second skin material with a conditional (only appears where a discriminator map shows) ambient.  Else, we could use a low-poly envelope (conformed to the doll) so that the charge has depth.  The tricky part would be getting the animated charging effect to go where needed as determined by the doll (or envelope) template.

     This envelope is an EZ-Posed tube terminating in an upper-body figure, for Posette:

Quote - > Quote - Thanks! I was going for that charging effect. But I don't think I will use it once I get going on the real thing. Takes too much time, making his power useless in battle. So...

I am patiently waiting to see what seachnasaigh comes up with...

I like the charging effect but I would start it from his chest/heart area and have it channel down whichever arm he's firing. Starting from the left hand as the charge source doesn't make as much sense to me.

Yeah, I was just trying to fill up frames, so I got carried away. I may not use it at all, or if I do, it will be a very rapid charge down the arm he is firing with.

Quote - Hmmm.  To do that, we could overlay the second skin material with a conditional (only appears where a discriminator map shows) ambient.  Else, we could use a low-poly envelope (conformed to the doll) so that the charge has depth.  The tricky part would be getting the animated charging effect to go where needed as determined by the doll (or envelope) template.

     This envelope is an EZ-Posed tube terminating in an upper-body figure, for Posette:

I like what you are doing so far. No need to get too complicated with it yet. A straight forward lightning effect that draws continuously from his arm until I stop it is perfectly acceptable.

You are saving me hours of work. One because I would have to learn what you are doing and I don't have a clue where to start. And two, doing all this in post work and getting any consistancy takes away the cool effects in lieu of something I can repeat over and over again.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your work.

wow never knew you could control a movie from the mat room

thanx for the tips ;-)

Quote - wow never knew you could control a movie from the mat room

thanx for the tips ;-)

This is turning into one of the coolest threads I have ever started...

This is so cool, I just have to share it. My character's alter ego transforming into Green Lightning. As I stated on YouTube, I am not sure about the glowing eyes. Man this guy is going to be fun to animate once I have all my ducks in a row...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgpRScaTdQ8

Nice!

I'd run the animation faster, but certainly looks like a nice effect :)

Nice.  When I read the first post the first idea that came to me for lightning coming from his hand was to grow a couple of strands of hair from his palm but it's been so long since I've used that feature.  Don't know if it would work right or not.  :)

nice work !!

Thanks all. The more I work with him, the more I like what I can do. I am excited now to get things going. I can't wait to see what that lightning prop is going to look like...

Quote - Nice.  When I read the first post the first idea that came to me for lightning coming from his hand was to grow a couple of strands of hair from his palm but it's been so long since I've used that feature.  Don't know if it would work right or not.  :)

I am not sure if I would even know how to do that. Besides, it springs to mind an old joke about boys and hairy palms... :blushing:

one might mention that these luminous posersurfaces can emit 1 or 2 orders of magnitude more light (without forcing their own surfaces to flare out to white) if the ambient colour channel is connected to either a single colour hdri (32-bit) or some other more complex hdri.  however, this may receive more publicity after poser 9 and poser pro 2012 are released.  it also pertains to tony's thread where he erroneously increased GI Intensity to 5X, but I dunno if he used a procedural as his flame colour.

Quote - one might mention that these luminous posersurfaces can emit 1 or 2 orders of magnitude more light (without forcing their own surfaces to flare out to white) if the ambient colour channel is connected to either a single colour hdri (32-bit) or some other more complex hdri.  however, this may receive more publicity after poser 9 and poser pro 2012 are released.  it also pertains to tony's thread where he erroneously increased GI Intensity to 5X, but I dunno if he used a procedural as his flame colour.

That's good to know. I was just introduced to hdri in another thread I started. I am still learning how to use the materials room, but I am getting better at more at ease with it all the time.

Now I am tackling Blender...

Hmmmmm....

http://www.blenderguru.com/how-to-create-a-lightning-storm/

A pretty good reason for me to learn Blender, I'd say.

I am thinking about adding a cape. I know what Edna Mode of the Incredibles thinks of capes, but I reallly think I need to add one to the costume.

Pros and Cons?

I have a couple pics I made while I was trying to design the costume. They are just renders of Simon DEV that I colored over with markers. But they do show my idea for the cape.

Quote - I am thinking about adding a cape.

For best results, make it dynamic;  assign a strip of vertices at the neck to the constrained group, and all the rest to the dynamic group.

     I've been on duty for the last 24hrs, but this what I've got done:

Dual-layer EZ-posed tube, "unwrapped" UV mapping.

     I also have a seamlessly looped AVI of lightning and just finished another lightning

AVI which has linear behavior (begins, surges forward, dies away).

     I still need to set up the start-stop control mat.  I'll try to remember to rename the nodes so that you know what each node is doing.  And then  to pack a zip.

     Important note for those on 64bit systems:  an AVI compressed with a standard codec will not work if your computer is 64bit.  If you have any of the currently available versions of Poser on a 64bit system and want to use this effects model, in lieu of an AVI I can make a matrix which will work on 64bit systems.

Very, very nice. Do you need my email address or how do I get it when it's ready?

As far as the cape goes, I am going to make it attach to his shoulder blades Roman style. I will upload the pics I made tomorrow so you can see what I am talking about. It's going to be my inaugural Blender project. And if that works out, I may try to make a cowl with only eyes in it for another character I created years ago...

Quote - Oh my god, I am having too much fun with this... :biggrin: :blushing:

There's no such thing as too much fun in Poser!

Quote - > Quote - Oh my god, I am having too much fun with this... :biggrin: :blushing:

 

There's no such thing as too much fun in Poser!

I know, but up til now, I was trying to figure out what I wanted out of it. And now I know, so striving toward that goal has kicked new life into me. And the muse has hit me...

Quote -
I am not sure if I would even know how to do that. Besides, it springs to mind an old joke about boys and hairy palms... :blushing:

Oh trust me, I thought of that too.  :)

OT, is that you  in your avatar?

My daughter at Sea World in San Diego....

Quote -      Important note for those on 64bit systems:  an AVI compressed with a standard codec will not work if your computer is 64bit.  If you have any of the currently available versions of Poser on a 64bit system and want to use this effects model, in lieu of an AVI I can make a matrix which will work on 64bit systems.

There are codecs available to address this issue. Try thoosje.com for 64 bit Win 7 codecs. I am using one I got there a few months back with no issues. Solved Poser and Vue problems for me. Sorry to interupt but I've seen lots of folks with avi issues on 64 bit systems. Myself included and it took a long time before I could solve them. Thought this might help.

Thank you for the 64bit codec info, parkdalegardener.

The 4shared file hosting site is still refusing to complete uploads.  I uploaded the zip to R'osity's free stuff area;  it will take some time before they approve and post it.