Arc Racer

[dwburman]

Here's a personal project I'm working on. These vehicles levitate on electric arcs. Why? How? I don't know. I just thought it'd be kind of cool.

[dwburman]

Here's the animation on YouTube. It should be HD but I guess it didn't get transcoded that way. The HQ version looks much better than the normal quality version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW7wgtORCwI

[lwanmtr]

arcs should be faster ot give it that electricity feel

[dwburman]

I do probably have to speed things up because there was a long time between initially looking at the reference footage and figuring out how to make the arc in LW.

I did a little looking around and found some good examples but so far I haven't found the video I was thinking of when I figured it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO7j5LKmd3I&feature=related

and on this video watch toward the end of clip when the electricity arcs to the ceiling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYRJmprLZkg&feature=related

I agree the arcs need more work but to me it looks like the arcs don't change shape as quickly when both ends are connected to something. If one end of the arc isn't touching anything it flails around rapidly.

Of course, this may be one of those situations where giving the audience what it expects to see is better than trying to copy reality. :)

Thank you for the crit. Do you see anything else that needs to be addressed?

[OnlineRender]

as for the model no !looks good ,maybe add procuderal texture in the afterburners , give it that raw power feeling , looks as if its a constant power ! can you make the lightining fork in different direction from the source ! seems to look as if the power only has 1 contact point , in where real lighting or energy forks and splits , but nice mate i like reminds me of wipeout !

[lwanmtr]

Be nice to see it with something other than a black background :)

[dwburman]

I do have an environment for the vehicles but I the last animation was just a test for the car rig. In fact, the car is just rocking in place. It's the reflection and lighting map that are moving (and wind blowing the sparks)

Here's the environment map:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MvsKo9ySbc

[lwanmtr]

Looks pretty good. get more reflection of the environment and it would look really cool. maybe some radiosity in there too :)