Volumetric Light Laser

[MartinSax]

Hi all,

I'm trying to put together something like a X-Wing Laser Bolt a put it through a creation using Volumetrics Lights, so its a FX Emitter, emitting Volumetric Light bolts. I wondering if anyone had any advance on this to allow for further luminosity ideas? or any external input/tips/ideas perhaps i havent thought of.

LW2020

Something like this below, although i know this is green.



Many thanks,

 

[MartinSax]

This is the original picture

 

[prometheus]

You are describing with words volumetric light´s, but with the image shown you describe volumetric Item, o not the same.

I did some experimental test with using volume items to simulate more local volume effect with emission channels...
Using volume item none mode to create glow effect, lensflare extra effects, volumetric light per light effects, nebs etc. | NewTek Forums

Samples were made with pure sphere types though, so you could try out with a box, or a cone, or why not a special mesh, with volumetric material components.
It´s that or true lights with texture effects applied on to them, or go back to the old way of doing it with a kind of x-shaped poly mesh and incident gradients and glow effects.

using simpler geometry the ol way, and post process glow is probably the most render efficient way though, rather volume light´s or volume item with high scatter or emission values.

 

[prometheus]

Dplights could also be something to check out...
Lights (pagesperso-orange.fr)

Still needs glow though.
With volume light´s or volume items.. you don´t need additional glow, though you could..but if you need it directly you could use that at the expensive of more costly rendertimes.

 

[prometheus]

using pure global scatter and lights with the high anisotrophy needed, I would think it will be extremely slow to render and solve noise for.
So again, propably just geometry with high luminosity to light up the scene where it flashes by, glow and color process within compositing software so you have better control and can change at any time later.

the volume item primitive, using a cube that is rezised to fit hight and widht, just by adding it..no other changes and it can provide a good start, parent to a linear light, could work, but you would need to match a texture movement for the linear light with the volume item I think..so just quick testing...

zero down all values except for the scattering scale, which controls how dense the volumetric glow will be, this approach will render super duper faster than global scattering and trying to solve that.

I forgot, there is two modes of use here, one is to set the volume item texture mode to none, which was what I initially used below, but if you would turn off the scatter completely ..you will get a slight black opacity interference, setting volume item texture mode to Non-pyroclastic ( yes..weird naming) will give you a completely smooth
transition for the volume scatter if you have a special color of interest, without that black opacity tinting on any background.

 

[prometheus]

samples, no opacity tint with non pyroclastic mode.
emission color mix with light color.
high asymmetry and it will yield sharper, denser light inside of the volume.
The trick here then would be to move the light intensity as well as the volume glow density with a fractal.
Though again, that glow effect in the original star wars image.. is quite large in size while not strong..so post glow is still most likely the best bet..

 

[prometheus]

And a ripple fractal can be a good start along with some function nodes to clamp of the linear light intensity(edit nodes), it will give you a motion of the lasers, but still testing.

 

[prometheus]

And you could instead of using a linear light use geometry emission together with the volume item, but then scatter isn´t working the same as if there was a light instead, so additional emission from the volume item would be best to use.
So below, no light at all for that laser, just emission material on the "cube scaled here" I should have used a tube/disc, but didn´t have the time to switch to modeler
and it resides inside the volume item.

Now...this means you could use any crazy shape and form for the emission( have some projects for that..if time allows) and for that volume glow. to match it, you would need to convert a duplicated mesh of the emission mesh, to a volume, using the vdb tools, or use blender to convert mesh to volume, this will give you voxels for that volume to use as VDB.

Converting mesh to volume purely by using a mesh with a volumetric material component, not the same thing...will be trickier I think to get the softer edge glow, but I need to try that out as well.

 

[MartinSax]

Ah, i see, im going to look into this and give this a go.

For the moment i attached the current scene file, Which i know is blue & should be red, but will look through this and see if i can make any adjustments.

 

[prometheus]

Ah, i see, im going to look into this and give this a go.

For the moment i attached the current scene file, Which i know is blue & should be red, but will look through this and see if i can make any adjustments.

I can´t check 2020 scenes.

 

[MartinSax]

Either way, there is a issue with the how the Emitter is working.

I have tested with Geo/Volumetrics etc....but every maybe 50th frame a emitter/bolt comes out skewed, so somehow working on this. have to say i never had some issues with LW2015

 

[prometheus]

Either way, there is a issue with the how the Emitter is working.

I have tested with Geo/Volumetrics etc....but every maybe 50th frame a emitter/bolt comes out skewed, so somehow working on this. have to say i never had some issues with LW2015

never mind..
I misunderstood your initial setup, thought you just used a volume item without any pfx generator for it.
I would just go with particles and hv sprites, forget the new volume item for this, it´s how the Pro´s been doing it for ages and still works I believe.

Hv´s sprites has particle gradients to set as values, to conform to the behavior of particle speed, aging and such, you can´t do it like that with attached geometry or volume items.
You would however need to render these old legacy hv sprites out seperately, since you can´t combine any other newer volume items together, but if you do not have any other newer volume handler items in there, you can render in one pass if needed, but best to split for comp glow.

 

[MartinSax]

Followed your advice and went back to HV "Sprites", so this was the result, which i think looks good enough at the moment.

 

[prometheus]

Followed your advice and went back to HV "Sprites", so this was the result, which i think looks good enough at the moment.

You have talent, maybe needs to be upped 2-3 levels on explosions, and 1-2 levels on cinematography, some levels on lighting perhaps.

One of the "pro´s" doing space "shots" literally for Battlestar galactica(Kelly Myers)
Had some tips somewhere on youtube, or a private video, basicly using Hypervoxels sprites for the laser shots.
So it´s not a bad choice going with what has been working for so long, I don´t see much in the newer technologies of volumetrics, or particlefX that replaces that particular type of space shots so to speak.

Keep in mind though, that Galactica used a mix of hypervoxels sprites, volume, and real explosion photage, and combined to it´s best, the results is just great.
Starwars, also real photage some episodes back, not sure how much they replaced with only 3D simulated explosions in later movies though.

Heres a tag search for Galactica on his site, not sure if he had more channels, one more for the liberty 3D channel I believe perhaps.
DJ Lithium - YouTube

Here´s a bit of space lighting the Galactica way though..

 

[prometheus]

You can also use image sequences, real photage, or fluid simulated rendered explosions, mapp them on to nulls or particles within the Ol hv if you go tot he sprites tab/shading/clips, and add a movie clip, many youtube clips should work, or image sequences.
Though the final result can depending on the scen look flat and not follow along dynamicly, depends on shot.