Preserved Topic: "Lithing/Thunder" Effect? (Page 1 of 1)

Umm ok...If you have ever seen those Immages like in tekken4 or whatever....where they had those thunder/lighting type of Effect added for a rendered character on the immage....is it possible to do in PS...if so how? I kinda have no real clue but i guess maybe I can use the pen tool to make the shape then...add color, blur or something like that huh? Not my fucking fault...I am rooky

Most of the lightning tutorials you'll find are based off of using difference clouds to create the lightning and then colorizing it when you're done. There's an example of that method over at Gurus Network so you can just click the button at the bottom of this page to get there.

The best one I've found is a .pdf of one done on Andyart. Here's a link to that:
http://wlug.westbo.se/gimp/Andyart/PSTIP43.PDF

BTW, you can't really visually represent thunder. Unless I've gone and confused my senses again.

*thunder*


BWAHAHAHA, I visually represented it.

Seriously though, my quick and dirty method:

1)make a gradient, black-white-black
2)run difference clouds
3)play with brightness/contrats
4)f with the hue and saturation

so the question would be:

Is there anyone who does not use difference clouds for lightning?

The tutorial I posted doesn't use them.

There was a tutorial posted at http://www.almani.org that used the liquify tool & a few layer blending modes to make an interesting version of lightning. Unfortunately the site is being updated and I don't remember how the effect was done

Edit: This was a 5 minute hack at it, back when it was up.

Edit2: See what you went and made me do?

Mac Users: CTRL key = CMMD key and ALT key = OPT key on a Mac (but you knew that).

1. Make a new document, I'll let you pick your own size/background. Make a new layer, and using the line tool with a width of 3-ish pixels and fill mode set to [PS7: Fill Pixels, PS6: Filled Region], make a horizontal black line going across your PSD.

2. [PS7: Filter -> Liquify, PS6: Image -> Liquify], or just CTRL + SHIFT + X. Click and drag across that black line, squiggling up and down. You'll get the idea behind it as you're working.

3. Image -> Adjust -> Invert (CTRL + I). Set the layer blend mode to screen. There's a few ways to do this part, but I just went with the simple, quick way Double click the layer to bring up layer effects, and give it an outer glow. Size, spread, and color are up to you. Set the glow's mode to screen.

4. Lather, rinse, repeat. Have fun with it. Doing it in this way also opens up the possibility of making your lightning have a specific shape, much like the tutorial Krets posted.

[This message has been edited by Raptor (edited 10-29-2002).]

this is a first real attempt at lightening by me... it kind of has a bit of a surreal effect... but it's pretty much straight from Guru's tutorial.
Lightening effect made with difference cloud style.

"that was almost as fun as a Vigourous Man-handleing..."

Bulb, f5.6 or so, frame and wait.. but not too long.



[This message has been edited by cyoung (edited 10-30-2002).]

Awesome shot cyoung.