Any Advice on Creating a Plasma Ball effect?

[Yosemite Sam]

Hey guys,

I'm looking for a way to create the electrical current effect within one of those plasma balls (pic below). This doesn't have to be high end, just something simple that creates the effect. I'd rather not do frame by frame. Maybe something with switches perhaps. And advice is welcome!


https://www.dropbox.com/s/oojgv5lgu2cl5zt/4PLASMA.jpg

[synthsin75]

My first thought is some static transparent vector lines with noisy strokes enables.

[hayasidist]

had a quick go at this. A Particle layer, with animated strokes plus synth's suggestion of noisy outlines, works reasonably well... I'll upload an example if you want.

[Yosemite Sam]

My first thought is some static transparent vector lines with noisy strokes enables.

Good idea!

[Yosemite Sam]

had a quick go at this. A Particle layer, with animated strokes plus synth's suggestion of noisy outlines, works reasonably well... I'll upload an example if you want.

Yeah, I would love to see your example of this!

[hayasidist]

here y' go. http://youtu.be/QBNSPBelLbQ If that's the (basis of the) sort of thing you want, just say if you'd like the .anme file.

[heyvern]

Here's my attempt:



I didn't use the noisy vector layer option. Instead I created a single vector with a lot of peaked points and duplicated it a bunch of times. I set the translation of the points with noisy keyframes at different settings down towards the center. This makes the "lightening" effect but on a point by point basis. The stroke also has noisy point width keys. The noise values change towards the center point so that the widths change gradually towards the base for each point.

I then used noisy key frames for each layer for layer X Y and Z rotation so the lines sort of move in 3D space. This means the lines shorten and lengthen creating a sort of realistic 3D effect of the plasma lines. The center of each layer is at the base of the plasma "bolt" for each layer.

I also played around with particles and vector noise but didn't like the results. Particles were a bit too hard to control for my tastes. Noisy vectors also shifted the entire vector rather than the keeping the end points fixed.

[heyvern]

Here's the download:

http://hubumedia.com/anime-studio-free- ... simulation

With some effort I am sure I could figure out how to create the "blobs" at the end using the same effect. Just copy the "big" blobby thing and make it small and attach to the ends of the plasma bolts.

[heyvern]

Hmm....

Doing this again... I would use bones to control the rotation of the bolts. Bones with noisy rotation and scale to control the length and rotation of the bolt to simulate 3D movement over the inner surface of the ball (instead of layer rotation noise). Then I could attach the "blobby ends" to the bone.

This is FUN! I love these mind puzzles.

[heyvern]

Here's an alternate version using bones with "blobby" end thingies attached.

Can upload file if you are interested.

This one uses a bone for each "bolt". Length and rotation use noisy keys with variations on "scale" in the noisy key frame.

I duplicated the entire plasma effect and scaled it down and attached to the end of the plasma bolt bones to create the blobs at the end. The glow is layer drop shadow on each blob and also on the entire bone layer. Layer shadow is set with 0 offset so it creates a "glow" instead of a shadow.

EDIT:
The alternate bone version is included in the same download page as an alternate sample file download

http://hubumedia.com/anime-studio-free- ... simulation

[Yosemite Sam]

here y' go. http://youtu.be/QBNSPBelLbQ If that's the (basis of the) sort of thing you want, just say if you'd like the .anme file.

That looks great. Yeah, I would love the file.

[Yosemite Sam]

Here's an alternate version using bones with "blobby" end thingies attached.

Can upload file if you are interested.

This one uses a bone for each "bolt". Length and rotation use noisy keys with variations on "scale" in the noisy key frame.

I duplicated the entire plasma effect and scaled it down and attached to the end of the plasma bolt bones to create the blobs at the end. The glow is layer drop shadow on each blob and also on the entire bone layer. Layer shadow is set with 0 offset so it creates a "glow" instead of a shadow.

EDIT:
The alternate bone version is included in the same download page as an alternate sample file download

http://hubumedia.com/anime-studio-free- ... simulation

Thanks Vern!!!

You are SO good with this kind of stuff. It looks amazing. I've downloaded the file and am going to study your technique. I really can't thank you enough for this!

[heyvern]

Well after looking at the real plasma ball, I realized I wasn't accurate in my simulation.

I tweaked a few things, like noise settings and bone scale, to get a better simulation. The trick is the "end points" of the bolts sort of "slide" more slowly than I had thought. Also the bolt path itself is more "smooth" in its motion. What I did was remove points and smoothed the points but added in vector animated path noise to get a bit of irregularity.

I think this new version is closer to a real plasma ball.



It can be downloaded from the same link above, it's plasma-ball3.zip download:
http://hubumedia.com/anime-studio-free- ... simulation