Does anyone know how to make force lightning with photoshop?

[Darth_Deastron]

Does anyone know how to make force lightning effects with photoshop.  Sorry if this question is sorta "n00by" but I'm still kinda new to Photoshop.  (mods, feel free to move this thread, I wasn't sure where to put it)

[BillCable]

In its own layer I draw white lines, blur them, then do a blue "Outer Glow" effect.  Play with the hue and intensity.  That's the same way I do lightsabers.

[Angry Ewok]

I use the same process. I usually touch up with a few white misty sprays in a second layer, here and there, as well...

[Darth_Deastron]

Thanks, that helped

[Mister Skeezler]

You can also do another layer to add light effects to the person shooting the force lightning, to make it more real. After all, lightning would cast light (and create shadows) on the person shooting it.

[name]

In its own layer I draw white lines, blur them, then do a blue "Outer Glow" effect.  Play with the hue and intensity.  That's the same way I do lightsabers.

I want to know how to create an animated gif like that....and where to host it.  Seems like everytime I try and host one on photobucket, etc...it just captures one frame.

[Rob]

To animate light like that you'd use Adobe Imageready and create an animated gif.  Basically you'd need layers for each possible frame that would exist and then you turn them on or off for each frame and tell it how long to leave each frame on screen for.

It's how I make all this kind of stuff:





If you want to go really crazy, Adobe After Effects has a lightning plug-in.  It doesn't look much like real lightning, but it certainly looks as much like lightning as the stuff shown in this thread - and it's much more malleable.