[RoachKoach]

Hey  can anyone help me out by telling me how to make explosions n beams (good looking ones) in renders ?

I use Photoshop 5.

:confused

[Fineus]

Explosions
Extract a frame from any explosion animation as found in the freespace files. Paste it into your image and then set that layers general blending into the image as "screen".

Beams
Click me.

And welcome to the HLPBB  

EDIT: Seeing as this is a question that I can cope with (as far as explosions go) I'll make a walkthrough similar to my other two and post it up on Sounds of Thunder when it's done.

[This message has been edited by Thunder (edited 10-08-2001).]

[RoachKoach]

which file in freespace contains the animations???

ive seen ur tutorial - how did u make the beam glow ?

[Fineus]

I've finished the tutorial on explosions. Beware the loading time though. It'll explain where you get the animations from that you need.

The beam was made to glow by blurring (see panel 3) this is the easiest way to go about it in my opinion.

Of course these aren't the only way to go about making these things, but it's how I do it in Photoshop which means no Truespace or Lightwave or anything like that to use.

[Top Gun]

Can I have some info on doing explosions and Engine Glows in Truespace (3d) Please

[Fineus]

I'd love to help but can't, there are several TS rendering experts around though... guys? the floor is yours  

[RoachKoach]

how do i open sparky_fs2.vp to extract the explosions?

and is there any way to view the models in sparky_hi_fs2.vp?

do u use modelview32 to look at the models in sparky_fs2.vp and take a printscreen shot of it for use in ur renders. and what about bump mapping and anti-aliasing?

[Jabu]

No, you just use VPView. It's at www.descent-network.com

It'll let you view and extract the contents of VP files.

[DragonClaw]

Here is my beam: http://imperial.pcgcentral.com/uploads/DCBeam.jpg
and here is Thunder's: http://imperial.pcgcentral.com/uploads/Thunderbeam.jpg


Which is better    I use Photoshop as well, just a different technique  

------------------
    -Director of the staff of Hidden Terror.
    -WebMaster of Imperial Productions

   

The fear always controls our attitude, let us fear no more!

[Fineus]

Why did you upload my image to your site when it's already on the HLP server?  

And I'd like to point out that the image you uploaded (of mine) isn't the finished beam, it's missing glows and so on.

I like the way yours glows like that though, it looks better IMO - although it's fairly similar anyhow.

However yours has no perspective, it should start slightly smaller than it ends - if you could address that it'd have a marked effect, I can tell its there slightly but it should be a bit more obvious  

[DragonClaw]

Well, I took into account the size of the ships.

I didn't make the render, so I figured the Sobek was very close to the Deimos, in which case I make the size of the beam just barely bigger on the end side.

[edit]And I uploaded it to my server because I need advertisement  [/edit]

------------------
    -Director of the staff of Hidden Terror.
    -WebMaster of Imperial Productions

     

The fear always controls our attitude, let us fear no more!

[This message has been edited by RKIF-DragonClaw (edited 10-08-2001).]

[Fineus]

Fair enough, perhaps a slightly more defined angle might help?

Also - how do you go about your beams? they look good, care to swap ideas?  

[DragonClaw]

Get your butt on ICQ  

Its classified information brought to me by... *drum roll*, the one and only SANDWICH!  

------------------
    -Director of the staff of Hidden Terror.
    -WebMaster of Imperial Productions

   

The fear always controls our attitude, let us fear no more!

[DragonClaw]

My version of the tutorial(I love advertising  ) : http://imperial.pcgcentral.com/uploads/tutorial.jpg

------------------
    -Director of the staff of Hidden Terror.
    -WebMaster of Imperial Productions

   

The fear always controls our attitude, let us fear no more!

[Taristin]

Bah! You ruined a good render!

If I ever get a real connection (damned 53.3k) I'll show you a thing or nothing

[Stryke 9]

NARF!!!

[Stryke 9]

Beam is huge. Beam is ugly at explosion end. Beam has no forshortening. In short,
NARF!!!

[DragonClaw]

Hey he chose where the beam came from and all. Besides, its showing HOW to do a beam in photoshop, not making it realistic   and tell me what the hell is wrong with it?

And no crap the beam is huge, its a friggin BFGreen and you seen how big they are?
And QUIT POSTING 2 THINGS WITHIN ONE MINUTE IT IS PISSING ME OFF

------------------
    -Director of the staff of Hidden Terror.
    -WebMaster of Imperial Productions

   

The fear always controls our attitude, let us fear no more!

[Taristin]

 
 

[DragonClaw]

Critics(since you criticized my work):

Render #1:
The pixel aspect sucks... really badly. Background is nice. And what kind of engine glows are those things? And the lighting is far too bland.

Render #2:
better than first, but there's something wrong with the Serapis fighters, they look, well, like their reflecting light. The Sobek also looks like its got holes in it. The engine glows are good on this one. The background also gives it a Vasudan feel.
Other than the Serapis and the Sobek having a hole in it, its perfect.

Well, you DID ask for it.

------------------
    -Director of the staff of Hidden Terror.
    -WebMaster of Imperial Productions

   

The fear always controls our attitude, let us fear no more!