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Sword trail?

SonofbelmontSonofbelmont Posts: 147
edited December 1969 in Carrara Discussion

Hi
does anyone know how I would go about creating a sword trail effect in Carrara similar to what is frequently seen in video games and comics?

any help is appreciated
thanks

Comments

  • JoeMamma2000JoeMamma2000 Posts: 2,615
    edited December 1969

    Mom doesn't allow me to play video games so I'm not sure exactly what effect you're talking about... :)

    But I'm guessing what you're talking about is something like this:

    http://youtu.be/IqhUoyqx-dU

    It's basically a "bad" motion blur effect. I call it "bad" because a real motion blur tries to blur the motion between frames, while this effect tries to highlight it. Almost a strobe, not a blur, effect.

    What I did is use the stock Carrara motion blur effect, but with only 2 or 3 "extra frames". I also used a fairly high blur value. The low "extra frames" highlights the strobe-like effect, while usually you're trying to do the opposite and use high values to blur the motion.

    Also I made the sword motion very high speed during the animation, and afterwards brought the video into a video editor and made it slow motion. This is very important to give that slow speed strobe effect.

    Another key point is to make sure you light the sword really well and make it very shiny so the "strobe" images show up well.

    And once you've done all that, add some cool glowing particle effect trails for extra awesomeness !!!

  • JoeMamma2000JoeMamma2000 Posts: 2,615
    edited December 1969

    I did a little experiment, and it seems that a low value of Blur highlights the strobe effect. Which I suppose makes a lot of sense. More blur blurs the interframe motion, and less makes it more "strobe-ey". So a low "extra frame" value (around 2 or so) and a low blur value gives you a more strobe-ey effect.

  • SonofbelmontSonofbelmont Posts: 147
    edited December 1969

    Mom doesn’t allow me to play video games so I’m not sure exactly what effect you’re talking about…

    ah sorry about that
    this video should give you a clearer idea of what I mean by a sword trail
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODbM6O6HO0g

    It's a pretty clear trail and there isn't any real strobing as far as I can tell

  • ManStanManStan Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Motion blur is a render setting. Works best with just a bit of animation. Like sword up in frame one down in frame 10, set motion blur at 5 frames and render the last frame; 10.

    If that isn't what you want I'd try a flat and effects mapping. basically just a poly frame for a texture.

    But the term is motion blur. I'll work up a quicky to show you.

  • 3DAGE3DAGE Posts: 3,311
    edited June 2013

    HI Son of Belmont

    Using fenrics ERC pluugin, this can be done,.
    Faba did a little animation of a figure with a sword, where there was a glowing coloured trail effect from the sword,.

    maybe contacting faba,. or the tutorials on her ShareCG page, can help

    http://www.sharecg.com/pf/full_uploads.php?pf_user_name=fabaone

    Another alternative if you have Adobe After Effects is the REVision Motion blur plugin,. (RMB) which produces great results, the pro version allows vector tracking of specific objects, so,. you could add motion blur to a specific item, or section.
    it's also lightning fast,. (a few seconds) ..which is much faster than rendering multiple frames in a 3d app,. to create a decent motion blur effect

    http://www.revisionfx.com/products/rsmb/

    hope it helps

    Post edited by 3DAGE on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,179
    edited December 1969

    maybe like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqn2M_sWmKk
    done with object as particle, emitter parented to hand
    only using a sword blade instead of a lightbulb?
    and shorter lifespan?

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