Controllable trails that reflect...

[Hilt]

Try with biomekk's LightGen. You can draw splines and add lights to points with it.
a quick test with it: LightGen test (768k) (http://kokokuva.com/freepicserve/hilt/lightgenerator_test_Large.mov)

Dont think it was meant for something like that, but it can create pretty nifty effects with lights.

.hilt

[fiveshorts]

Thanks Hilt.

I've downloaded LightGen and am trying to make it work. Sadly there's no manual or documentation, so I'm having trouble getting the effect you show in that test movies of yours...

Do you know of any tutorials?

Thanks for your help. Given the popularity of 3D stroke in broadcast design and the fact that it emulates 3D I'm AMAZED/saddened that there isn't an easier way to do this... a TrailBlazer plugin of some kind. Or an actual 3D Stroke for the 3D world — it's got to be easier to do in 3D than in After Effects, surely?

Rant on.

[c-montesano]

a quick rundown of how to set it up...
1. add a lightgen object to your scene
2. add a spline as a child of the lightgen object
3. add a light as the second child of the lightgen object
4. use the "Spline Coloring" gradient in the lightgen properties to control the color of the lights along the spline.

-chris

[c-montesano]

here are a couple of screenshots with helix primitives... note the subdivision of the helix is set to something like 120 for nice smooth color.

http://www.biomekk.com/downloads/posts/lgspline_wire.jpg

http://www.biomekk.com/downloads/posts/lgspline_render.jpg

-chris

[Hilt]

Didnt think I had bothered to save the scene anywhere. How wrong was I.
http://www.kokokuva.com/freepicserve/hilt/lightgen_allie.c4d.
That is just an animated helix taking round, multiplied with Jenna's Allie. If you dont have Jenna, grab the LightGenerator off the Allie.

.hilt

[fiveshorts]

OK, thank you both; now I get it. — you're animating the height/end rotation of the helix and LightGen is sticking a light on every segment — the more segments; the more lights = the smoother the effect.

Excellent. Now, is it possible to do the same with a custom spline? When I create a standard Bezier spline object, it only has a handful of segments, thus only a handful of lights... switching to uniform or adaptive doesn't change the number of segments...

Many thanks for taking the time out to help me. When I've cracked it, I'll post a project for others to share.

[c-montesano]

just use the subdivide function to add more segments to a "hand drawn" spline.
maybe i can implement an option to add a set number of lights along a spline, instead of one at every point... what do you think?

-chris

[fiveshorts]

That would be very useful I think.

I guess the problem I'm having is that I don't know how to 'grow' or move the lights along a custom spline. I've subdivided (in fact, I switched to Uniform Intermediate Points and saved current state to object) to give me 200+ points on the spline, but how do I now animate this? With the Helix you can grow the shape and the lights 'arrive' with the newly created subdivisions. Not so easy with the custom spline (which I need 'cos I have to control the path the lights take through the scene).

I'm SO CLOSE to cracking this! The look is PERFECT. The render is quick. The feel is just right. Now I just need the last piece of the puzzle...

Thanks for your patience :-)

[c-montesano]

have you tried animating the spline coloring gradient in the lightgen properties?
that might be a little simpler than animating the spline itself.

another thought is to try using deformers to animate the spline...

-chris

[Neoklassik]

I did something similar in DiTools and Pathdeformer. I used DiTools to apply lights to a row of one point polys and then used Pathdeformer to animate them on a spline.

You can use a spline in DiTools also but can't figure out how to animate a spline on spline in PD.

[Neoklassik]

I just tried Place On Points and it works too. Though you don't have as much control over texturing, you can still apply a color, give the lights some relative scale on the appropriate axis and apply motion blur in the final render. -

Edit:Spoke too soon. Doesn't work with Path Deformer.

[chris_b]

I don't have the link handy, but the 'spline on spline' plugin is designed
for exactly this effect. Do a search for it on this forum and you will
certainly find it. It is a must-have little tool.

[fiveshorts]

have you tried animating the spline coloring gradient in the lightgen properties?
-chris

WAIT A COTTON PICKIN' MINUTE HERE!!

That's right; I animate the color gradient, don't I!
WOW! That's got to be it. I fill a subdivided spline with lights and then move the 'texture' to reveal/deveal them over time.

IS that it?

I''m pretty sure that's the answer.
Gonna try it.

[Neoklassik]

Hi Chris,
Thought of that.. but on a mac here. I think it's PC only.
Might work though.

I don't have the link handy, but the 'spline on spline' plugin is designed
for exactly this effect. Do a search for it on this forum and you will
certainly find it. It is a must-have little tool.

[tcastudios]

To animate a spline on a spline using PathDeformer I have an example that might help.
Take a look here (http://homepage.mac.com/tcastudios/TCA%20CINEMA.html)
Item 009 for a basic setup.

Cheers
Lennart

[Neoklassik]

Hey Lennart,
Okay one problem solved.. though I still can't seem to get lights on the spline except through DiCloner, POP or Function:Arrange. (Don't have Jenna). But once I put the spline into PD it doesn't work. Which is odd because DiCloner will do it with lights attached to vertex's.

[Neoklassik]

My demo ran out on DPIT otherwise I'd try that too... :)

[tcastudios]

Yea, in a quick test using DiCloner the lights sits on the undeformed spline.
But. Put the SweepNurb hierarchy (in my example above) and a light under DiCloner and the SweepNurb geometry works with DiCloner! Just laborate with the Circle radius ,Growth and such and the effect is there. That is, lights follow the spline on spline path.
Add a Material gradient using type 2D - V, place it on the DiCloner object using UWprojection, add the tag as texture in DiCloner and use no caps on the SweepNurb.
Animate the offset in PathDeformer and it's all go!

Cheers
Lennart

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