I had an idea to have one thread where we can brainstorm ideas for effects for the movie and where we can post the results. Or link to other "winners" and ideas.
So to start it off, heres one idea I had for a type of Magic or environmental effect.
It is a 3d "bolt" (what that bolt is can be anything.. light, electricity, particles whatever)
I thought well the traditional tentacle like approach of a snaking object going across a line is limited, but what if I added lag to the bones to make them controllable by one starter bone that kicked off the chain reaction. here is the result.. on bone animated on 2 keyframes in an action. The rest is all constraints ;-)
http://www.colins-loft.net/free/examples/e...agic%20bolt.mov
and the project to check it out...
http://www.colins-loft.net/free/examples/effects/bolt.zip
The advantages are complete control over the look of the bolt and how it might interact with an object, and the fact that you can apply all kinds of effect to it.
The disadvantages are.. that I can't figure out how to make it scale in the opposite direction.. ie.. get it to trail after itself.
Any ideas?
C