Hi there, I am trying to create something similer to this video. However, I can’t figure out how to make the material. I have made lightning with ribbons but not done it with a material on a mesh. Any ideas would great and thank you
Hi there, I am trying to create something similer to this video. However, I can’t figure out how to make the material. I have made lightning with ribbons but not done it with a material on a mesh. Any ideas would great and thank you
Hey there @Sm0kyMist! Welcome to the community! If you’re looking to do material lightning, here’s a video from CGhow that shows one way to pull it off!
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Hi thanks for the repsonse and the kind welcome into the community.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to create what I was looking for from this video. I am trying to create something close to what the video is. I just can’t figure out how to make a lightning shader like the one in the video. The lightning looks sharp yet still wild and random.
I’ll say, the lightning in the video you’d shown off is less random and more hand animated in basically a looping flipbook for each arc. This will be decently more skill based, but can have a similar or better outcome than procedurally generated like the last tutorial. If you’re up for it, I have some resources you can use to help make those, however you’ll have to make the flat meshes to hold them if you want them exactly like that reference.
Disclaimer: One or more of these links are unaffiliated with Epic Games. Epic Games is not liable for anything that may occur outside of this Unreal Engine domain. Please exercise your best judgment when following links outside of the forums.
and a tutorial on flipbooks and materials so you can apply them after you make them.
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Yeah I think you have nailed it; however, when I put a lightning flipbook on a mesh similar to the one in the in video. I get a bad result, I’m going to make my own now and see what I get.
Thank you for the vids btw, very helpful
The result looks great! Definitely a bit different, but artistically you could shift it around. The stylized bolt is really quite nice! I do however think the mesh card itself needs to be bent a bit like how you would do with foliage and likely preplan the crackle’s shape, maybe previsualize with some shapes to mimic the original. Hand authoring all those different cracks would definitely be rough. I’m glad they helped a bit at least, this is one of those “leans more into art” portions that is super subjective to pin down. If you do end of pulling it off, I’d be interested in seeing the final product!
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thanks for all your help, I will try doing it with mesh cards like when doing grass (like you said). If I end up finishing it I will let you know, but either way thanks for your time and support.
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