Blender- how to make an animated Photon torpedo

crasher925

hey i'm new to blender and i can't really figure out how to make a photon torpedo can someone help??

spacefighter

crasher925 wrote: »

hey i'm new to blender and i can't really figure out how to make a photon torpedo can someone help??

i am a blender user so i have some idea of what you should do, once you have a model of a starship(if you're new to blender modelling is really hard so you may wish to import from sketchup) to fire the photon torpedo, add a sphere in blender(uv sphere is probably best) set the material on it to red(red 1, blue 0, green 0) and set a glow value of maybe around 3 or 4 under emit. then use the compositor to create lens flare using glare effects(i can explain further if you need help). to animate just keyframe it around with the "g" key to move it and "I" to set the keyframes, there is also a method of making it follow a path. i use it often for making ships fly along certain routes whilst having the same end pointing in the direction of travel at all times, sadly i would have to check how it is done so will need a while before i can tell you the trick.

i assume that answers the question, if it does not please explain what else you want the photon torpedo to do and how else you want it to appear. hope i helped.

crasher925

spacefighter wrote: »

then use the compositor to create lens flare using glare effects(i can explain further if you need help).
i assume that answers the question, if it does not please explain what else you want the photon torpedo to do and how else you want it to appear. hope i helped.

I'm a complete n00b to this so can you please explain the compositor further??

thx

-crasher

spacefighter

ok, the compostior...

first in the 3d viewer window switch to node editor
next click the third image box along showing two sheets, it is labelled compositing nodes
then tick the box used nodes. you will see two boxes appear, one is the render the other is what the final image/video will look like.
then click "add-->filter-->glare"
move around the box with glare labelled at the top until it breaks the "wire" between the two existing boxes
alter the settings until you achieve the effect you desire, fog glow(one of the options for the glare node) is kind of essential so you may wish to add extra glare nodes between it and the final image node to add other effects. threshold should be less than the emit value of the dullest thing that you want to glow. then when you press f12 to render a glow/lens flare/streak effect is added on top. the best way to find what is best is to try many different settings for the options in the glare nodes once they are in line to be added to the final image. sorry if that is a rushed answer but i have so many things i am trying to do right now.

crasher925

its not doing anything to the image it looks the same:
Render.png

I'm trying to make it look like this:


with the a red color

spacefighter

crasher925 wrote: »

its not doing anything to the image it looks the same:
Render.png

I'm trying to make it look like this:


with the a red color

looks like the main thing you are after is lens flare then.
that render you provided shows that it is not working, please post a screen shot of your node editor window showing what you have done in there. also check that the threshold is below the emit value for your torpedo material. set the torpedo emit value to 5 and the threshold to 1 for example. i have a quick screen shot here showing what is required. the following images show the render with lens flare as it should look, the red ball is the flaring object. they also show the compositor and rendering settings i used, which are nice and quick to render. p.s. the model was from sketchup not blender, i animate with blender not model with it.
Attachment not found.
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try that it should work, to make the flares larger make the emit value on the torpedo brighter and change the settings for the glare filters. also try adding extra glare filters so you can include ghosts, streaks,glow, and "simple star" lens flares.

oh and nice little star trek weapons gif, did you do it yourself, if so i would like to know how.

crasher925

here's what i'm doing

What I'm doing.png

spacefighter

try deleting the "wires" connecting alpha and z from first to last node. as mine was. also try changing the size of the glow up and down, sometimes it is biggest with a lower number. and set the threshold lower, or the emit higher because as far as i know the limit for emit values is atleast 50. also for a final render you will want to shrink the actual sphere of the torpedo. and maybe try turning of auto render though i doubt that will change it. i am checking now but i bet that glare will not work if those extra wires are in place.

crasher925

crasher925 wrote: »

What I'm doing.png

i changed the pic and still not working

spacefighter

ok try using all the default render settings except the alterations i specified in my images. i tried with those extra wires included and it made no difference but i think you should remove them anyway. copy this setup exactly and see if it works.
Attachment not found.
once you have tried that it should work then you can edit the quantities to your own wishes.

spacefighter

how hard is this, if you cannot do it i may even be able to send you a blend file with all the correct settings to render with the flares but i can honestly see no reason that latest image of mine will not work, copy it exactly. do not have the alpha and z wires included. check every aspect of your set up and see if it matches mine, failing that there are a few blender forums which may be able to help you better.

spacefighter

oh and all this works with blender internal i have never tried cycles or game engine.

crasher925

well it works but is there a way i can make the cross longer??? so its farther out??

What I'm doing.jpg

spacefighter

crasher925 wrote: »

well it works but is there a way i can make the cross longer??? so its farther out??

What I'm doing.jpg

well done, to make the cross larger tweak around with the settings on the glare filter and trun up the brightness of the material. set emit to 50 and see what it looks like.

spacefighter

working now??