This is a tutorial for making lightning in Adobe After Effects 6.5 Pro.I can't imagine that the previous versions do not have all these neat little effects.
3. Setting up the chroma key Click the eye dropper on the color key options, and drag it over the neon green on our composition window. Now, set the tolerance level to 1. Set it no higher, otherwise this might reduce the look of the lightning.
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1. Setting the layer We start by right clicking on our imported footage, and click New->Solid. It doesnt really matter how long it is, we just need this layer to last for a short segment. Make sure you set the color to a neon green.
2. Removing the green I tinkered for a good hour trying to find a combonation that allows just the lightning to show through. I couldn't find one, so we are going to use a chroma key effect to remove the green. This allows us to have the easiest control over our lightning bolt. Right click our Green Solid, and go Effects->Keying->Color Key.
4. Adding the lightning. Now the simple part of adding the lightning. Click our green solid, and go Effects->Render->LIghtning.
5. Configuring the lightning. First thing we do, is click the little stopwatch before "Starting point" and "Ending point". This means that whenever we move our start and end point, AE will record it. Also, set the Detail Level fron 2 to 8.
6. Trimming the timeline. If your like me and you only need lightning for a few seconds, youll need to trim down your timeline alittle bit. Not hard. Simply click the little gray slanted handles before the red, and drag it.
7. Moving the lightning. Simply place your start point where you want the lightning to start, and the end point to where you want it to strike. Dont worry about making it wiggle, AE does that for you. If the object you want the lightning to strike from moves, simply move the starting point along with it. You can use PAGEDOWN to go frame by frame.
I would recommend using a gaussian blur on the lightning. Its a friggen bolt of electric light, its going to case some light in the image. I will be looking into sheding shadows and light onto objects in the scene to get a more convincing effect. I hope this helped you.
I'd like to give a thanks to my friends (left to right) Chris, Anthony, and Scott for ending up in this tutorial.
