Hey guys, I want to expand my knowledge on electrical effects a bit more, so I wanted to see if you guys had any resources/ideas on how to create what I’ve been trying to do.
Effectively, I’m trying to make arcs of lightning come out of an object without using Sprite Particles, just Mesh Particles and shaders or Beams.
The beam method I actually have a decent understanding on to a degree thanks to dismantling some effects, though I couldn’t figure out how to make the center of the beam ‘climb’ outward, like electricity tends to do. Still experimenting there. I’m more invested of learning the ‘mesh’ path that can mimic beams, like Soulercoasters.
Would it be better to go with say, a 2/3 circle that expands upward with scaling mesh on the Z axis and use point velocity to make it appear like it’s ‘growing’ out at different angles? Or maybe using a flipbook across the mesh to give it the appearance of bouncing from one point to the next? The only method I’ve found that uses meshes like this did something similar for electricity, but was a full circle with a pinched end, that was more used for electric explosions, which is sort of what I’m aiming for, a sort of ‘electric boom’ from the applied target.
Or would beams, with a hand-drawn stylized texture for the beam, probably be better suited for something like this? Definitely seems like there’s more resources/videos with that method. Speaking of, if you have any great references or videos about this, that’d be a huge help.
