Electrical Arc (Essence)

Here's how to make an electrical arc between two rods, like something out of Frankenstien's lab.

1. Start with a plane with 255 R,G,B on Color and a light blue (or whatever color you want the arc to be) in Filter.
2. Use Ringfract as follows:
   • Set the Z axis to point out of the plane, (rotate 90 on X)
   • Low Trans Start = 30
   • Low Trans Width = 5
   • Hi Trans Start = 40
   • Hi Trans Width = 5
   • Set the color to 0,0,0 for RGB.
   • Leave other settings at defaults
   • Place the axis of Ringfract in the middle of the bottom edge of the plane.
3. Now use Swapcrf to swap the color and filter values. Do this by setting all parameters to 0, and then setting the following values to 1:
   • Filt -> N Color = 1
   • Refl -> N Refl = 1
   • Color -> N Filt = 1

Now when rendered, there should be something similar to an electrical arc (or maybe some sort of plasma). To have the arc grow, rotate the Ringfract axis on X up or down so that the plane and cylinder do not intersect at 90 degrees. If you animate this it looks like the arc gets taller until the arc breaks (i.e. the plane no longer intersects Ringfract's cylinder in a curve, but instead in two lines).

Also setting the plane to bright will make it look correct in dim scenes.

Last Update: July 13, 1995
Back to Ian's HomePage. -- Up to FAQ #8 Index