Advanced lightning effect – Adobe After Effects User Manual
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Lightning Type
Origin
Direction, Outer Radius
Not In Use
Outer Radius
Direction
Conductivity State
Core Settings
Glow Settings
Alpha Obstacle
Turbulence
Forking
Decay
Decay Main Core
Composite On Original
Advanced Lightning effect
The Advanced Lightning effect creates simulations of electrical discharges. Unlike the Lightning effect, Advanced Lightning doesn’t self-animate.
Animate the Conductivity State or other properties to animate the lightning.
The Advanced Lighting effect includes the Alpha Obstacle feature, with which you can make the lightning go around designated objects.
Chris Zwar provides a detailed description on
of how he used the Advanced Lightning effect to simulate blood vessel capillaries.
Eran Stern provides a video introduction to the Advanced Lightning effect on the
This effect works with 8-bpc color.
Specifies the characteristics of the lightning.
note: The type determines the nature of the Direction/Outer Radius contextual control. In the Breaking type, the branches are focused toward the
Direction point as the distance between Origin and Direction increases.
Specifies the point of origin for the lightning.
This control changes depending on the Lightning Type:
The Direction or Outer Radius control is not available if Lightning Type is Vertical.
Specifies the distance that the lightning travels from its origin. This control is enabled if Omni or Anywhere is selected as
the lightning type. Use it to terminate the lightning at a defined distance from the origin.
Specifies the direction that the lightning travels. This control is enabled if any of the following lightning types are selected:
Direction, Strike, Breaking, Bouncy, and Two-Way Strike.
Changes the path of the lightning.
These controls adjust various characteristics of the core of the lightning.
These controls adjust the glow of the lightning.
note: To disable the glow, set Glow Opacity to 0. This setting can speed up rendering time greatly.
Specifies the influence of the alpha channel of the original layer on the path of the lightning. When Alpha Obstacle is greater
than zero, the lightning attempts to wrap itself around opaque areas of the layer, seeing them as an obstacle. When Alpha Obstacle is less than
zero, the lightning tries to stay inside the opaque areas, avoiding the transparent areas. The lighting can cross the boundaries between opaque
and transparent areas, but Alpha Obstacle values further from zero cause the crossing to happen less often.
note: If Alpha Obstacles is set to a value other than 0, it’s not always possible to preview the correct result in less than full resolution; full
resolution may reveal new obstacles. Be sure to check the result in full resolution before final rendering.
Specifies the amount of turbulence in the lightning path. Higher values result in a more complex strike containing more branches and
forks, and lower values produce simpler strikes with fewer branches.
Specifies what percentage of a branch is forked. Turbulence and Alpha Obstacle settings influence forking.
Specifies the amount of continuous decay or dissipation of the lightning strength and influences where the opacity of the forks begins to
fade.
Decays the main core along with its forks.
Composites the lightning with the original layer using the Add blending mode. When deselected, only the lightning is
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