Beams of Light

[Dan]

i am wanting to add a realistic beam o light coming from my lighthouse but there is no tutorils at all that create a realistic effect. Does anyone know a way i can achieve this?

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/2665/mysticislandrevisioncopy8li.jpg

[NickATnitE]

Make a "screen" layer with whatever light colour you are using and add some noise and a little blur play around with the noise\blur settings and opacity to get a good effect.

hope this helps

Nick

[rrische]

Hey Dan,
This is a nice painting!
I did a little retouching to show you one way to do light
beams. Here it is...

http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/4237/mysticislandbeams9or.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I also brightened up the light sources themselves, giving them more punch
and using them as a focal point for the composition.
Here's a little step-by-step for making the beams...

I made 2 different elements.
#1 is a wide, soft cone, #2 is a sharper, brighter, more focused beam.
I made them as greyscale images, then laid them on separately, so
they can be individually manipulated for color, opacity etc.
You can put them on screen, lighten, color dodge, normal, whatever.
Each mode gives them a slightly different look.

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/5930/beams9od.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Here's a conept painting I did a few years back for the movie "Impostor".
This is basically a variation on the beams approach.

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/5727/im20spotlightconcept0rf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Jay_Gladwell]

Excellent work, Rick, as usual. The time you take from your busy schedule to share you talent, insights, and suggestions is greatly appreciated!