Animated Lightning Signatures HELP!

[Stumped]

[b] </font> </font>Hello to whomever reads this, or responds to it. /emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif My girlfriend is doing a signature for someone, and she needs to know how to animate the lightning so that instead of those quill pen animated signatures you see it would be animated lightning instead. I hope someone knows what I'm talking about because I don't have any way of showing you what I mean.



Thanks bunches! /emoticons/thumbsup.gif /emoticons/eyecrazy.gif

[REDeye]

This question is difficult to answer because I don't know if the lightning is constant, or in quick spurts. If it needs to look realistic here are a few tips:

(this is not a tutorial. i am merely explaining the concepts)


Lightning is generally white or off-white. A slight blue won't hurt. But don't overdo it or it'll look fake.




Bolts of lightning last only a couple of frames. It is not necessary to make the lighting 'travel', because lightning is so fast that a standard camera could only capture the bolt in its entirety. A quick lens flare at the second frame would look good at the point of impact.




Making a 'stream' of lightning is slightly more complex. It has a steady flow, but the bolt cannot look steady. It must have an appearance of randomness—chaotic randomness. It can have little sparks eminating from point of impact.
If you have Adobe After Effects, it has a handly lightning plug-in that is highly customizable. Good luck and show us the results if you can.</div>