Indoor lightning illumination question

[John Warner]

hey there guys.

i'm having a brutal time trying to get the effect that i want, and im wondering if anyone has any suggestions and/or reference.

i have a long, spooky hallway that my camera is panning down, and i want the effect of lightning illuminating the hallway through the windows. keep in mind i dont acctualy want to show the lightning, rather, just a really bright light comming in through the windows.

i'm having one hell of a time trying to get this effect, as i'm not exactly sure what it looks like (now that i think of it) and i have NO reference and no idea where i can find reference like this.

anyone have any idea how i can do this effect, or a movie or something where this is done? that would be a life saver.

thanks guys!

[ndcv]

hmmm - I haven't actually tried this yet but I was trying to figure this out too. I would create a white light source with a tinge of blue, not too bright but brighter than the moonlight/starlight, and make sure the shadows it's casting are pretty crisp rather than blurry. Then strobe it on and off over about a second - on for maybe 4 frames, off for 2, on for 6, off for 1, on for 3, off for 3, on for 8, something like that, making the intensity/brightness different each time it comes on.

If you could have rain on the windows that would be visible in the light cast by the lightning somehow, that might add to the impression - I think they do that a lot in movies. Or, make sure that you can see the rain running down the windows in the moonlight between lightning strikes.

But I think the biggest thing to sell it would be the sound, a big badass peal of thunder starting a bit after the lightning. I think that's the biggest cue that would make someone read it as lightning.

[cep]

I think what you want is volumetric lighting.
Try adding some particles(I don't know wich to use, something similar to dust particles) to your scene, infront of the window.

Hope that works.

[Rick Stirling]

You could try adding some fogging to the scene.

[cep]

http://www.3dtotal.com/team/tutorials/bridge/bridge3.asp

[John Warner]

thanks very much guys.

ep & Rick- no worries on the volume light, i've got that handled already. my main concern is more on the light intensity, the frequency, what happens to the area around the light hit, if there's anything i can use to help exadurate the look (flashing the screen white, etc etc).. you know, stuff like that

ndcv- thanks alot. i'll work with it more and see what i come up with. i looked through a shit load of movie trailers and found some night lightning hits at the beggining of the green mile. i'll try and match that reference i guess :\.

thanks for the help folks.