Pistol flash

[richand26mhz]

can anyone help im trying to create a pistol flash in maya for a scene to be about 2 - 3 frames, i have looked into fluids but seems very complicated. is there an easy way of using lights.

[laxman]

you could create some geometry on the end of the barrel that looks like a flash. It is normally completly transparent, but when you shoot, animate the transparency to make it show up for a little but. If you apply a glow to it, you shouldn't need any lights at all.

[TwinsenDude]

Yeah, definately what laxman said. Animate a spikey object, look at movies with gunshots closely for reference. Then key the transparency to always be at 100 percent but then to switch down to 0. A completely white lambert with full ambient color should do, and then depending on whether or not you're changing the scene's shader glow settings, .3 glow should probably work.

[richand26mhz]

thanks i will give it a go

[richand26mhz]

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e73/richand26mhz/gun.jpg

just had a quick go it works very nice and simple.