plugin or ideas to create lighting shape animations?

Hi group, I have a new project coming up, and I am going to be tasked at creating a series of animations showing the properties of a lighting filter company (defense, commercial industries) They make filters that go over raw LED lights and shape them, or make them optically pure, change the beam angles, create new shapes, and create a particle effect.

I have to show the effects in an illustration video in both 2d and possibly 3d, I own a couple of plugins that create volumetric lighting and not sure if I would create a mask or what the best approaches would be. Your help is appreciated...

… you're looking for something like that, hm?



trouble with Volumetrics in Motion is - it's not 3D ; and it's 'fake', created with replicators or a cranked up Zoom-Blur (I used for this example)

Sooo, you could create a scene, demoing a Gobo, or flaps or whatever, and 'fly around' the scenery. But to mimic the Volumetrics, in 3D!, you have to use tons of workarounds, a world-class understanding, how lights&shadows are handled etc (Mr fox_mahoney, please?) , as Simon explains in his classics youtu.be/u2X3cIKY3Y0

… I'm afraid to say:
for good 3D CGI you need an explicit 3D app as C4D, Maya or Blender. And an artist handling it

Karsten , Thanks so much, sorry for the late reply, I have been down and out with the nasty flu that's going around....

Well, that's a shame, might have to try old school fog machines and film it live and see what happens!

dfphoto wrote: …Well, that's a shame, might have to try old school fog machines and film it live and see what happens!

uhm, well, no reason to shame… if YOU can not handle Blender well …

yeah, going practical …  back in my TVdays, some hundred years ago, we preferred so-called 'water crackers' - less 'foggy', in terms of plumes, water-crackers create a more 'solid' visible air/beams…

If not animated, a good illustration can help to explain… but, imho nothing beats showing the real thing in action… ! Good luck with your project!