Is there a tutorial on how to make things glow?

[Perlenstern]

Can anybody tell me how to texture a Sprite to make it glowing and what other settings are necessary ? I made the sprite with the tutorial from the GOW Wiki but now I don't know what to do after this.

Thanks
Perlenstern

[Lontahv]

When I learned to make sprites (and when I refresh my memory on how to make sprites) I use this tutorial: http://alcugs.almlys.org/AgeSprite

Of course some of the technical stuff is different but the main idea is the same when it comes to the sprite object. Just use the GoW tutorial one for the flags and stuff.

[Perlenstern]

Thank you for the Link to this tutorial. It explains it a little bit more. But my question is what sort of texture is the best to use for a sprite and where to find some or how to create them ?
And wich setting are necessary for this texture that it looks so soft and shiny ?

Perlenstern

[Lontahv]

If you get Gimp there's a tool under: Filters->Light Shadow->Gradient Flare. This is where I make my sprites. If you don't already have the Gimp and want to try this thing out remember to create a new transparent canvas before doing anything with flares (File->New "+advanced", fill with: Transparency).

But this tool might be overkill if you just want a gradient circle without sun-rays or whatnot.

As for texture and material settings in Blender, you just have your normal settings for transparent-textured objects.

[Perlenstern]

Thank you very much Lontahv. I'll try to make something in Gimp.

Perlenstern

[Jojon]

As Nad said, though, I wouldn't muck about with transparencies and such, but just make the texture gradient fade to pure black and use "Add" blending mode for the texture layer in Blender. With additive blending, the RGB colour component values will be added to those of the stuff behind the sprite -- not only is this easier and saves you an alpha channel, but it assures the glare always brightens the image, which may not be the case with mix mode.

The maximum brightness and falloff profile of your gradient depends on the atmosphere you are looking for - if the locale has dense dusty air diffusing light, you may want to make something like a circle that kind of looks like a cone (linear) or sphere (sinus) seen from above, whereas for thin clean air, something that drops fast from the centre and slower towards the perimeter, like a "concave" pointy cone (cosine).