how would you make lightning strike?

i’m trying to create a plasma ball, video, in cycles (if that actually matters)

i can use displacement modifier, but it’s just not coming out smooth animations (i think i might approached it wrong)


even with very SLOW movement of the empty, the displacements are too quick, even making the texture VERY BIG

How I’ve made lightning before is to make a curve, and then animate the scale and location, and put a noise modifier on the curves.
I’m not sure if that’s the effect your trying to get, but I hope that’s somewhat helpful.
Christy

by the way there is an addon/ script to do that !

check addons Laplacian lightning

happy bl