gotz me a question...
 

I'm looking to make a "plasma energy ball" similar to those seen in stores.... the ones that you put your finger on and the energy jumps to your finger...... tricky part is that I want the energy to be a smoother looking strand of energy rather than looking like a lightning effect does that make any sense? I'm working on a web version of the "Wrigley's 5gum commercials"
I created the web game for the site already but now I need to jazz up the candystand.com ad .... any help or suggestions would be great. If I have to, I'll revert back to Aftereffects and Fusion but I know that I can get better results in 3d if time permits.


thanks in advance

I think I understand where you're going with this. I have AE and it's hard to get a smooth lighting bolt out of it.

I'd approach this with two point poly chains. It's the same theory as creating lightning. Create a two point polychain and move a texture through it's deformation channel with a reference null. Create the two spheres, somehow array a bunch of poly chains around them, run the texture through.

The trick will be using a mellow procedural with little contrast for smooth deformations.