On Laser Turrets

About a month ago, I received a request from CGCookie.com to make a Blender tutorial.  So, after a bit of deliberation with Jonathan at Blender Cookie, we decided to make a tutorial on how to do laser beam cannons in Blender, using the Cycles render engine.

Today, I started work on the tutorial by building the model which will be used with the tute.  A working turret, fully set-up and rigged with empties so that it always points towards its target.

From here, the tutorial will start with how to make the laser beam effect, as seen in this video:

Obviously, this is an older video, so the technique will be improved.

Perhaps in the future, I hope to have another tutorial which will show how to design and build a turret and how to rig it properly for use in this fashion, but for now, hopefully everyone will enjoy the model.

The tutorial is still about a month away, however.  Still working on it.  Never thought I'd be tapped by CGCookie to do a tutorial for them, though.  It's really a cool deal.

Have a great day, everyone.

Thanks,
Dan