u/S-T-M

The Tuxedo Connection - I Know I Need You

From what I understand, The Comet Tail, Light Streak, and such are effects caused by light hitting the tubes of the camera, and burning the image for a while, which causes some "expansion" of the light and leaves a trail.

(Not a "VHS effect", but down the line of the same realistic vibe"

This light phenomenon is not literally "motion blur" because it is not an smearing of frames, and is not based on motion alone.

Does Blender have any nodes that store lighting information I could use to create a delayed trail? Or maybe share knowledge if this is possible?

Related to motion trails and afterimages. Anything to work around this?

I have a Lens Flare node group I bought that I know achieves this "light source shape" based on nodes. I can reverse-engineer how it works and base it on the light shape.

That's the easy part; finding info about this has been rough.

I'm unclear on how to achieve the "Tail" effect and control its duration; that's the part I'm really confused about.

This has to be on composition, based on anything bright in the camera, so it's closer to the real phenomenon.

I am not the most skilled in Blender, but there are no Blender tutorials based on real-time composition trails. Everything I could find is pre-generated.

I want to try doing it on my own and share what I learn along the way.