Testing: Lightening

My first lightening test I felt went rather well,  although I used simple lightening, and solar lens flares, I feel the result is pleasing. It was a rather simple process, only having to keyframe the lightening to stay connected to the hammer was the tricky/time consuming element. I looked at this tutorial for guidence by 'Alex L': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckZYSlZI2B8 which I took some qualities to help but left much out as I felt it a bit over the top.

I am proud of this effect but would like to experiment with more complicated advanced lightening. My test can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnRdP52CRMY