Light Saber Effect

DynamiteProductions · Post by **DynamiteProductions** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:05 am

Looking for a person who has perfected this effect and is willing to explain it... I'm currently using Final Cut Pro 5.0.2

DEDFX · Post by **DEDFX** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:17 am

Go to File, preferences, then light saber effect.

Almondo99 · Post by **Almondo99** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:48 am

www.google.com
theforce.net has a lot of tutorials. Got this link by- Search forum/lightsaber>overused lightsaber effect (topic)>*scroll...*>link from Wildstorm:
http://www.ryan-w.com/ryan-w/tutorials_sabers.html

DEDFX · Post by **DEDFX** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 5:23 am

Yeah I didn't want to sound like a broken record............. you could also try google??

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:11 am

www.ryan-w.com

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:21 am

Ryan-W is widely considered, by many fanfilm makers, to have got it just about right.

As far as explanation goes, there's not much to say except that every shot is different, and that in this case the glow works particularly well because it mimics the way light works in real life - the inverse square rule, if anyone gets me on that. By blurring the core 10-20-40, you're simulating the fact that light drops off in a rule that is equal to the inverse square of its distance.

angusware · Post by **angusware** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 10:07 am

Lightsabers are cool. anyone know how they did them for the first films?

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:06 pm

A combination of coating the blades with a reflective material that would show up as bright white on film, and rotoscoping by painting dyes directly onto the film. Painstaking stuff.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:25 pm

It wasn't originally supposed to be rotoscoped. They must have thought the rotating blades looked silly, so they painted over them with blue and red. I thought it was a pretty neat idea, though.

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:41 pm

Great idea, obviously.

kene555 · Post by **kene555** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:30 am

Thanks for the links posted here.

I've been working on a saber movie personally for my high school's spring arts festival.

Let me tell you, going frame by frame for one lightsaber is enough to make the average person go crazy. But when you add in 3 blades, and have to put in masks (after Effects) when the blade goes behind someone...I hate it.

Personally, for me, I make 1 duplicate of the blade and blur them 6pxls and 20 pxls, I think this looks better than 10-20-40, which looks a little too blurry, in my opinion.

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 2:17 am

kene555 wrote: Let me tell you, going frame by frame for one lightsaber is enough to make the average person go crazy. But when you add in 3 blades, and have to put in masks (after Effects) when the blade goes behind someone...I hate it.

Heh, just wait till you have to do this for 20 people. Lightsabers are a walk by comparison.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:47 am

What a strange movie.

MasterMike, you love to get the last word in. Don't you?

Firestorm · Post by **Firestorm** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 6:26 pm

I think you need to redo the opening credits:

A long time ago, when nerds ruled the school halls...

NERD WARS
Episode 1: No Hope

The Nerdi Knights, aided by the Force, have been the
reigning class in the school halls for decades. But internal
dissention and politics has resulted in civil war amongst
the Nerdi. Not knowing that the time of the Nerds is drawing
to an end, three Nerdi engage in an inexplicable and pointless
battle...

I don't mean to rag on it. It'll no doubt be fun to watch and an impressive effort if you get the whole thing done. One thing though, you shouldn't let there be a tripod in the movie. There may be no plot or anything, but at least take the tripod out of the shot.

"Let's get this party started" - that line should seriously win some kind of award.

MasterMike · Post by **MasterMike** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 8:31 pm

Epsilon wrote:What a strange movie.

MasterMike, you love to get the last word in. Don't you?

I like my opinion heard, yes.

cr**, just did it again.

kene555 · Post by **kene555** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:20 pm

Thanks for the positive remarks. I originally got the idea to do a random lightsaber movie at the beginning of January, after watching an amazing video of a saber fight online. At first, it was just going to be a 10 minute video of a fight, just for the heck of it, but it began to evolve into somthing deeper...something with meaning. lol.

My high school is called Hoban, and our mascot is a knight. So in order to have SOME sort of plot, I began throwing something together. The title is the Hoban Knight, because its our school name. Now the end result will be displayed at our spring arts festival, to promote school spirit, and to show off the effect.
So basically what's happening (parts in the beginning haven't been filmed yet) is that this regular student at Hoban is outside waiting for his ride. He looks up and sees this spacecraft above come down towards him. So he runs inside and dives up the stairs as the ship hovers outside and blasts the glass doors( which I hope to accomplish with After Effects' Shatter effect). These two Sith jump out (going to be representatives from rival schools in the end) and enter the building. This is where the video (which is online) starts for now. As those of you whom have have the video know, our hero in the dark cape runs off down the hallway in search of some sort of defense. Eventually he gets to a knight statue which is holding a blue lightsaber (school color). He grabs it, had a fight, then heads outside. Here ends the video so far.
Next he's gonna run outside the building to a bridge over the expressway. Here will be another fight, after which our hero crosses the bridge to the school football field. Here is another fight, which ends in a surprising twist.

Thanks for pointing out the tripod. We will have to redo that scene.

angusware · Post by **angusware** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:06 am

I think you should practise fighting a bit more.

kene555 · Post by **kene555** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:35 am

You are exactly right - we should practice our fight choreography more. But this is just a friendly film, with more emphasis on fun and spontaneity than fighting skill. While this may seperate our film from those with better choreography, we have neither the time nor patience to spend hours practicing, as we have school and conflicting schedules. Perhaps if a sequel is made during the summer, choreography would have a higher standing on necessity.

Thanks for the comments!

kene555 · Post by **kene555** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 1:04 am

Also, I am looking for some epic, cinematic music to use for a sequence. Any suggestions?

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