| Author |
Topic:
The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
Kaat
Registered:
Apr '04
|
Date Posted:
4/14 5:25am
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
Vidina posted:
Looks good enough, but the most common reason for the cores being colored in TPM, is because of the color correction the film went through after all the effects were integrated. The original sabers were no doubt white. Core-wise.
Why can you see the blade prop under the saber effect sometimes, then?
-----signature-----
Check out my VFX-blog where you can find my fx tests and my video tutorials as well: You'll find my tutorial for lightsaber wall cuts there, too. . http://petergerri.blogspot.com/
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
jedi573
Registered:
Sep '05
|
Date Posted:
4/16 2:32am
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
- Date Edited:
4/16 2:37am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
jedi573
|
Thanks for the feedback.
Okay, I think I'm getting a lot warmer with doing the Episode I effect. I did away with the colored cores with these. I also realized that the glows of the swords in Episode I (and some of the other films as well) interacted with the backgrounds in a peculiar way. Screen mode is usually said to be best but I tried something else here with some interesting results. I started with a greyscale core and colored it just using the midtones. I spread it out with a few layers set pretty close to the core and using a modest double-redouble progression (e.g. 1 px-2 px-4 px) and set this part to screen. I then created a few more layers and spread these out more from the core using a triple-retriple progression (e.g. 2 px-6 px-18 px) and set this part to linear dodge.
The end result is a crisp and vibrant effect that arguably duplicates that curious combination we've noticed where we've remarked, "It's kind of a screen mode and kind of an add mode" when looking at the film effects. For wider shots they spread the glows out accordingly so the color could better be seen from a distance, but for the up-close shots they were frequently pretty tight against the core. There's a certain dymanic feel to them that I think can be attributed to using two differently-spaced (doubling versus tripling) sets of layers that start their increase from different sizes, and using different transfer modes for the different parts of the total glow. In a nutshell, the tighter glow is only midtones and is set to screen; the wider glow has more highlights and saturation and is set to linear dodge.
From what I've found this also seems to be a good way to get a good dose of color to fool the eye without drastically overdoing it with too many highlights or too much saturation. Because the core is solid white many have felt the need to go overboard with color to say, "Look, this is a blue one." More can be done with less.
Thoughts? 
Click on images.
Andy
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Kaat
Registered:
Apr '04
|
Date Posted:
4/16 5:09am
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
Again, I think for a lightsource so bright that it's pure white in the middle, the colored haze around it should be larger and brighter. It just doesn't seem right to me.
I made a comparison between your sabers and a shot from TPM with similar situated lightsaber blades:
(I also colorcorrected yours to resemble the actual TPM shot)
The ILM sabers have richer, wider glows. And as you said, they kinda interact more with the background, which is a very good thing to go for! But I can't see much of that in your pictures. When I try to go for that interacting look, I usually mix screen- and add-mode sabers, indeed, to get a result in between. Corel Photo Paint happens, unlike After Effects though, to have a very nice transfer mode that allows me to do that very effectively.
However, I altered one of your pictures a bit to look more like what I think it should have been:
I mainly improved the red blade. I think it looks better in a still frame that way, with a more vibrant and colorful glow.
I'd like to see your method in motion, though. Because, actually, the TPM blades don't look very good in still frames as well, and kick ass in a moving shot. So I think you should make a little video clip with your method so we get a much better example of what your sabers will be like.
-----signature-----
Check out my VFX-blog where you can find my fx tests and my video tutorials as well: You'll find my tutorial for lightsaber wall cuts there, too. . http://petergerri.blogspot.com/
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
-Spiff-
Registered:
Jun '05
|
Date Posted:
4/16 9:12am
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
I think the coloured cores in TPM footage are an artifact of colour correction done in the film master->DVD process and the chroma sub-sampling in the DVD footage.
-Spiff
-----signature-----
Eclipse SE now available: http://boards.theforce.net/fan_films/b10015/28647876/p1/?26 Spiff(x, |x-Phi|<small) = twitterpated FREE THE QUARKS!!!
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
VaporTrail
Registered:
May '02
|
Date Posted:
4/16 10:45pm
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
|
Kinda makes me wonder how they'll look when SW finally jumps to Blu-Ray.
-----signature-----
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
StevenBills
Registered:
Jan '06
|
Date Posted:
4/17 4:36pm
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
VaporTrail posted:
Kinda makes me wonder how they'll look when SW finally jumps to Blu-Ray.
Sorry Vapes.
SB
-----signature-----
http://www.billsfilms.com "Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right." - Henry Ford
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
madhorizons
Registered:
May '06
|
Date Posted:
5/14 8:08am
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
i managed to get some photoshop sneak time whilst @ work...this is what i came up with:
-----signature-----
Breaking guitar strings since 1986
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
VaporTrail
Registered:
May '02
|
Date Posted:
5/14 9:24am
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
Pictures like that make TPM seem so much less silly. It's a shame that style wasn't maintained throughout.
It does look better. I think that's a promotional photo though, so I wonder if ILM actually did it or not.
-Vaportrail
-----signature-----
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
madhorizons
Registered:
May '06
|
Date Posted:
5/14 9:37am
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
VaporTrail posted:
Pictures like that make TPM seem so much less silly. It's a shame that style wasn't maintained throughout.
It does look better. I think that's a promotional photo though, so I wonder if ILM actually did it or not.
-Vaportrail
I'll be the first to admit that i have no idea where the pic came from...i just found it laying around the interweb somewhere and grabbed it when i had a cpl mins to tinker. Out of the PT, i like the sabers in TPM the best anyway.
-----signature-----
Breaking guitar strings since 1986
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Lightsaber_Monster
Registered:
Oct '05
|
Date Posted:
5/15 11:52am
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
Made in AE trial
Video
No keyframing, just expressions for the movement, flicker and flares, background picture from RiotGear, buy it!! and thanks Andrew
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
VADERIOS
Registered:
Aug '05
|
Date Posted:
5/16 12:45am
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
- Date Edited:
5/16 12:59am (2 edits total)
Edited By:
VADERIOS
|
Lightsaber_Monster posted:
Made in AE trial
No keyframing, just expressions for the movement, flicker and flares, background picture from RiotGear, buy it!! and thanks Andrew
Actually this is very Impressive.Very fluid movement and smooth and you keep the rounded/pointy edge correctly.I like you kept the exposure a little bit down so nothing is pure white.Very Nice.cant w8 to see it in a live action scene.Very impressive again.Good work!
-Angel
-----signature-----
Jazz: You want a piece of me Megatron?
Megatron: No, I want two!
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Mae
Registered:
Nov '04
|
Date Posted:
6/12 7:26pm
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
 
-----signature-----
14 hymns for the heathen
First hymn, the son of God complex
Second hymn, the prodigal damsel
Third hymn, the tree stump of knowledge
Choking on Adam's apple
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
FilipeMonteiro
Registered:
Jun '08
|
Date Posted:
6/13 2:08am
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
|
Wow.. This thread is still alive?
-----signature-----
"He who laughs last, probably hasn't understand the joke..." My Blog: http://l-bp.blogspot.com/ Former fjrsm
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
Covert-Sniper
Registered:
Feb '06
|
Date Posted:
6/13 5:04am
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
My friend, this thread will never die. 
-----signature-----
"Only a Sith deal in absolutes!" If there are no absolutes, then there really isn't good or evil. If there is not good or evil, then there is chaos. If there is chaos, then there is no point to anything.
"We are keepers of the peace, not soldiers"
"N
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
FilipeMonteiro
Registered:
Jun '08
|
Date Posted:
6/13 6:58am
Subject:
RE: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
|
|
Right... In my version, when I registered, back in september, this was only in page 200 somethings. Now it's on the 301st...
-----signature-----
"He who laughs last, probably hasn't understand the joke..." My Blog: http://l-bp.blogspot.com/ Former fjrsm
|
|
|
Quote Reply |
Active Topic Notification |
Private Message |
Post History
|
