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Author Topic: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
drewjmore  665 posts
Registered: Aug '07
6642_42
Date Posted: 6/20 5:05pm Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
The dark stuff's pretty tough.
I'll suggest you pump up the contrast/brightness before you send out footage, especially if you're sending out compressed stuff that we won't be able to tweak up ourselves.

 

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VaporTrail  9951 posts
Registered: May '02
14913_Obi-Wan
Date Posted: 6/20 7:41pm Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread - Date Edited: 6/20 7:45pm (2 edits total) Edited By: VaporTrail
I was considering using Vegas' "Auto Levels" filter before I render out. It's too much to actually use for the final, plus it sometimes adds a weird flicker that I can't quite figure out how to control, but it ups the brightness like whoa.
One thing I've done when working on dark shots before is have AE's "Equalize" effect on. Just toggle it on/off. It'll make the picture look pretty scary, but with the white tape on the props, they'll tend to stand out where they might not otherwise.

EDIT: Yeah, brightness/contrast seems to work best for now. Auto Levels is so touchy.
Anyway, not a problem. I'll be sending the shots out Quicktime, Sor3 100%. I'd do H.264, but I think my version of Vegas was just before it's time. I can't figure out how to render it with that compressor.

 

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Joel_K  357 posts
Registered: Aug '07
24192_Anakin Burned
Date Posted: 6/21 9:28pm Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread - Date Edited: 6/21 9:28pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Joel_K
I might be able to do a short shot or two. Need to stretch the roto muscles in me fingers.

 

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jedi573  212 posts
Registered: Sep '05
Date Posted: 6/23 7:10am Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
I like your daytime shots, Vapes. The nighttime ones look crazy to draw on, though!

Click on image.


Andy

 
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drewjmore  665 posts
Registered: Aug '07
6642_42
Date Posted: 6/24 12:14pm Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
Vapes, check yer e-mail.
I'll have a few hours
tonight to re-work
what I sent you,
but I have a
need for feed-
back.

 

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SilentBat  1544 posts
Registered: Aug '06
40311_Quinlan Vos
Date Posted: 6/24 1:12pm Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
jedi573 posted:
I like your daytime shots, Vapes. The nighttime ones look crazy to draw on, though!

Click on image.


Andy


The green looks better than blue once again. Why does green always give little to no troubles?

 

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jedi573  212 posts
Registered: Sep '05
Date Posted: 6/25 12:27am Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
Green generally seems to look more intense. I tried increasing the saturation and such on the blue one, but it started to go away from the "day saber" thing, and looked more artificial.

On this night shot, I decided to have a little fun, and make it look like a raw image of them with F/X toys.

Click on image.


happy

Andy

 
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SilentBat  1544 posts
Registered: Aug '06
40311_Quinlan Vos
Date Posted: 6/25 1:44am Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
Very nice.

 

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VaporTrail  9951 posts
Registered: May '02
14913_Obi-Wan
Date Posted: 6/25 11:31am Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
That's actually really cool.


thinking

 

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fjrsm  687 posts
Registered: Sep '07
16255_Droidekas
Date Posted: 6/26 12:29am Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
Very nice =)

 

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BenMcEwan  741 posts
Registered: Jul '08
40312_Gumbaeki
Date Posted: 6/26 3:03am Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
VERY nice!
Seriously.. Good job.

 

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drewjmore  665 posts
Registered: Aug '07
6642_42
Date Posted: 7/2 7:58am Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread - Date Edited: 7/2 8:10am (1 edits total) Edited By: drewjmore


(full video, ~1 minute)

I'm posting this to ask if anyone sees 'problems' with my technique on the saber.

I did not use any of the popular methods, this is actually an attempt to use AE's "beam" effect.

 

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VaporTrail  9951 posts
Registered: May '02
14913_Obi-Wan
Date Posted: 7/2 8:05am Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread
Hard to tell in that small an image. You're using multiple layers, right?



And is that the Outrider?!?

 

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drewjmore  665 posts
Registered: Aug '07
6642_42
Date Posted: 7/2 8:13am Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread - Date Edited: 7/2 8:21am (3 edits total) Edited By: drewjmore
Yeah, edited to add a link to the video.

Also, that is an outrider. Free from sci-fi meshes, of course. I don't know whether to congratulate you on your astute observation, or pity you for knowing that from a view of just a piece of the ship. alien_2

It's two layers, the core layer is a beam tapering from 8 to 6 pixels diamter with white core and 100% red border, 100% soft, gaussian blurred 2 pix. The under layer is a red-red beam, 12 to 9 pixels dia, 100% soft, gauss blurred 12 pix. The endpoints are locked from one layer to the other by an expression (so I only have to 'do' the roto with one of the beams), and both layers are "echo"ed to produce the fan.

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't hold up in a closer view, but as it is...???
Also, I cut some corners on the subtraction masks, so there's no proper lightwrap around obscuring objects.

 

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VaporTrail  9951 posts
Registered: May '02
14913_Obi-Wan
Date Posted: 7/2 8:45am Subject: The Lightsaber Effects Thread - Date Edited: 7/2 8:47am (1 edits total) Edited By: VaporTrail
drewjmore posted:
Also, that is an outrider. Free from sci-fi meshes, of course. I don't know whether to congratulate you on your astute observation, or pity you for knowing that from a view of just a piece of the ship.

Haha, well I was at just the right age when "Shadows of the Empire" came out. Read the book, my friend had the game on N64 and I most definitely had the toy, despite its inaccuracies. tongue
Still do, actually. Love that ship.

drewjmore posted:
It's two layers, the core layer is a beam tapering from 8 to 6 pixels diamter with white core and 100% red border, 100% soft, gaussian blurred 2 pix. The under layer is a red-red beam, 12 to 9 pixels dia, 100% soft, gauss blurred 12 pix. The endpoints are locked from one layer to the other by an expression (so I only have to 'do' the roto with one of the beams), and both layers are "echo"ed to produce the fan.

Watching the video, you get the result expected with the beam effect. It always ends up looking using Photoshop's "Outer Glow" to me. The fanning looks very sharp in the corners and the glow is a bit too... transparent, I guess. I think one more gaussian-blurred layer might help you out. Somewhere in the middle, maybe 6px or so?

Even though it's a wide shot, keeping the Ryan-W method's blur ratio should still keep it looking right.

 

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