boo - my first Star Wars production

people, see it

I just feel bad about the image quality, since i dont have a digital camera

feel free to post comments

Here



elMister

 

Sorry, but the page could not be found. Is that the correct address?

 

argh, link fixed

 

What I like most:
- The dancing letters in the beginning.
- The through the legs-shot, also in the beginning.
- The way you use perspective.
- The overall choreography of the movements when the Jedi reflects the blaster shots.

What I'd have made different:
- The blaster shots themselves (looked like my own first ones, which I didn't like either, somehow "comic-like").
- The delay between the first shot and the Jedi's reaction.
- I wouldn't use a gun that looks so real. I love StarWars, but I detest real wars.
- In the end: Why does the Jedi kill his enemy again after he has already chopped his head off? Is he that full of hatred? I felt concerned after seeing that ;-)

 

The effects were good, but was it really an effects test? Something that is 3 mins long, takes 1 min before any effects happen and then less that a minute before credits roll up......

I liked the slight transparency in both the bolts and sabre when moving fast, but in the slo-mo shots the bolts were a bit confusing as they didn't seem to travel, just flash up at the bottom. Better to have fewer and make them travel all the way into a wall behind the jedi (unless they're deflected).


Also, hang the sabre on your side.....

 

Not to shabby. You should think about a tripod though. It seemed you camera panned up when you struck the bounty hunter. Great ligthsaber effects, what did you use?

The only other thing is lighting.

[Mr Miagi]"Lighting good, movie can be good. Lighting bad.. best ah pack up and go home."[/Mr miagi]

It has some potential. But if I may, please don't make movies that are more credits than movie. It takes longer to download, and them I'm dissapointed when I find that out. At least you didn't have an opening crawl.

 

ok so the credits were as long as the film, but I think your been a bit harsh on them about that

Its not too bad. My critisisms are probably what you already know, and really don't apply that much since this is an effects test and not a full film or even a short film.

The movement of the camera was too shaky for what would have worked well as a steady shot.

However without an expensive steady cam it would be hard to do. Maybe it is something to consider for any films you do, but for an effects test, don't worry about it.

Watch your shadows, you can make out the camera man as the camera pans up, look at the wall

Also the lighting.. It looked like you were shining light directly onto your actors face, resulting in a very bright splodge.

It would have worked better to reflect the light with something as simple as white reflective card. This would have given a more even brightness to the side of the actors face, and the contrast would have looked better.

Anyhow, just my 2pence

Nice blasters

bye.

 

lol, thanks for your postings and sorry about the long credits
Well these all was made at night and since i dont have a nice lighting and camera... well. Its just a test. And those shadows... LOL yea and again, its just a test. Hmmm i was wondering if you want me to cut the credits in order to other ppl see? well anyway thanks for your comments


PS:
"LordFrisian
What I'd have made different:
- The blaster shots themselves (looked like my own first ones, which I didn't like either, somehow "comic-like")."

I think they are comic-like too. Could you teach me how you do yours? Are they much better?


"- I wouldn't use a gun that looks so real. I love StarWars, but I detest real wars. "

in fact the gun was my tripod! LMAO



Oh, and about the Jedi killing his enemy again, hmmm... well.. My actor really wanted to make that move.



elMister

 

?

 

Ok just watched it, and it was not bad for a test. Things I would work on.
1. Lighting, try to use reflectors to fill in dark areas.
2. Use your tripod next time! It was too shaky.
3. Rule of line. Pick a side of the scene for the camera to be on and stay there, but there are some exceptions. 4. Find a better place to put your lightsaber when you?re finished.

Thank you for sharing with us. Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks man!

EDIT: I forgot i couldn't use the tripod because the actor was using it as a weapon! doh!

 

>in fact the gun was my tripod!
Ooops ...
Congratulations, here you got me ;-)
That's what I call an efficient illusion.

> Could you teach me how you do yours? Are they much better?
I wrote a little tool that forms the shots using a Gauss distribution (I hope you call it that way in English), that is: I regard the line between the shot's source and its target, and the brightness of the shot depends on the distance of each pixel from the line. Of course, I consider the perspective, too.
Are they *much* better? Well, this depends on your taste ;-) Sadly enough, I'm currently travelling, and I cannot access my video-machine for examples.
If you want to see any examples later on, please let me know.

 

Got you?

Ah, ok, I'd really like to see your laser shots when u get back.


cya
elMister

 

I liked it. How old are you? These guys in here forget sometimes that they have had years of experience doing this. For some of them...their jobs are special effects. I am 18 years old. That clip was so far above my first effects clip. Sure there are going to be things wrong with everything. Broken Allegiance had a lot of bad acting and dialogue..then again so did X-MEN. Its really hard to please these guys. The only thing that matters is....did you like it? Did you mom say it was good the 36th time you made her watch it? Keep up the good work.....I wanna see more of your stuff when you get through.

Da-Man Dave

 

ow man, thanks for your comments, thats really inspiring And about the other comments, they are really very welcome, of course, and they make we see it with other eyes too. Btw, i'm 17. Thanks again

 

DarkSaber1 is correct: Some of us are hard to please. To be honest, personally, I don't really like some of the tie-fighter shots in the OT, too, nor am I likely to be ever finally satisfied with my own ;-)
But never mind - Lucas himself said that, with ANH, he'd only realized about 10% of what he'd had in mind. And that he doesn't ever finish a film, just abandon it.

The good thing about people looking at your work critically is that their recognition is "absolute" and not relative to who you are.
I've often heard people say: "Well, that was a phantastic job!" But when I was just about to smile, they added "... with respect to your age / your limited assets/money/..."
This little sentence was like a kind of hammer, breaking down everything they said before.
I won't act like that, and so I'm not very likely to say kind things just because you are 17. If I don't like your work, I will say *nothing*. If I say "I like it", that's because I like it. If I discuss it, I do so because I think it's worth while.

By the way, a critic will never have the deep view into your work that you have. If criticism ever sucks me, I like citing J.W.Goethe:
"Schlagt ihn tot, den Hund! Es ist ein Rezensent."
(Please don't take this too seriously, either! ;-)

 

Ooops, I almost forgot:
I put the shot-example I promised to www.sf-forum.de/lightjob (the compression sucks a little, but I didn't want to offer a >1M file for 3 seconds of film). Now that I watch it, I notice that the bounding boxes aren't correct when the blue shots approach the left border, due to a bug in that version of my tool.

 

I just watched it and i love the lightsaber! I also think that the muzzle flashes looked really good. What program did you use to make the muzzle flashes?

 

Thanks again and again for your comments boys. LordFrisian, I´ve just watched your shots, they look very cool. How do you make them?

Andalite, I used the LightFactory, for AE to make the muzzle flashes. And thank you for your "i love the lightsaber"

And I was thinking about something.... How old are you guys, who work with these special effects, and even who make fanfilms?


elMister

 

Thank you, elMister, I like your comments too

I wrote a little tool for this shot. It is an extension of my beta-sw SerialLightjob (the URL from above, just leave away the .mov-file).
The extension is alpha and therefore not on the download-page. I'm not very likely to continue work on it during the next two months.
If you would like to check it out anyway, I can send it to you. Alernatively, we could try and discuss the algorithm. I say *try*, because talking about maths in *English* is not what I can do best ;-)

 

I just downloaded it and well done! I like your roto job. Was that a saber from the big yellow box? It looks familiar...I dunno. Maybe just me. But I thought it was very good. The pan up shot at the beginning could have been a little more steady, but you would need a steadicam or something like it (Check here for home-made stedicam stuff).

And you should probably put your lightsaber clip somewhere else

 

Thank you man Yea, I did use some ideas from the Big Yellow Box, but the one i used is not there. I have another one and that was made just the same as the double one from the BYB. Well, yea, i dont have a steady cam, and the pan up really sucked, but well, thats just a test Maybe if i can get the materials from that site you mentioned I'll be able to make a nice one. But for now it is, well, *acceptable* The same for the clip

Thank you again.


elMister

 

I am downloading it now on a 56K (ugh!) but it will be done in an hour and I will watch it and comment on it.


aaron

 

Man i cant stop watching your blaster shots. I think they are really cool and i am trying to make them on photoshop, with no success. Any idea on how make them on photoshop?

PS: Ah, you could send the alpha to my email: theigor@terra.com.br

 

O, thanks aaron, looking forward your comments