Lightsaber @ night

Hi folks,

in my next project we want to have a lightsaber fight at night. So I'm asking myself, how to "highlight" my lightsaber props correctly, therewith I can roto them properly.

Any hints ?

(*hoping that this question wasnt asked before*)

Thx and Greetings
Buzzdee

 

We had a lightsabre fight at night and used masking tape on our blades so that they showed up well enough to track in post. I'm sure there's something better out there that you could use, but it worked for us!

 

Just a wild guess....can you get a hole of any type of reflective chrome styke tape?

 

On the FOTR audio commentary they mention that they used some sort of reflective tape or something for the inscriptions on the secret door to Moria. Apparently it shines when you aim a light at it.

 

Of course, there's also the glow from the lightsaber being transcribed to your body and your surroundings. I've still not figured out a way to do this in an effects program without having, like, a flourescent tube as a blade. Eeep.

 

There´s something like a "glowing-liquid-pen" for kids. If you head a light on it for, 15 minutes, It glows for a one hour or so... You know, like the stars that you can glue on your celing

 

Do you think that would cast enough light, though? Lightsabers are pretty bright.

 

Nothing is going to cast enough light except flouescents. You don't want to mess with that. You would do better to try to get creative with your lighting and cast the right color light in general onto your subjects.

As for rotoing, you can buy phosphorus (glow in the dark) paint at any craft store. Probably at Walmart too. Paint that on your blades. You'll get enough glow to roto by.

 

I don't know how you are going to make the glow, But if you wanna track you saber in the dark you can either put a glow stick on the tip or maybe (if you are using a PVC Tube) you can run a little christmas light through, to the top and put a 9volt battery (somehow) in the hilt.(make sure you by the little connection for the battery though)
~Rory

 

In Episode 2, when Anakin strikes down the tusken, he´s having his blue lightsaber infront of his face. In the production, Hayden had a blue-glowing electric stick in his hands. So, if you shoot at night, the lightcolor needs to be a bit brighter and touching the faces of the actors...

 

Use a clear plastic tube with glowsticks inside...

Sage H.

 

Well the best thing to do in my opinion is shoot at day and then turn the footage into a night shot. Of course - now you can't see the lightsabers either - but there's a simple way around it. Rotoscope the lightsabers on the original footage, and export the lightsabers without the background. Then, open another composition where you turn your day shot into a night shot, and import your lightsabers over it. Pretty easy, and it does the job.

Arrrrr Me

 

i like sage's idea personally.. arr.. simple, effective, cheap.

 

Aye, but it be hard to buckle the swash with only a plastic tube! Arr!

(Ha! Buckle the swash!)

 

yeah sage has a good idea...now where to find a clear tube !

 

If you fill a tube with glow sticks (military?) I could be to hard and heavy... It would brake easier...

 

not really. just get a clear pvc tube or what have you and buy a couple of those 6" or 12" glow stix.. slide them in the t00b (after breaking them to make them glow), plug up the hole and voila. it wouldnt really matter how p00py it looked anyway since ur rotoing over it, and as long as the light glow was consistent and the right color i think it would look great.

 

You could use a blacklight as your light and paint your blade a color that will hilight in the blacklight.
Just be sure no one is wearing white or another bright color

 

Yeah, but if it were me i would use glow-in-the-dark paint, Cheaper than glow sticks. but...with the glow being reflective it might carry from frame to frame.

...(ACTUALLY i had planed something like this fomr my next fan film....)

 

Another advantage to using the clear tube with glow-sticks idea is that the lightsaber is unlikely to cast shadows on other things. I think it looks pretty bad when you can see the shadow of the lightsaber. One of the worst shots in ROTJ is when Darth Vader's lightsaber casts a shadow on the Throne Room floor.

Justin

 

Or you could go the expensive route and get a Parks Saber. Or one from MasterReplicas. EL blades are perfect for that sort of thing.

 

If you have Adobe Photoshop, ImageReady, or After Effects, you can make the lightsaber on a new layer, with a glow. Shoot your film in the daytime, and darken it later with the new layer, and on this new layer, and a glow, (I forgot How) so that it illuminates just the area around the saber, and casts a red or blue or green glow on this area. Play around with Ryan-W's method and Adobe and you should figure it out.

 

From what I've heard, though, EL blades are pretty fragile and not really conducive to fighting.

-Paul

 

glowsticks cast A LOT of light and they wouldnt make a shadow of the blade because they are the blade. the sun being an outside source of light shining on the blades would cast a shadow. the bad shot in rotj is because of the spotlight shining down on the saber blades. but anyway.. i stil say clear pipe and glow sticks is the best way. durable, cheap, lots of glow, different colors of glow sticks, being near halloween time it will be easy to find them too, etc etc.

 

Yep... Listen to Ben... I'll even tell you where you can get a tube too. As long as you aren't using these to bash them really hard against each other, just go over to any sporting goods store or dept. such as walmart (man I hate that place) and look near the gun cleaning supplies for a shotgun cleaning rod. The tube it's housed in should work perfectly. Then just pick up your glowsticks and go to town with it...

Put me in your credits as an idea generator too...

Sage H.