Saber Glow on Objects

I heard somewhere that in the closeup shots of dooku and anakin in the hangar, they used some sort of light tubes or whatever to give a strong glow effect on the actors faces. Is this true and if so, can anyone give me some info on them?

 

Or, instead of a glowing rod, you can just put a blurred colored sphere over the person's face and make it transparent to achieve a similiar effect... ?

 

a crappy similar effect....

but if you are gonna do that, adjust the curves so that it is brighter in that region.

 

But how about the glow stick thing? Are they good,expensive,easy to find, etc.?

 

I remember a topic a while ago on this subject and someone said that filling up a clear tube with glow sticks works very well.

I can't seem to find the thread but may be some other people here will remember more then I do.

Chris

 

We have figured out a way to do it that works great. however, as we are using it in our new fan film, the process is top secret. However, when we are a bit farther into compleating the fan film, I will release a tutorial on how to do it. check the "New Light Saber Special Effects" topic for updates. I should have a video in the next few days for people to see what I am talking about. Yes, in epi. 2, we see light reflected off the faced and environments in shots with the lightsabers. This effects was created with "effects sabers" devolped by lucas arts. As far as I know though, you could not accually fight with these sabers, as they were fragile. and yes, the big glow sticks are way to expensive, and flopy. "I will destory you with my light, err, noodle!" That is were our new system is great. Great effects, very cheep, and you can actually fight with them. any way, check New Light Saber Special Effects and I will have a video up soon;.
-Adam

 

actually , if you have the episode II dvd you can see them using florecent tubes which they are really waveing around thier faces.. i do believe their are not expensive at all.. you could go the extremely cheap way with a lamp and a couple of blue and red party bulbs you could normally find at wal-mart.... thats what i would do cause i have no idea how to plug in a florecent colored tubes to a thing.... ... i dont know if the party bulbs would work that good... buts it worth a try... i think they would... but your trouble in finding the right color....

Good Luck!

 

And for the love of god do not fight with the flourescent tubes! The last thing our fledgeling hobby needs is two people blinded and cut up because of shooting a little lightsaber battle.

 

I haven't tried it yet, but I was planning on using a mini spotlight with a filter the color of the saber's blade and shining that on the actor's face.

 

You could also just embed some bright LEDs into your blade prop.

. . .

?

 

I would just go with the clear tube filled with glowsticks...

Cheap, easy to find the materials, and not alot of effort to produce.

Especially since you are going to be rotoscoping over the tubes anyways, doesn't matter how ugly or whatever it looks, as long as it makes the glow...

Check your local Party supply store or similar store for the glowsticks, and try a hardware store for your tube. Get something fairly sturdy, just in case you want to do a "bit" of swinging or anything...

Indy

 

So with floruecent tubes, if used in low light conditions, in close up shots, would look like the shots of the glowing rods in Ep. II? Or would they not have a white core?

 

You still have to rotoscope over the blade, but it will cast light (and be much easier to see).

 

Or you can check out these not the choice for someone on a tight budget, but I have one from a while back and they work well for the effect you want.