Stunt prop isn't always visible

I'm editing a lightsaber fight( rotoscoping in AE),but because of the movement my stuntprops are often very hard to see,or even "invisible".I was wondering how do I fix this(make the quality of the footage better or something)? Cus the quality was pretty good at first(it's been filmed with a Mini DV JVC camera),but when i imported it in AE,the quality was not very good.

 

Well, there really isn't any way to fix it. This is why AE is helpful--it can interpolate where the prop should be, sometimes. Otherwise, it's just up to your judgement.

 

make sure you use the correct lightsaber PROP colour, not a green lightsaber inside a forest, or a blue one near a ocean, red is the overall best. though of course there are exceptions (though i can't remember you will have a saberfight above real lava).

 

Just use your own judgement - I did this without any reference prop at all, just the saber hilt, and I guessed where the blade would be completely. Turned out alright for the most part.

 

I feared that,but how is it possible then to make blades not "moving"?? I cant even get them in the right place,not even talk about precise. I think i just have to spend a lot of time on this....

 

WOW lord charisma thats an impossible thing youve done there,the blades aren't moving at all,theyre totally still at the hilts ...
How may time did you spend on that??
And IceEagle, I didn't use coloured props,i used just white/yellow pvc tubes...maybe that wasn't too smart of me then....cus its really bad,sometimes i see only half of my prop because it's moving in 1 frame and the you get that blurry effect(like three sabers in a frame) but anyways il just try to do it thanks for your answers

 

There's nothing impossible about it, it just takes time. Contrary to popular belief, lightsabers can't be done with just a push of a button.. if you want it done right, it's going to take a while. Even ILM has to deal with blurred saber blades, even moreso now that they're shooting digitially.

 

There are a few settings in AE that you can use on your footage.. sheesh I forget what it's called.
It's helped the blade stand out in my darkened footage.

Ah yes, it's under Effect->Image Controls->Equalize.
What I do is duplicate the video footage, then apply that effect to the top one, and then I can just click out the little eye so I can see the actual footage underneath after I've traced the prop.

Now, I don't know if this will work for you, but in some of my shots I went from looking at nothing to having the prop stand out like a beacon. My props were white and it was against a black sky when we filmed, so what's probably why, but it might work for you too.

Try it out. Couldn't hurt.

-Vaportrail