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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

The Lightsaber Effects Thread

Discussion in 'Fan Films, Fan Audio & SciFi 3D' started by krnbanguboi, Oct 23, 2005.

  1. Vidina

    Vidina Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 11, 2006
    Au contraire, mon calamari. I believe it was Brandon himself who said the saber color is kind of a clothes color sort of thing.
     
  2. fjrsm

    fjrsm Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Sep 25, 2007
    Yeah:


    "Spiff
    I would just like to suggest, that if Ryan and Brandon, or some fans thereof decide to rotoscope their submission, that they go with Red vs. Yellow [...]"


    "_BrandonFlyte
    Actually, Ryan's saber/s would be blue and, yeah, mine would be red. Color-coordinated costumes, I guess.

    Couldn't remember my old password. Hey everyone."





    Yeah, I know... cheap quotes... it's all in here...



     
  3. Ryan_W

    Ryan_W VIP star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Aug 15, 2001
    Ah, very good. I think he was leaning toward green for a while, at some point. But red would 'match' better.
     
  4. Evil-Henchman

    Evil-Henchman Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 17, 2004
    I had some family I hadn't seen in a long time come and visit and I let a couple of first cousin's once removed (or so wiki tells me) play with some Force FX sabers. I decided to roto a couple of pics for them.

    [image=http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y237/Evil-Henchman/Lightsaber%20Effects%20Pics/HannahPaulLightsaberFighting-01.jpg]

    [image=http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y237/Evil-Henchman/Lightsaber%20Effects%20Pics/HannahPaulLightsaberFighting-02.jpg]
     
  5. Vidina

    Vidina Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 11, 2006
    Observers beware. Notice that this is indeed forceFX sabers, and that none of the "combatants" are lit up by the blades at all.

    as for some C&C; the sabers do look good, but for a bright scene like that, I think they're spreading too much. Didn't we *just* have a discussion about this, and some very nice examples too?
     
  6. jedi573

    jedi573 Jedi Master star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 24, 2005
    Evil-Henchman, care to post up the original photos for those? :)

    Andy
     
  7. Evil-Henchman

    Evil-Henchman Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 17, 2004
    Is that statement to let people know that they won't get IL from Force FX sabers? It's daytime. The blades aren't bright enough to light them up in a daytime looking enviroment. Also, I don't do IL in post. I'm too lazy to learn how to do it properly.

    There are several reasons for that but mainly it's because these sabers are made using Photoshop Actions that use my presets. They are done to my personal preference. In other words, I like them just fine.

    I cropped, shrunk and added effects all in one go but here they are uncropped, just shrunk to 1024x768.

    [image=http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y237/Evil-Henchman/Various%20Pics/DSC03516.jpg]

    [image=http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y237/Evil-Henchman/Various%20Pics/DSC03524.jpg]
     
  8. SSinferno

    SSinferno Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Aug 11, 2009
    Hey guys! First post here!

    Here is my attempt of doing roto..

    [image=http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h284/ZROCWS6/ryansaber.jpg]

    I think you all know who that is lol.
     
  9. batkins182

    batkins182 Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 1, 2005
    Hey, I use to post here awhile ago, some of y'all might remember me. Anyways, I finally have done some Saber effects for the first time in about a million years.

    I did a video (it's only about 6 seconds long), I'll just post a couple of images of it and if anyone would like to see the whole video just let me know.

    [image=http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7913/bvzimage.jpg]
    [image=http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9831/bvzimage02.jpg]
     
  10. Vidina

    Vidina Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 11, 2006
    Gee Willikers, Batman! It's Texas-Blake, back from the dead!
     
  11. drewjmore

    drewjmore Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 15, 2007
    Changing the subject slightly...

    Let's say I have some folks willing to do roto on video for a project, but they have never heard of the process and don't have specialized software like AE. All we'd really need is for the volunteers to paint over the core props in the video. Can we think up a list of simple and free ways to help less-technical people give us what we need?
     
  12. Vidina

    Vidina Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 11, 2006
    If LSMaker is able to outbput cores alone, you could get away with mattes and median filters, and apply glows yourself, I suppose. If not, there's always the infamous Blender.
     
  13. drewjmore

    drewjmore Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 15, 2007
    Woah.

    I just tried LSMaker. While it looked like it might be able to produce the output I want, the program crashed and errored me out a dozen times at least in the last half-hour.

    Is the person known as "LSMaker" a member here at TF.N? The basic function of placing 2 points on the video frames would be nice to have, if I could then export those points to a text file and import that file as AE expression point data.
     
  14. BruceM

    BruceM Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 8, 2006
    I recommend blender as well. It's very easy to set up. Before I got After Effects, used blender to rotoscope all my lightsabers. The core can then easily be rendered as white on black, and then can be easily imported into AE and be treated as a core like normal
     
  15. Chaos52

    Chaos52 Jedi Knight

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2008
    hey, this is my first post to theforce.net

    What do you guys think of the picture? (Lightsaber + Color Grading). I'm going for a dark and cold look here. I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with the saber... i can still see a bit of an edge on the glow even though its blurred out to 450 pixels at 25% opacity.

    I've been working with after effects for a little over 3 years now. you can check out some of my work here: http://www.joerule.com

    Thanks - Joe

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3268159&l=3cb7170920&id=704071773

    [image=http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs139.snc1/5932_141812531773_704071773_3268159_3461027_n.jpg]
     
  16. Ricky_Calrissian

    Ricky_Calrissian Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 17, 2008
    Pretty good. I went ahead and visited your site and watched your first duel. Pretty nice roto/fx work all around, especially for a first project. I really want to see this saber in motion, it looks much better than your first duel's sabers.
     
  17. fjrsm

    fjrsm Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Sep 25, 2007
    Good lightsaber, the fact that it is blue on a blue-ish tint, helps the glow's outline stand out less.
     
  18. Chaos52

    Chaos52 Jedi Knight

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2008
    I don't have enough posts to PM so here's my reply

    thanks for the suggestions about lcc. I've actually been following the contest for the last couple years. My friend from Zam vs Chaos and I are currently working on another fight which I might enter in the contest. (assuming the projects don't have to be completed start to finish in the contest time, cuz we've been working on it for a LONG time) This fight is acutally where that screen shot was taken from.

    -Joe
     
  19. Mstarr88

    Mstarr88 Jedi Padawan

    Registered:
    Sep 12, 2009
    Hello, everyone. I finally got some time to play around with lightsaber effects. I followed GIMP lightsaber tutorial I found here on TFN.

    I added a blade to this picture of Qui Gon.

    [image=http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q61/mstarr92/quigonsaber1st.jpg]
     
  20. StormTrooper1776

    StormTrooper1776 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2004
    Hey everyone,I have an AfterEffects question.I noticed on Andrew Kramer's lightsaber preset that he has like these start and end points that is alot easier to make lightsabers than using the pen tool.

    But i can't download his presets for some reason and i don't know why.So i was wandering if somebody could tell me how to make my own presets?

    Thanks...
     
  21. drewjmore

    drewjmore Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 15, 2007
    Kramer wrote an expression, actually a system of several that interact with each other. Expressions are basically Javascript programs that work specifically AE objects. Several folks around here have taken a stab at writing their own, myself included.
     
  22. Chaos52

    Chaos52 Jedi Knight

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2008
    If you want lightsabers that look really nice. I wouldn't use a preset. But, if you're looking for the quick and easy route... the preset is for you.

    Having said that, can you elaborate on the problem you're having with downloading the preset? It's probably going to be easier to fix that problem than write your own preset.

    -Joe
     
  23. StormTrooper1776

    StormTrooper1776 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2004
    1.I can't find the link to download it anymore.
    2.And when i did,it wouldn't show up in my After Effects.
     
  24. Chaos52

    Chaos52 Jedi Knight

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2008
    http://www.videocopilot.net/presets/light_sabers_v2/

    Download the project. Extract, there will be a folder in there with 2 lightsaber presets. Copy both to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS3\Support Files\Presets (assuming you have after effects installed on the C drive). Restart After Effects and the preset should show up in your "Effects and Presets" window under "Animation Presets"

    -Joe

    PS - videocopilot says their presets work with AE 7 and up... so that could be your problem.
     
  25. StormTrooper1776

    StormTrooper1776 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2004
    I have After Effects CS4