The Lightsaber Effects Thread

Alright. Many have noticed that I post alot of topics. So I decided to keep all my new effects and updates in this little thread here. I hope the moderators won't mind.

To start my new Effects Thread I decided to compare Ryan's old and new methods and Blake's method:

Ryan's Old method:
1.5mb-Click

Ryan's New method:
1.6mb-Click

Blake's glow method:
1.5mb-Click

All Clips in one for Easier Comparing:
1.6mb-Click


Also, be sure to check out the links here and here for more great lightsaber tutorials.


DV EDIT: Title changed at author's request

 

first of all i think ryan's old method is the best but what color r ur lightsaber suppose to be, becuase ryan's both methods are purple but the other method is more bluish for some reason so i dont know what color the lightsabers r suppose to be

-NoLuKKy-

 

That's Batkin's glow method. It's supposed to be a rich blue.

 

Hey, could you send me the saber mattes and the unedited video so I can do the glows and tweek them and hopfully help you out. I think I'm on the trail to upgrade my method.

 

Sure. By the way this was the first time I tried your method and I like the excess of the glow give off. The frame rate is 15 and the video size is 320x240.

Empty Footage: RightClick>Save as...

SaberMatte:RightClick>Save as...

 

Round those edges. Effect---> Noise---> Median

 

Something is wrong...I had to offset the two footages and the Black Matte saber still goes faster than the source footage

 

weird. I didn't want to round the sabers because I just wanted to compare the glows.

 

From the ones you've posted, I like the right one the most.

I've tried it, too. A bit unusual, but I kinda like how it turned out:

http://s60.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2KCOVIDVZZGIM2ITEOFR2486KG

 

Why does this seem to be such an obsession for people? Considering how inconsistent light sabre glows are for each official movie, even within the same movie, why do people go so nuts over things so inconsequential?

 

Kaat at 3 seconds into the clip the saber prop is visible about 1 meter away from the actual core. Though I do like the spreadness of color to the saber glow.

GuanoLad we like to create more sabers because we as fanfilm creators have our own perspectives on how sabers should look like. And if we settled for ILM's sabers then we'd be boring and bland and there would be no TFN.

 

Yeah, I noticed even while composing the thing. The footage was somehow damaged or something there so it didn't fit the saber matte at this very frame. But the rest was fine, so I didn't bother and hoped everybody would be so stunned away by the clip's coolness that noone would notice.

 

So.. Batkins ya done yet.

 

I'm getting closer. I'm trying to update my method. Here are my new results for my more updated method...

[image=http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b350/batkins182/NewGlows.jpg]

Please Comment

 

Quite good. But I guess a slight desaturation of the sabers to fit the footage better would help here.

 

I did change around the method i was using a bit in the end, and got pretty much identical RvB glows (Which is what i set out to do originally). Though it's not much different from the method i posted a while back, which is again not that much different from Batkins' (although the glows do come out a bit different), the method i posted i think got the glows pretty much the same as RvB, but i haven't been able to play with that much since cos my pc got unintentionally wiped about two weeks ago. I do still have the files, which i recovered after format, but haven't got round to sorting them out yet.

Basically, what i did change deviated slightly from this, which is the method i put together with what i put in my thread, though even though that's an older clip it's pretty much what i was aiming for.

 

At first, I started out trying to make RvB glows. I think I got pretty close with my original method. Now I'm try to update a new method just for lightsaber glows in genral.

 

Which glows/colors would you perfer?

#1
[image=http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b350/batkins182/GreenSaberTry.jpg]

#2
[image=http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b350/batkins182/GreenSaberTry2.jpg]

 

Brian, If i Sent you my duel movie could edit the light saber effect or show me how to do it?

 

Look in the sticky thread at the begginning of the Fan Film Forums and look here.

 

Hey, I'm happy with these results but could yall tell me if yall like these glows/colors. If so I'm planning on making a tutorial on it.

[image=http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b350/batkins182/NewMethodResults.jpg]

Please Comment

 

I think the glow is dropping off a bit too harshly, or is a little too saturated around the core, i'm not sure (imo)

I still kinda like how i got:
[image=http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/9652/screen50jm.jpg]

But it doesn't always work well following that way to the word on all footage. All just personal preference i guess. My method has been tweaked since that pic, but like i said, i got wiped

Rhys


(heh, the amount of time we've spent tweaking these methods)

 

I like the ILM glows from episode 3. I dont understand what people see in the ESB glows... IMO they looked Waaaayy too big... and then there's the "chainsaw" blade shape that they had going on... so (dude with the ILM glows) Hehe. and I concur that since George Lucas invented Lightsabers, who are we to judge that ours are better... I mean come on. I for one liked the pointy tips in Ep.3!

 

I like the new glows batkins.

 

Here's my effect.
[image=http://img466.imageshack.us/img466/1917/ep3ia805772uu.jpg]

I use Gimp 2.