The Lightsaber Effects Thread

Yes! I finally got confirmation that the lightsabers are 3D in TFA when watching the latest fxinsider! Here's what Jay Cooper said. He is a compositing supervisor at ILM.

 

So no rotoscoping? What is the benefit or difference of doing sabers in 3D?

 

As my effects are getting more advanced each time I make a test, I'm starting to feel compelled to use their method. It presents several advantages:

- The lightsaber effects have an accurate perspective and you can easily render a depth pass to make sure that your effects (i.e. core blur and glow layers values) are correct depending on the camera's angle of view and the lightsaber's position.

- You can easily achieve a greater level of detail with a 3D object since those applications have much more advanced simulation tools than After Effects:
you can drive the core's motion blur with the velocity of the 3D object, you can deform the geometry with much more control than by just using Turbulent Displace in AE, you can bake and render complex simulations (flames, sparklets, lightning arcs, heat waves), you probably can get more automation and a better behaviour out of the lens flares.

- You can use the 3D lightsaber to illuminate the surrounding CG assets or even elements in your footage (not necessarily the actor, that's too much work in most situations). For instance, if you're not using a luminescent replica on set, you can still make it so that the floor receives some light in your final composition.

- I'm sure you can even drive the contact flashes' intensity and radius with the velocity of both lightsabers. Sparing you the trouble of determining that on your own for every single one.

- It would be easier to animate blaster bolts and make them deflect on the lightsaber.

 

I've made slight changes to my standard blade again.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a1g0rwxr4bc2gu4/Standard_Blade_TFA_v03.mp4?dl=0

TheOnlyDoor, I unfortunately haven't had much success with the blaster bolts so far. I would need to make them in 3D for them to look right in this shot.

 

LOL I feel dumb for asking now. Please tell me you do animation or CG effects for your job and are not a dentist or accountant by trade. Lol I,mean still using Ryan writers original method and haven't learned much else in AE after 10 years....

 

Love your result though.......weren't all sabers and bolts still done in 2D for the prequels?

 

Hehe! I've done film work a couple of times. I'm a roto/paint artist and a digital compositor.

Thanks! Glad you like 'em. I put a lot of effort on those tests.

The sabers were all roto'ed except for Yoda's but there's a fair chance the bolts were 3D. It's just easier whenever they're seen from an angle.

 

Ok, so I worked on it some more and I think I'm gonna stop there and call it final. The blade is a little bit more stable now. You know, I kind of dig unstable blades, but this lightsaber is not meant to be wobbly.

- All variations (core intensity, core expansion) are kept within 10% of the default core's width.
- The bulges' maximum height was reduced by 8%.
- Real Glow's radius is more or less set to ten times that of the core.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xwfan3pgo9w5lf5/Standard_Blade_TFA_v05_x264.mp4?dl=0

 

Here is a test of the Kylo Rens blade. Showing evolution from toy, to extrapolated blades to finished effect.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ie7h55souq9e7t/Ren_evo.mov?dl=0

 

Well done man. The breakdown bit is a nice add.

 

Not a bad start! But there's room for improvement. It sorts of feels like the exhausts are too plain and uniform and I would personally get rid of the vertically ascending particles.

As for me, I'm currently working on a third test. I've shared two work in progress clips already in another thread.

 

It's a very challenging special effect that's for sure! In fact, I don't think I ever spent so much time on trying to master an effect. Still hard at work on my third test, yet there's a lot that's left to do. (Exhaust blades, amber particles, more fine tuning on the flames) https://www.dropbox.com/s/gdtjbre2ptgmlh4/Crossguard_WIP_v05_H264.mov?dl=0

 

Surprised this hasn't made the thread yet. I haven't used it, but videocopilot is any fan film vfx guys friend.

 

Oh, I had missed that! It's frankly awesome that Andrew Kramer decided to do a new lightsaber plugin as he's been so busy working on TFA that nothing happened on VideoCopilot last year. With this, I can totally forgive him!

 

I'm at version 12, yet it's still not finished. I'm really trying to nail the new lightsabers' behavior as seen in The Force Awakens so it takes time and effort.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pvn8d7juqmeyuk6/Backyard_Test_v11_1080p_H264.mp4?dl=0

 

Hey, sorry if this isn't the place for it, but I've been looking for Kylo Ren's lightsaber sound effects for editing in my film, to no avail. Along with the TFA Anakin Lightsaber igniting sound effects, I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction.

 

Thanks so much! They'll definitely be of help. I really appreciate it.