What matieral did ILM use

hey for the lightsaber making and the blades what material did ILm make for the blades? and where can i find it? and what type of handle material did they use too?


if anyoneknows tell me please and tell me a tutorial how to make and lightsaber and blade!!!

 

*sigh*

I believe they used Carbon Fiber rods for the blades, you can get them at www.randomsabers.com for 40$ apeice.

The hilt, I'm assuming they made them out of aluminum, but thats just an assumption, you could probably get a better answer out of Ryan_W or Spiff or someone.

For the tutorial, look in the Tutorial thread, there's bound to be tutorials on how to get started on making your own lightsaber, you could also try the big yellow box.

 

For duel scenes I believe they used a form of resin cast to create the hilts.

 

oh yea thats right, they used resin for the stunt sabers, and aluminum machined for the beauty props

 

They also used shrink wrap or similar coating over the carbon fiber blades because of the splintering and fine shards/dust that was created when they hit each other.

 

Not really. More just to have a colored blade. When the stuff breaks it doesn't really do much splintering or exploding. It just kind of breaks apart fairly cleanly like a stale cracker or something.

 

Yup. The graphite breaks kinda like this (7.5 MB):

[image=http://s94963366.onlinehome.us/HDRFX1/broken.jpg]

They also used bamboo apparently.

-Spiff

 

well thats some useless crap

 

Yeah, but those very same broken pieces made for nice ambiance in my set, four months later...

Nothing is indestructable; Primrodo there seemed to be cursed with getting a fairly bad batch, to boot. But having personally sung them around, I can say that they are light, fast to move, and yet dangerous even if they don't break on you, like any other fast object.

 

Ugh... damn your FX1...

 

To be honest, I think most of the problem is people not really knowing how they should be fighting. I got one blade from the aforementioned batch, and I put it to the test, and it pleasantly suprised me. Somewhat to my dismay, knowing how expensive they usually are. When people started sending them back, or asking for refunds from the order, I bought (somewhat discounted) the "returned" blades, and they have impressed me.

They're lighter than aluminum. (even the thin-walled light stuff I get for myself)

They take longer to break. (in my experience they lasted 150% - 200% as long as aluminum)

They do not bend. (unlike aluminum, which spends most of it's "life" being bent and bent back between takes... these do not bend at all until they give out, which is very convenient)

I also found, to my suprise, that something in the construction makes the blades bounce in an unusual way, upon frame-by-frame analysis. You would expect that when the blade hits something hard, that the blade would flex, bending one way, then bounce, bending back the other, and again and again, each time curving less until it is again "sraight". As I observed the blade's bounce frame-by-rame, I noticed that the entire blade bounces together, which does not curve it, instead the entire blade blurs out like you might expect to see from a slowly-swinging saber. Very strange. I can't explain it. But it's another thing that ends up being convenient for saber work, as it means that these are apparently curve-resistant.

I think most peoples' problem is that they flat-out wail on these things. Smashing them together with excessive force. really, you're performing a stage fight. You should be pulling your hits and not actually giving them your full hard swing. As is always said when this subject comes around, nothing you can use really lasts. Blades must basically be regarded as disposeable. But, like I said, I find this stuff to work very well. If only it weren't as expensive to acquire more.

 

I heard that they used Kevlar blades, actually straight from the mouth of Nic Gillard at an interview at CIII.

 

oh yea well on the com system last week.. Darth Vader told my uncle owen that light sabers are real.. and shouldnt be played with by little jedis..

 

I heard carbon fiber.

[image=http://ryanw.michaelfrisk.com/misc/nick_ryan.jpg]

 

ryan do u know where i can get carbon fiber blades?

 

And ryan obviously heard better since he was standing closer

/Z

 

http://www.kilwell.co.nz/Fibretube.htm

 

Nick looks much too serious in that picture.

 

ive holded one too (carbon fibre)...imo they were bit heavy and hitting them together as hard as possible they didnt broke.. not as heavy as aluminium but still, i guess its due i have even more lighter blades (glass fibre) . It was not like the ones are sold for 40$.

-Lookfilms-

 

Pft. We all know you compositioned that one Ryan Derned if I can't find the one you did with you, Dorkman, and you to post as proof though... it's on my computer but not worth me uploading (evidentally, tohugh, it was worth me looking all over your site for it).

 

Ryan speaks much wisdom. Regardless of the material of the blade, there's no reason to go "all-out" in a theatrical fight. I do stage combat with actual steel swords (both heavy broadswords and lighter rapiers) that, while dull, are still quite dangerous. In order to protect ourselves and our toys we act as though we're trying to kill each other, but are actually aiming for spots six inches or so away from our partner's body.

In one show we used 3/4 oak dowels as swords (it was what the director wanted - don't ask why), and we didn't break a single one. We won an aware for "Excellence in Stage Combat" for that performance.

in short: It's not the material that matters, it's the handling. Be kind to your props.

 

Prop abuse comes down to method acting. I think if your actors have the need to really go at it, and are bashing props in like mad - it's probably best to stay with aluminum. While the bending is irritating, the possibility of breakage is a lot lower - and flying pieces of stuff are not good news. You can see in the video I posted how close the shart gets to Covax's head.

You can caution them, and you can train to pull strikes (which incidentally, I think some of you are carried away with. It's okay to pull strikes, but you've still got to put some hip and legwork into them for them to come off well), but the focus of the actors and film makers should be on performance. If your actors are fighting such that they won't break the carbon fibre, or such that you can afford extras - go ahead. Ryan speaks wisdom when he discusses disposable props.

-Spiff

 

Hey Ryan....nice watch.

Is there a calculator on that thing???

 

Prices. I seem to recall that aluminum tubing was much cheaper than that. Now I'm no metal expert, but we were told in Metals II class last week that this is thanks to China. They're buying out metal stocks everywhere and prices have skyrocketed. Am I just seeing the effects from that?

EDIT: Noticed Ryan's sabers on ebay come with a 6061-T6 aluminum blade. They're much cheaper. Anyone know any differences or advantages between 6061-T6 and 2024-T3 tubing? Again, I'm not really a metals expert (yet)

 

I just got my a55 handed to me, Ryan-w style.