Lightsaber Effect in YOUR Own Movie
February 24th, 2005It’s a how-to guide for adding the famous Star Wars Light Saber effect into your own footage. Very cool effect and maybe something I’ll use this summer if I get the New Media Movie Making Camp job again.
(via BoingBoing)
August 18th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
Stop the madness NOW! I have figured out a way to generate great looking light sabers WITHOUT PAINTING FRAME BY FRAME
I can now let the computer do all the work while I surf or watch paris Hilton or maybe even raise my Kids. If you dont believe me just go to
CosmicX.org/animations.html and watch Star Wars-Eddie Vanhalen Style for free(Its about 8 minutes). All the light saber action was done by
letting the computer drawn in the light sabers while I was in another ROOM. How you might ask? Its done by simply separating the saber on screen to the point where
all you have is a black saber moving around a completely white background. This is done in premiere. Then apply the neon glow filter from
Photoshop( you must copy and paste it into the premiere plug in filters). You will then see that you have various controls for color and glow
degree that you may pick from. Then render that plate and chroma it back over your original footage of your light saber fight. WHA-LA. Whats
the catch you might ask? Not much! If you have a green stick in your original footage then nothing else in that footage can be that color
Other wise it would become a light saber to. Now this process works fine but the real catch is you must have a glowing or very bright stick to begin
with to separate completely on film. I used a light rope strung up through a plastic light saber from wal mart. It was a rather bulky thing since I had to
run the cord through my cloths and into a socket. But now I use those glow sticks from sporting goods in walmart. Two light sabers for 10$. No more
cords. Of course youve only got eight hours or so before they die out. Remember the glow sticks are not the final image. They are just used to separate
the light saber out on film so the neon glow filter can be applied. I havent given you the precise steps to making a light saber this way because I havent
written it out yet. There are a few tweaks and turns you must take but it really doesnt add up to much! Im going to paste it on my site shortly. Take a look at
the movie and if want me to send it to you I will, although I think you will already be able to figure it out. So stop painting frame by frame and spread the word
Brother Light Saber Whore. Spread the word. Paul Vancleve