has anyone got any tips or tricks for creating a rough n ready light saber within action?
I have used an fbx cyclinder to animate a quick grow & swipe…but i cannot think how best to get the thing to emit light - is this even possible?
thanks
adam
I did something like this a while back, using a combination of rays (action matchbox) and glow (external) if I remember correctly. The worst part was relighting the scene though, if you don’t ned to do that you’re golden.
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ahh…hadn’t thought to remove the geo and just use light! and truer to the original concept as well!
thanks Dino
What you are looking for is the Emissive Surface of an object. Add a Cylinder, add a Substance PBR map, choose Glass, crank up the Emissive Map, @FriendsFromBorisFX Sapphire UltraGlow, and bam.
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excellent! thanks Randy
I remember in one of the compositing books there is an explanation how they made the glow. If I remember correctly it’s a combination of blurs, masks, inner outer glows and such.
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I’ve done them for money a few times (for Disney Parks and Happy Meal ads, admittedly), and have always just used a rotoed mask with a couple of S_Glows and some add/screen. That was back in the pre-Kylo Ren Houdini sim saber days, though.
If you’re asking how to have it realistically cast light into the scene, let me know if you figure that out as that’s another matter entirely!
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You tried Sapphire Ultraglow yet? You’ll never stack multiple S_Glows ever again.
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i have…already used them in this project!
thanks - i just needed to hint at a light sabre - its for a teaser that suggests star wars without a specific namecheck. Dino’s light ray sugestion has worked just fine for this.
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Unless there is some jaw-droppingly gotta-have-it addition to Sapphire, we are sadly most likely EoL’ing them with the pre-S_Ultraglow OFX version we have given the costs of upgrading them across our facilities.
I mean not flame but there is a free plugin for AE called Saber - its pretty… darn good!
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I’ll take any excuse to use a massively undervalued effect ‘Optics’. I love the way you can make it buzz as if electrified. Also AirGlow matchbox.
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I actually did some light sabre shots for a couple of the Star Wars films back when I was in the ‘saber’ (flame) department up north. There are a bunch of details that I see missing from most of the templates and tutorials online.
-It’s always a 3 frame wipe when they turn on.
-There’s a specific tiny lens flare for one frame when they turn on, and the last frame of the turn off.
-They shimmer in intensity.
-Compers went to great length to create interactive light on the face and body of the actor holding it. You could request roto for the interactive light, and there were roto artists who were insanely good and figuring out where the light would hit in the scene, complete with occlusions. Sometimes even reflections on eyeballs and lips, if they were judged to be wet.
-Sometimes people added spark elements, lens flares, and extra glows when the two sabres collided.
-There’s a pom-pom of light at the base of the ‘blade’ that pulses and glows.
We had a big color chart on the wall, and later published to the in-house web page with the exact RGB color or each character’s glow. Sometimes they changed within the movie (Anakin).
Artists would endlessly discuss the characteristics of sabres. Random people would stop by your desk and show you other little details to add.
When Yoda went CG, they would render reflection passes for his eyes, that reflected the sabers beautifully. You had to individually create the tiny sabres with mattes in the eyes.
I miss those days days. I hope none of this is included in my NDA.
Sam
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I won’t tell anyone!
I once visited Hensons Creature shop in London and was kneeling in worship “we’re not worthy”when one told me she had been building creatures for one of the Star Wars films. They let me hold the mould used for casting Babe the Pigs head, too.
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Not mentioning the company name keeps it off the radar.
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This is amazing. Thanks for sharing
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