Advice for a rotoscoped duel?

[Davey]

Hey again.

I got to thinking and I've been wondering about making a rotoscoped duel. In this duel I wouldn't neccessarily need to use lights on the sabers themselves (although that could help a bit, perhaps) because Aftereffects CS3 Professional is going to be doing all the work, or at least most of it.

I've been thinking of using carbon-fibre tubes instead of wood dowels or Aluminium pipe, covered in green painters' tape so they show up on the footage. What do you think? Would this be worth it or am I going to be wasting my cash on buying carbon-fibre when Aluminium pipe would work just as well?

None of us hit that hard, but it tends to vary from scene to scene, and the 3/4" hardwood dowels that we use for blades breaks pretty easily. It chips, breaks, and cracks all the time and we ended up going through 'em quickly. This is going to be the first rotoscoped duel I've ever done, I need all the help I can get. I don't know whether I should go with Aluminium pipe or carbon fibre tube.

Thanks!

[Tom Starkiller]

Useing luxeon is great.

The saber actually casts light, there isn't a problem to see the blade in motion (quality depending) and it just looks more realistic.

Here's an example, Luxeon lightsaber (I'm presuming Ultrasabers) and they have been rotoscoped, by me:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pXqOP6CLKk4

[Davey]

That looks pretty cool - behind you, where was that? Was that the CN Tower in the background?

I guess you're right about the Luxeon, if it casts actual light on the ground it'll look more realistic. In that case I'll continue through with the setting up for a Luxeon - what would you reccomend in that case, a 5W or a 3W? It'd have to be the same colour as the rotoscoping, so I may need to apply a colour filter to get a purple saber.

[chase]

The best thing I can tell you is film from a couple different angles so it doesn't look like someone stuck a camera on a stool and did a fight scene. Make it realistic. Those are my ways of filming. Flashy but not absurd.

[Davey]

Thanks - we've got someone covering the camera and I've got a tripod to help cover the shots. I'm going to rent a dolly for the camera on the days we'll film so we can move the camera safely and efficiently with no shakiness, and the area I've planned to stage it in (a backalley) has a lot of ledges and outcroppings to capture different angles.

Flashy but not absurd. That's a fine line, alright, some of the different movies I've seen have been on both sides of it. Since I don't have wires I suppose keeping it simple won't be too hard... I'll keep that in mind, though.

[ArkaiHalon]

you can also use PEX to make your saber blades. It's cheap, durable, and lights up well with a lux. Did I mention cheap.
I've made several blades out of it andit works great

[Tom Starkiller]

Thanks. :D That video was shot in NY, not sure where exactly. It was done by NYJedi, I just did the roto work.

[37H4N]

That video was cool. Wonder how long it took them to get that scene down. I don't know if I have the patience to watch a fight scene over and over again to get it down perfectly.:lol:

Although I have no experiance with rotoscoping a fight scene, I cast my vote for using luxeon.
If your planing on using a purple blade, use a white K2, not a 3W if you want the best brightness. For the other color, check out the LED resistance chart in the shop and find the color you want and see which has the most lumens. :wink:

[Mi Gin Gonn]

Davey-
the best Rotoscoping advice is on Ryan Weiber's website (www.ryan-w.com). he'll take you thru it step-by-step. his work looks every bit as good as ILM's.

[DarthFender]

Also,

If you use a lux lightsaber, you might be able to save some time rotoscoping the scene if you isolate the channel that is the color of the saber blade (recommend using green and blue because you will not get too much of the skin tones in those colors. Isolate that channel and really turn up the contrast and then turn down the bright until you have a black an white mask of the blade only. Then use it as the base core for the effect. That's what Ryan and Michael did on RVD2 for some shots.