-
Council Member
Jedi Council Member
-
uhm honestly if you take this stuff too seriously then some comments are better off to your selves
and forum etiquite? why????
sometimes the subject of this thread will get off topic and that will happen often and sometimes the topic will change to another
sometimes you really shouldnt care unless its really getting on your nerves
forums should be fun and dumb sometimes not all serious and straight to the point
once in a while correcting people is nice but then when you do it constantly people dont like it
im not saying anyone does this
but if you do tone it down
this is a hobbie for fun
-
I agree Xwing, This forum has a much nicer spirit about it than the other saber forums.
I also totally agree with you that the newbie's (me being one) should carefully read and search all forums before asking questions -I read every forum and have been visiting this site for about a month before I even posted - because they should find their basic questions will be answered. But I suppose if people aren't used to forums there should be some kind of warning telling people to carefully read through the posts before asking questions - I learn't the hard way on Bodybuilding forums.
-
-
the whole point of this forum is for folks to share ideas and give input to be kicked around. a lot of great ideas have already come from here and hopefully will continue to do so. i thoroughly enjoy this forum. i have learned a lot from fellow saber building enthusiats. i have tried to help with what i know too. thats what its all about folks. like my place of works motto goes: people helping people being successful.
yeah, theres gonna be the occasional post, that might irritate some folks. but we all have to show a little forgiveness and go on. this forum has so much information to share with everyone, and a lil' bump in the road once in a while is going to happen.
we need to just shake it off and get back to whats important, sharing ideas and info with one another.
Lan-Ed-Tul
-
-
Master of the Tune
I've read that having your camera's shutter speed around 60 frames per second gives a nice saber look. Yes, LED's will work, EL is most likely too dim. However, even a nice 180 lumen 3-watt red is going to look unusably weak in broad daylight...that's when rotoscoping will become necessary.
For darker lighting, like the very brief Anakin vs. Dooku shot in AOTC that was mentioned, this is where a LED saber really could give you the facial lighting effect. It's done so for me for still pics, makes no sense why it wouldn't for motion. Even if you rotoscope over the blades later it'll still light up your actors' mugs, saving you additional postproduction. This is, of course, assuming that the set is dark enough & looks good on video/film.
As far as the original question, how bright are sabers "supposed" to be, I don't think they are. There are a lot of technical inconsistencies in them from film to film that Lucas & his guys never overthought too much (stuff that's later revealed in the EU, geez they have an explanation for EVERYTHING, no matter how trivial...) I, personally, have always thought of them as a few times brighter than neon lights, the good clear ones that you can see in daylight. But that's just this fellow's opinion. By the way, I didn't put the word "supposed" in quotations to be smarmy, I mean that in a movie world vs. reality way[
]
Keep up the excellent work everyone, it's a lot of fun to participate with people putting their noggins to good use on a friendly forum like this. Even if it does occasionally get off topic or we sound like the Falcon's flight computer droid brains bickering with each other.
"Chaka, call off Dawson, will ya?!"
-
Wow. I didn't mean to start all that! I just got the impression (mistaken, I now take it) that I was being singled out for making "dumb posts". I said all I had to say about it. I'm not mad and was not trying to make enemies anymore than anyone else here.
Truce!
I have almost no expertise in metalurgy or electronics etc pertinent to building lightsabers, but I have been making homemade videos and no-budget special effects for a long time and it crossed my mind that this all started with a low-budget practical effect that was actually seen on set.
If you dig Dr Who (which is shot on hi-def video), they used the same trick on a glowing sword effect in the 1988 Silver Nemesis episiode. I highly recommend all Lightsaber builders to watch at least the bonus features on this DVD. it shows behind the scenes clips that are WAY better and more informative than any about lightsabers in Star Wars have been. The glow is identical to that of the SW props (minus the flicker caused by the rotating triangular balde). Based on these clips and having experience with video's greater sensitivity to highlights, I'd say it is comparable to a car's highbeams in daylight, visible but not as bright as reflected sunlight off a mirror.
Lucas abandoned the scotchlite not because it didn't work but because the swords were very expensive and were getting destroyed in the duel scene. That is why David Prowse did not play vader in the other Trilogy duel scenes: because as a weightlifter he was too hard on the props.
Watch the original un****ed-with Star Wars (only available on VHS now). the blue sabers are scotchlight with rotoscoped color, the red is rotoscope only. In the duel with both together, notice the difference between vader's obviously rotoscoped opaque blade (looks like the laser bolts from stormtrooper rifles throught the film) and kenobi's glowing scotchlite blade. also notice the classic FX "flub" where vader steps between kenobi's blade and the light causing it to flicker on and off. One sword looks like an special effect, one looks like a regular photograph. you have to look at the original movie, all publicity stills are airbrushed and the dvds are digitally "corrected" to ruin the greatest film of the 1970's.
There is a huge difference in EL brightness depending on the color selected. Some do indeed look like glow sticks. However, I took a chance on a hot pink one and a yellow one for characters uncommitted to either sith or jedi. They look great with the video exposure set at normal comfortable levels and moderate (100w)incidental lighting. Slow Shutter helps the blade look brighter and the swing look dramatic but makes the rest of the figure look like stop-motion. someday I'll figure out how to upload these videos to show you just how much like the Trilogy these ELs can look. I have one of the pink saber in the dark extending slowly from the hilt using the forced-perspective optical trick used for Kenobi's draw at the end of EpIV. It looks WAY more real then those licensed sabers with the LEDs in the blade.I'll try to get some stills up in the meantime.
-
Jedi Master
For my upcoming FanFilm, I plan to use LED sabers, then rotoscope over them. That way, I'll ALWAYS have the glow coming off the sabers, in every scene.
Am I correct in assuming that a saber as bright as a "real" one would probably blind you?
-
i bet you decide your LEDs look better than the roto. My ELs look better than roto in fact. roto will look like the movies, but the LEDs will look REAL, more real than the movies, and that is truly something awesome. McGregor and Christenson missed out on having props that really light up, look real, and have built in sound effects. i bet a million bucks they have some of these themselves.
"Size matters not. Look at me! Judge me by my size do you? And well you should not! For my ally is the force, and a powerful ally it is!"
Posting Permissions
- You may not post new threads
- You may not post replies
- You may not post attachments
- You may not edit your posts
-
Forum Rules
] I suspect someday a type of index will have to be made so that we don't have to refer to previous discussions when someone asks a "noob" question or just something already discussed.
Reply With Quote
][
]j/k
Bookmarks