Black blades?

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

It cannot be done with interference patterns either. All that will do is create dark areas where it will seem as if there is no light. However, those dark areas are not created in your eye, they are created on the surface onto which the light is being cast. This means that the dark spot will not follow your eyes as you move around the blade. In other words, even if you can cast a black interference pattern on one side of the blade, when you view it from another angle it will still be illuminated. If you are satisfied creating that effect, the same thing can be done simply by running two rows of black electrical tape down the length of your blade.

I think it could but you would need MOVING parts inside the blade so that the dark 'core' would appear to "follow your eyes as you move around the blade"...imo it would not be worth the time and experimental effort to find the proper slit sizes and spin rates which is why I've said it seems an impractical approach to me...plus you'd have a blade that would be heavy and probably not duelable since the slightest knock out of alignment would be likely to destroy the 'illusion'.

So I kinda doubt that is what he's done...but if so I suspect it would be impressive effort.

He's going to have to put up his methodology because otherwise we will reasonably doubt.

[TimeRender]

Moving parts would only work if the saber could track what it was moving in relation to, and if you could build a saber that can do that you wouldn't need to use interference patterns, you could just use something like black tape.

Speaking of totally impractical and stationary ways to achieve the effect, it occurred to me that it may be possible with a polarized film on the blade and a pair of sunglasses that are polarized at a 90 degree angle. This would allow you to view the blade from 360 degrees, but the illusion would be destroyed the moment you tilted the blade in relation to the glasses. Since the blade would have to remain stationary for the effect to work, you might as well just make a 2 dimensional blade and backlight it for hanging on a wall. Still, I thought I would share an equally impossible idea.

[Tyhm]

Dark would be possible; pretty simple opaque core and light up the blade just barely enough so you need a good depth of flowing light to see anything - the distance between the blade and the core, when viewed in the middle, would be a very dark barely-illuminated red, and the sides would go from brightest red (where the edge of the "eclipse" peaks through and you can see clear to the other side of the blade) and darken around the edges...but it wouldn't do much good in a lighted room, because as previously stated, it would be a barely-lit saber.

Oh yes, and diffraction film (or poly wrap) too, naturally, you'd need a lot to make the space between the blade and core meaningfully opaque - or rather, to catch the light significantly more than the blade itself

[Jase Kala Maris]

This should be the NEXT TCSS SABER CONTEST!!!!!!!

BEST BLACK SABER!!!!
Only light up! no sound, basic MHS hilt!

I'm in. I'm going to get right to work so I don't miss this dead line like I missed the last one!

[TimeRender]

Tyhm, I'm having a difficult time following what exactly you are suggesting. Could you explain it again more clearly?

[Tyhm]

Not without illustration. Therefore to MSPaint! Lulz...

The red is crumpled poly wrap, diffracting the light coming up from the base; it is the red that the viewer will see.
The black is the core; a matte black spray-painted dowel is fine, nothing too elaborate.
The gray is the outer shell, which shouldn't be as light-up as the poly
wrap in this setup; perhaps it is painted black at the lower edge so light doesn't try and fiber-optic all the way up, something like that.

At point 1, the viewer sees through 11 pixelsworth of the red before their line of sight is terminated by the black core; this might make it a dark red, but doesn't light it much.
At point 2, the viewer sees through 37 pixelsworth of the red; this is the brightest this particular saber gets
At point 3, the viewer sees through 21 pixelsworth, and is twice as bright as the "black" part.

It might work. I don't have a saber to test it with though, I'm poor.

[TimeRender]

No... We've been through this already on this thread. Won't work. Go back and read the explanations that already exist. Also, you mean diffusion, not diffraction.

[Sunrider]

Ok for people who want to attempt this concept. Study how lenticular plastic sheeting works. If applied in the right orientation over the whole blade this should give you what you want.

Wiki description

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_printing

Sheeting source & info

http://lenstarlenticular.com/?gclid=...FRDxDAodnkYoUA

It looks like wide viewing angle sheet is what you need.

"You must do what you feel is right of course"

[Goltar Bias]

Unless I am wrong the way to make that work would still require a liner inside the blade with slits in it that alternated between light emitting and dark so the depending on how things lined up you would eithe see light or no light in that particular lense on the strip. Has a possiblity of working and produceing
the desired effect but getting the liner for the blade interior would be a massive pain, not to mention positioning it just right.

[Tyhm]

No... We've been through this already on this thread. Won't work. Go back and read the explanations that already exist. Also, you mean diffusion, not diffraction.

Sorry, too many plates spinning at once; the celophane DIFFUSES the light.

And it would too; why do you think light sabers are brighter in the middle than at the sides? Because they're thicker in the middle than at the sides, yes? More "rays" of light bouncing in that direction, etc. What I suggest is reversing the structure, so that the areas with the most exposure to the light are at the edges of the "eclipse"; you would of course have to do something clever with reflectors to route the light Around the core instead of losing it In the core, but that's left as an exercise for the reader...perhaps simply using reflector-optics and an imperfect mirror at the base of the core to send the rays back into the dish until they come out somewhere more useful.
And even then it wouldn't be true Black And White; the black core would be Admittedly just "Dark". Like, "edge of the lighsaber" dark. Which is still progress.

Although DIFFRACTION grating would work too, you'd just need to print 2 sheets that alternate clear and opaque in such a way that they have the same number of bands but different radii; match them carefully, roll them up, and stick 'em in the tube. This would cause any light in the "tube" to exit at the sides, not directly at the viewer...if you can find a transparent way to securely fix these sheets and the gap between, you're all set. Should even hold up to a duel.