Lightsaber Animation Tutorial

[skeeterb2006]

your technique is a variation of Ryan Wieber's rotoscoping technique. his uses Adjustment layers with blur instead of mask feathering.

[Yvgeniy]

@skeeterb2006 This technique is actually Ryan Wieber's original rotoscoping technique. It's probably at least 8 years old now so I'm sure he's moved onto a much simpler method seeing as how in the last 8 years Adobe software has undergone significant improvements.

[Xoid97]

Clear and simple, thanks!

[joseaudi10]

very little screen! But a very good tutorial THANKS!

[SuperSims999]

thats just impossible :o

[air13ek]

Thanks dude! :} You were actually the first person out of like ten who I understood and make sense so thank you. :} lol.

[MaximusBrett]

thank you, good tut :o)

[Jesslayc]

hey this is off subject but where r u from? cool accent!

[Yvgeniy]

@Jesslayc Belarus.

[Jesslayc]

@Yvgeniy cool :D

[MrJoe000097]

What may i do, if the lightsaber is behind the person? like this: ----/person/------

The hyphens are the saber and the person is the person. I have no idea :(

Thank you.

[Yvgeniy]

@MrJoe000097 You have to create another mask layer, and mask the other end of the lightsaber. Using the same mask to do the split seems to be impossible even if you squeeze the mask to less than one pixel in size. There is still an ever slight glow present.

[ObiWanAugus]

I think that is better, create one solid, make the mask, and apply the glow effect two times. It´s more easy this way.

[TheBoardmanboys]

how do you delete the picture without deleting every thing, on mine when i delete mine all my work is gone :( help please

[ShootANerdMaster]

Thisvis crap!!!

[AussenseiterAktuell]

for every second that work ...

really hard

[alexie802]

fuck you !!!!!!!!!!

[hades81647]

what program is it please tel me my name is hades81647

[Ashinator5000]

@hades81647 Adobe After Effects CS3

[alifiz1996]

why at first i go to New Compostion and it says Comp 1 but wheni import my photo, the photo is not in full size.... why?

[Yvgeniy]

@alifiz1996 There is a resolution mismatch. Either your image is too big or too small for your composition size.

[caferreri11]

I just did my first little lightsaber project using your tutorial. It was very helpful and with a bit of practice I'll get better at it! One thing though....how do you save the lightsaberified file as an image and not a project?

[SperlingWilliam]

seems like this method uses a lof of unneccessary editing...

[kadaradam2]

thank yaaa its a good tutorial

[puffleguy66]

OMG thank you SO much man!!!! you're the BOMB!!!

[master67777]

thanks man helped alot but it takes forever to do and i only did mine 10 seconds lol any tips to make it faster

[Yvgeniy]

@master67777 Split it up into sections and hire a team of people to do each one. You also don't have to key every single frame. You could also use motion tracking and then just fix up the trouble areas it didn't handle properly (and there'll be quite a few). All in all this is animation for you. It's a time consuming process, and if we're talking about frame by frame illustration you can only go as fast as you can draw.

[KevinJC1991]

@master67777 I've got a way to do it in photoshop which takes only a few seconds for each frame. check out the tutorial on my channel, see if it helps

[bernixb95]

how i can save it as an image??

[Yvgeniy]

@bernixb95 Don't recall off the top of my head, but there is a freeze frame option (just be sure to deinterlace if it is), and there is also a single frame export option in the export settings. Use the help function. It should tell you exactly where.

[bernixb95]

how do they to the white ligh when the two lightsabers touches eachother

[Yvgeniy]

@bernixb95 There are many ways of doing it, and there are a few ways of it that appear in the actual films. You can have the entire frame flash white for a single frame, or just raise the exposure gradually on a few frames. You can do the effect during the actual shooting with lights. You can add extra clash effects to the lightsabers themselves, including sparks and the like. All of this happens in a variety of gradations.

[chrisalex2413]

You should try checking 'Preserve Luminosity' when you go to color balance. It makes the lightsaber have a way better glow effect to it, and you have a lower risk of having a bad result, or a not so good effect.

[honcc5]

When i did use the pencil all the things did go to black only the pencil thing..

[RTard48JRod]

ok, i have cs3 but i have no pen tool,please help

[TheCoolguy5111]

nice!

[fenixz]

Thanks for the tutorial! It was of tremendous help to me.

[aziayman]

how do you do two lightsabers on a video myne wont work properly

[guga380]

@aziayman try to create another layer

[Yvgeniy]

You have to create two layer sets. Basically, follow the tutorial twice and you should have it. Just make sure you name your layers so that you can tell which lightsaber they belong to.

[GepardoSnaiperis]

Where to download it ?

[tls369]

dont ever download it, and then use a crack go on youtube and serach " adobe after effects cs3 portable" u need winzip but this way you dont need the crack or anything!

[ProjectIdiot]

Color balance wont work for me. any ideas why???

thanks

[Yvgeniy]

Could be any number of things. Most likely you messed something up while creating the glow. Could also be that you're applying color balance to the wrong layer.

[StarWarsMovies100th]

I have now tried to follow your instructions, but Í still can't get the lightsaber color right. I've tried the same thing on the background, and then it works.

[Yvgeniy]

What exactly isn't working with the color? And on that note you have to keep in mind what your background is. The colored glow is most apparent on darker backgrounds. Light backgrounds will really weaken it.

[StarWarsMovies100th]

Ok. I'll try that and see what I can do. Thank you, by the way

[StarWarsMovies100th]

Oh, by the way... The part of color that I can't get right is color balance...When the midtone is about 100 and the hightone about 50

[StarWarsMovies100th]

Good news... I just made it work....Thank Ypu for this upload...

[doomtomb3]

Yvgeniy is an Adobe wizard

[theginorevan]

can it be bigger than 720x480?

[Yvgeniy]

Yeah, the dimensions can be anything you'd like. Obviously HD video goes far beyond the 720 x 480 of standard definition. It's just like I said, you have to compensate for this with different feather settings so that the glow still appears true.

[supremeala]

Very good, thanks that was very helpful.

[RevanFailNhilusOwn]

great job :)

[PhiliperZ]

when i do that the oposit happens the light saber dusent go whit the rest of te picture gos black??? haw do i fix that!

[Yvgeniy]

I have no idea what you're trying to say.

[ahappymonkey]

u can get it for 1 thousand dollers or u can downlaod a after effects torrent...(what i did :D)

[raymart4343]

isn't that illegal

[halospartan017]

no its not illegal

[silentsniper909]

where dew u get the adobe after effecks

[cihancc]

thank u so much.... :)

[007Tob007]

Thanks a lot!!!

[custommade21]

so, if i was to do a video one tho, i would have to key frame the blade itself piece by piece? X_X time consuming bleh!

[Yvgeniy]

That's animation for you, bud. On professional productions you'd usually have a team of animators, but even they spend an hour or a few on one frame, depending upon its complexity. With keyframing, though, you don't have to animate lightsabers frame by frame. Makes your life a lot easier.

[silentsniper909]

where dew u get adobe after effects

[HakanHack]

Doesn't work help me!!

[Ra2z0r]

Great Tutorial,

But When applying the colour to the lightsaber

check the "Preserve Luminosity" for a better Glow

[wailenhalen18]

You voice sounds different than in real life.