Lightsabers in church!!!???

Final Design Studios

Final Design Studios

Veteran
Yeah, thats right, lightsabers in church. I was commissioned by my church to make the following video. It's a star wars spoof, so after you sit through the dull yellow title crawl there will be a lightsaber fight scene for you.

Considering I had to act for this one, and told someone else where to place the camera and when to start and stop it, I'm kinda happy with the way it turned out. I'm the Jesus figure, by the way...hee hee hee.

(Right click and save please)
www.finaldesignstudios.com/morningstarsmall.wmv


It's been awhile since I posted so I just wanted to share. So now, DVXusers, have at it.

-Tyler Williams
Final Design Studios.
 
J FORCE!!! JESUS FORCE!!! Oh... I love this. My church buddies and I should get together and make something like this. It's GREAT!
 
very , very coooool tyler , im down with the J FORCE , liked the film man what u use to edit and what proram u use for CC ?? did u use any CC ??? , and how did u make the lightsabers glow what program u did it with , and how u did it ?? , and last what was ur lighting set up ???

peace n luv

Mark Dog
 
was this a parody? I mean, it's really funny! The J Force. Classic. I had a U Force as a kid. It was for nintendo. You use after effects for the sabers?
Good stuff.
 
Vampiresoup said:
was this a parody? I mean, it's really funny! The J Force. Classic. I had a U Force as a kid. It was for nintendo. You use after effects for the sabers?
Good stuff.
Click to expand...

Hey I had a U-Force as well... it was a made up group that handled special tactics combat. Weeeird.
 
And now, to reveal all my secrets!!!!

The video goes within a message for this weekend at the church, it'll be projected in front of the congregation. The speakers are teaching on something....I don't know what...that is related to this video.

Originally it was a skit and was planned to be done on stage. I was only going to do the title crawl, after reading it I asked the Pastor if I could just make the whole thing, she said go for it.

HOW I DID THIS

We had lightsabers as toys and just shot the whole thing. Then I completed the edit in Vegas. I rendered out the video and brought it into after effects.

The lightsabers are actually very easy, but extremely time consuming. You create a white solid, and use a four point mask. Drag those points over the lightsaber in the frame for every frame. If the movement is real suttle you can get away with keyframing here and there. For action, you'll have to go frame by frame, and drag those points to wherever they need to go. Then just add a glow to it. Tweak the glow to your liking.

I had to do this for each lightsaber, red and green. Then after all that was done I created a new composition and drug the lightsaber fight into it, and applied a lens flare. Using the "Flare center" and the "intensity" properties I animated it to flare up whenever there was a hit, right where the lightsabers made contact. When they were together during a "clash" I just had the flare stay apparent and tweaked the intensity so it pulsated. I also tracked the motion so it would move with me and the other dude.

Thats how you create a lightsaber battle.

SOUND EDITING

The sounds were a real worry to me, I wasn't sure where I could find lightsaber sounds that would work along with the movements and the picture.

I popped in "Attack of the Clones" and skipped to the fight with Dooku at the end. There is a scene where there is minimal music. I recorded the whole thing to my hard drive and started to take bits and pieces of swings and hits. Then I just edited it all together. All in all its about ten different sound files crossfaded together. I wanted the hits louder than the humms and swings so I put them on a separate track.

Voice over was all done in post as well, as if you couldn't tell. Trying to shoot a fight scene and get good sound is nearly impossible. So I went the easy route.

Okay, thats about it.
If you got any questions let me know.

-Tyler Williams
 
Great work tyler thanx for sharing i enjoyed alot man , another great staw war like film i just downloaded was reign of the fa;llen i rember a dvxuser made it some one here on the site , but i forgot there name it was awesome , oh yeah i loved the voice u had tyler great it was kinda like god vs the devil thing going on u could say, any way here the reigh of the fallen link below.

Reign of the Fallen : An Epic Film Set in the Star Wars Universe

peace n luv

Mark Dog
 
Yeah the lightsabers could be better. If anyone tries to do this, make sure you paint your lightsaber a bright flourescent color. I had clear red and green cones, and it was a pain to find them. Plus, the cones would bend under pressure of the hit and totally kinkin in the middle.

Something to think about.

Mark Dog, thanks a bunch for the link, I remember seeing the trailer awhile ago. I didn't know that they posted the whole thing online to view. I'll download it as soon as I get home.
 
n o prop tyler thats what it al labout dvx filmaker untited as one, one FORCE lol.

peace n luv

Mark Dog
 
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