Lightsaber Effect

[ramsaur]

Is there any better or any other program than after effects and photoshop to rotoscope lightsabers?

 

[ramsaur]

can anyone give me an answer ?

 

[Scottdvx100]

You need to rotoscope to do the true light sabre effect. Photoshop isn't designed for moving images. People do it but it's a huge pain and the motion quality will never be as good.

if you already have AE you can use that.

 

[ramsaur]

yeah i do use photoshop and yeah it is a big pain going frame by frame but i'm looking into vision lab at www.fxhome.com have you or anyone heard or used it before???

 

[MarcM]

Commotion was the best for this but when Pinnacle bought it from Puffin designs they basically threw it in the garbage. You may be able to find an old version for cheap on ebay The best thing now for Mac is Shake but it's the price of a car.

 

[Dmitry Kichenko]

You'll have to probably track the saber. I would have a stick with markers on it for easy 2-point tracking with just about any compositing package.

But really... This has been overdone beyond any sane limits..

 

[Scottdvx100]

The problem with trackers is when they swing the sticks which happens a lot in most of the action sequences. Then they just become a long blur. Key frame roto on the extreme frames gives good results.

 

[Dmitry Kichenko]

Of course. We never assume completely automatic workflow, do we . It only happens in the product demo videos.

 

[alpha54]

Try EffectsLab Pro from www.fxhome.com

Its not as "professional" or feature-rich as something like AfterEffects, but its Neon Lights engine makes lightsaber rotoscoping incredibly easy!