The special effects industry was transformed in 1977 by a low budget film called "Star Wars', and its team of crack artists at "Industrial Light and Magic". They took time honored techniques and elevated them to a level that many had dreamed impossible. Fortunately, with all of the new computer technology available today, many of these classic special effects can be achieved in the comfort of your living room. So, in this tutorial, we will take a look at use Adobe After Effects to create one of the classic effects from the Star Wars films: the lightsaber.
Instructions
1. Open After Effects. In the edit window, right click and select "File". Now scroll down and select the footage you want to apply the effect to, and then click "Open". After Effects should then import the file. Now drag the footage into the timeline at the bottom of the screen. This will create a new composition.
2. Create "Solids". Do this by going to "Layer" then "New" and then "Solid" in the toolbar menus at the top of the screen. Make the first one black. Then hit "Make Comp Size". Now, create another solid, and color it white. Hit "Make Comp Size" for this solid as well.
3. Drag the black solid below your footage in the timeline toolbar. The white solid should remain above your footage.
4. Create a mask. Select the pen tool, and create four points. The white area that is outside the box that we have created should now disappear, leaving only the shape you just created on top of your original footage. Select the arrow tool. Drag each corner of the shape you created so that it covers up the stand-in lightsaber that you used in your original footage. It should be as close to the original as possible, as this white overlapping shape will eventually become your saber blade.
5. Select "White Solid 1" from the time line. Hit "N". It should expand into the mask options. Check the "Time Arch" box in the mask options.
6. Rotoscope the lightsaber. Remember how we clicked and dragged the points of your shape until they covered your original saber? Well now we need to do that for each frame. This is a process that is known as "Rotoscoping". Simply hit "Next Frame" in the time control toolbar, and drag the shape so that it covers the lightsaber in every frame of your footage. Be prepared, this process takes time.
7. Delete your footage in the timeline. I know that this sounds crazy, but this is actually the way to get the best results. You should now be left with "White Solid 1" and "Black Solid 1" in the time line. Select "White Solid 1" and check the "Motion Blur" boxes to the right and above the timeline. This will create a blur when the saber moves. Now, duplicate "White Solid 1" three times by pressing Control+D. There should now be a total of four while solids, your original plus the three duplicates.
8. Select your first duplicate. Go to "Effects" then "Blur and Sharpen" then "Gaussian Blur". Set the value to "10". Select the second duplicate. Go to "Effects" then "Blur and Sharpen" then "Gaussian Blur". Set the value to "20" Select the last duplicate. Go to "Effects" then "Blur and Sharpen" then "Gaussian Blur". Set the value to "40". When you play the video now, you should get something that actually looks like a white lightsaber moving around, rather than a blocky white shape.
9. Take your original footage and drag it into the timeline to create a new composition. Then take the lightsaber footage (what you were just working on, with all the blurs, solids, and masks) and drag that into the time line. You should now have two files in the timeline. Put the lightsaber footage on top of your original. The screen should go to black, with your white lightsaber showing. Now, hit F4. Next to the lightsaber footage a box should appear that says "Mode". Click "Mode" and set it to "Screen". The black should disappear leaving your original footage with the edited lightsaber spliced on top.
10. Add color. Select the lightsaber footage. Go to "Effects" then "Color Correction" and click on "Color Balance". Check Preserve luminosity in the effects window. Play with the color balance sliders to create your ideal saber color. Replay the footage to make sure that it is exactly the way you want it, export, and you are finished!
Tags: your original, After Effects, Effects then, lightsaber footage, original footage, your footage, your original footage
