Adobe After Effects Saber

The easiest way to make a lightsaber in After Effects CS3 is with the Beam effect. This effect creates a short beam somewhat like a lightsaber by default. With only minor adjustments you can make a convincing lightsaber in whatever color and size you like.

After Effects Saber Plugin
Adobe After Effects Lightsaber

The part that takes the time is animating the beam. There are a couple of different ways to do this but the best results involve setting regular keyframes for the start and end points of the beam.

The example I'm going to use is a very quick and simple effect featuring a person turning on and waving a lightsaber. I shot the footage using a stick for the lightsaber. In this case we will use the stick as a guide and superimpose the beam on top of it.

Begin by importing the video file and making a new composition. In our example the video file is called raw-dave1.m2t.

Create a new black solid and name it Beam. Add the beam effect to this layer (it's in the Effect & Presets panel, under Generate > Beam). The timeline looks something like this:

In the composition window you will see a horizontal beam. It's the wrong color and size so we need to use the Effects Control panel to adjust the beam's properties.

Mac os usb boot creator. Twitter sneakergodytTwitch sneakdfXbox vSNEAK DFSnapchat ballerslife5599 buisness email:sneakergodbuisness@gmail.comSABER DOWNLOAD: https://www.vid.

I am a student and i have an interest in streaming. Last night i tried installing the saber plugin on after effects, it worked for a few minutes and just disappeared. I tried everything to locate it but it didnt work. Then i opened the plugins folder VideoCopilot and the.aex file is not even there. Duplicate the text layer and invert the mask Add the Saber Effect to the Black Solid (Saber) and set the Core Type to Text Layer and choose the first text layer + masks for the options Go to the Render Settings and set Composite Settings to Add and Alpha Mode to Mask Core Duplicate the Saber effect in the layer (Ctrl/Cmnd + d). In this After Effects CC tutorial I run you through the most efficient and realistic way to animate a lightsaber!Help Support my channel if you learned somet. Motion Array Adobe Integrations. The Motion Array Adobe Integrations plugin allows you to access.

Position, Size and Color

First we need to match the length and position of the beam to the prop (i.e. the stick).

Scrub through the timeline and find a good frame near the start to match the beam to the stick.
In the Effects Control panel, set the length value to 100%.
Click the stopwatch icons to the the left of Starting Point and Ending Point. This sets us up for animating the beam later.
Click the Starting Point button . Crosshairs appear in the Composition panel — click the base of the stick to make this the starting point of the beam.
Click the Ending Point button and then click the end of the stick.

After Effects Saber Plugin

Now with the beam in the right place, we can adjust the color and width. We only need to do this once — the settings will follow the animation. However we can change these settings later if we want to.

In the Effects Controls panel, adjust the Starting Thickness and Ending Thickness until the beam takes the correct shape. In this example the settings are 55 and 40 respectively.
Click the Inside Color selector and choose a color for the inner beam. It should be near-white.
Click the Outside Color selector and choose a more saturated color for the outside of the beam. In this example the color is #7894F2.

Animating

Adobe After Effects Lightsaber

Now comes the tedious part. In the same way that we set the start and end points above, we need to do this every few frames as the lightsaber moves. It's actually very easy — it just takes patience.

Hit your keyboard Page Down key a few times to move the composition forward a few frames (until the stick moves a little).
Click the Starting Point button in the Effects Control Panel and move the beam's starting point to the new position. Repeat with the ending point.
Keep doing this throughout the composition. You will find that in some places you need to set keyframes more often than others. For fast action and smooth movement you will probably want keyframes at least every few frames — often every single frame. Experiment and refine as you go.

Note: My example begins with the lightsaber being turned on. To do this, drag the in-point of the beam layer to the point where you want the effect to begin. Set both the start and end points of the beam at the base of the stick, then create a few keyframes with the beam steadily extending.

Sound Effects

Once the visuals are finished you need to add the lightsaber sound. We have some basic sounds you can download here. In my example I started with an 'ignition' sound effect, then looped a background hum throughout the rest of the file. I then added a couple more swooping lightsaber sounds where the beam moves more.

Tips

That's basically all there is to it, except a few more tips..

Vary the start and end widths of the beam as it is pointed towards or away from the camera. This helps create the correct perspective.
In combat scenes you should try to add flares or sparks when lightsabers contact each other.
Beware of shots when the beam needs to go behind a person or object. This could get complicated.

Slow motion

Double blade

Step1: watch a movie

These might get you going

Step 2: the concept

Light sabers are generated by utilizing a technique called 'rotoscoping', using a post production program such as Adobe After Effects. It's basically a tedious, time consuming process of drawing a glowing, colored polygon around a light saber prop, frame by frame - but it does look really cool once you're finished. View more light sabers here.

Step 3: The light saber prop

The saber you on the left was created from parts bought at home depot - total cost per saber was about $16.00. The saber blade is wood (about $3.00) and saber handle is a metal sink drain ($12.00)! With a screw to hold the wood blade into the sink pipe (handle) and a whole lot of tape wrapped around the blade (to prevent cracking during choreography battles) we were able to generate pretty decent looking light sabers. We also started replacing the wood blades with plastic although metal would be best as it wouldn't break apart to easy and might save you some tape.

Step 4: What you will need to create the effect

Your video camera
Light saber prop
Adobe After Effects (computer program for windows or mac)
Light saber sounds (Download them here)
Experience using After Effects (if not, go here)

Step 4: Creating the saber effect

Open After effects and import your video with the light saber prop.
Create a new composition (called 'composition 1') and place the video clip of your saber on the time line of composition 1.
Create a second compositoin (called 'composition 2') and place the same video clip onto composition 2.
Create a new WHITE solid (same size as the second composition) and place that WHITE solid in composition 2.
Place the video clip in composition 2 UNDERNEATH the white solid in the second composition.
Hide the WHITE layer in the second composition by clicking on the 'eye' button on the left of the time line.
Make sure the WHITE layer is selected and click on the pen tool in the tool box.
With the pen tool, click and make points around the light saber prop to create a polygon around the saber prop.
Once you've completed the polygon around the saber prop the polygon will show up as yellow (usually you will want 6-10 points depending on the quality of the blade you are making)
Click the 'eye' button on the WHITE layer again to show the WHITE solid that now should fill ONLY the polygon you just created.
Congratulations: You have just ROTOSCOPED your first light saber fame.
NOTE: If you want your saber to MOVE over time with your actor's blade, then you will need to set KEYFRAMES on the WHITE layer over the duration of the video clip during the rotoscoping process
Once you are done with the rotoscoping, in other words, creating all of your keyframes on the WHITE layer, Give the WHITE layer's mask a feather of 1
Copy the WHITE layer and give the new copy a mask feather of 10
Copy the WHITE layer again and give the new copy a mask feather of 20
Copy the WHITE layer yet again and give the new copy a mask feather of 40
Again, make sure all your WHITE layers are ABOVE your video clip
Create a new BLACK layer (same size as composition 2) and place it UNDERNEATH the video clip in composition 2
Now, hide the video layer in composition 2 by clicking on the 'eye' button
Drag composition 2 into composition 1 and place the composiiton 2 object just ABOVE the video clip in composition 1, in other words, now you have a layer in composition 1 that is called 'composition 2'
Within composition 1, select the 'composition 2' layer and set it's blending mode to 'Screen', go to: Layer -> Blending Mode -> Screen
Your white glowing saber polygon should now show up over your saber prop.
Select the 'composition 2' layer and adjust it's color balance, set the midtone (whatever color you want your light saber to be) to 100% and highlight to 50%.
100% and 50%, respectively, can be changed (and probably should be) depending on how you want your sabers to look but are good starting points.
Check the 'Preserve Luminosity' check-box.
You should now have a glowing, colored light saber that looks quite authentic :)
Again, if you want your saber to MOVE over time with your actor's blade, then you will need to set KEYFRAMES over the course of the video clip during the initial roto-scoping process.

No experience with After Effects? No problem:

For an in-depth step-by-step tutorial (for people who have never used Adobe After Effects before), visit Ryan Wieber's lightsaber page for a start on making your own light sabers in After Effects. Then, Ryan also offers an even more in-depth tutorial on saber effects. Ryan has created some of the best saber effects over the years and I highly recommend his tutorials.