Lightsabers in motion with After Effects
by Joe Bloe
STEP 1: COMPOSITION SETUP
This tutorial assumes you already have a basic knowledge of After Effects.
You should already know how to import footage, set up a composition, use layers,
etc.
To make a light saber, I used an old flashlight and put a stick in it. Not
very high tech, but it works. The reason you want to use a stick or some other
long object, instead of just the flashlight, is because when you are fighting
it will look a lot more realistic when the sabers "hit" if they are
actually hitting. It also makes it a little easier to rotoscope; you won't have
to guess the exact rotation or length of the light sabers. For shots where the
saber is only being activated or deactivated, you won't need the stick.
First, import your fight footage and make a composition. Then you lay your
light saber FX on top of the sticks used in the footage. You can use whatever
you like for the sabers. I use 32 bit targa's that look like these. Click them
to download.
Now import the targa's (if you used them), or whatever you are using for your
sabers, and put them in the composition. Important: Set the anchor point to
one of the ends of the saber (as shown below), NOT in the center. This way,
after you position the sabers for each keyframe, when you rotate the layer,
the base will stay in the same spot.
