IMPROVING STAR WARS #1 - Making Prequel Lightsabers look better

[LegoGamer]

Man imagine what it would look like if he did this for an entire movie, even if it was only ROTS. Epic.

[Galvatron_Studios]

Imagine the Original and Prequel trilogy with today’s CGI....

[benrichards]

Imagine a full remaster of all the Star Wars films that made the sabres look like this

[rawn]

Definitely do more of these - one thing I love about the sequels is how powerful the lightsabers felt and this is part of the reason why

[DewitNow]

There’s one shot in ROTS when Dooku kicks Obi-Wan to the ground and you see the shadow of Obi-Wan’s lightsaber. I’m guessing they forgot to remove that from the final cut of the movie because lightsabers shouldn’t have shadows, since they are made of light.

[Cowracer]

It was explicitly said in the original Star Wars novelization that lightsabers did NOT give off any light to the surrounding surfaces. If I remember the line, it went something like "luke stared at the vivid blue blade while waving it around. He found it curious that it glowed, but did not illuminate the surroundings" or something close to that.

[prosecutorwalton]

Fun fact, during the Anakin-Dooku duel at the end of AOTC, when the power cord that was connected to the lights is cut, the lightsabers do actually have colour fall off, which seems to imply it was meant to be only noticable under extremely dark conditions.

[lvbboi]

As much as I like it
I feel like the second version is a bit eye irritating
Also, idk why, but I think it kinda loses the look of the saber, and it just becomes messy
Great vid tho <3

[Kpengie]

I know that the way that it was done in the sequels was that the props they used for lightsabers on set actually glowed. In the other trilogies, they used sticks that didn't produce any light at all for the blades.

[rod]

The lightsabers in the sequels look really fucking cool ngl

[Shaderox]

I just wanted to add, that Yoda, being a CGI character has the blades cast their light on him, but not on the real actors (See the Dooku vs Yoda fight in Ep2 for example).
Another clear example is Kenobi vs General Grievous, when grievous ignites the sabers one by one they add their light to hes metal (especially the blue tones, and the following scene where he advances while spinning the blades is a clear example of them casting light on him) but when Kenobi takes hes battle stance, no light is cast on hes face.

[tj_internet]

I like how its this serves as a fine example that just because something is more "realistic" it just doesn't look better. This is also very notible in the Obi Wan series where they overshot this effect completely and the fight between vader and obi just looked awfull as hell.

[InspectorWhoReacts]

This is exactly what I was looking for, I'd love to see a remaster with lightsaber light on the actors.
It's certainly something the sequels got right.

[thescoobymike]

I would love to see the color falloff in the other trilogies

[priyanrama]

can you do an in-depth tutorial on how you achieved the effects?

[SamuelFaict.Filmmaker]

Inthe book The Art of Star Wars The Force Awakens, it is explained that there was a huge debate before making Episode 7 between the art director and JJ. They did not know if lightsabers should spill light around them. The art director argued that no spill makes the lightsaber more magical and other worldly. I have to agree with him. The spill gives the lightsaber too much of a realistic toy feeling. It reminds you too much that they are plastic glowing tubes. This wasn't the case in the OT and The Prequels. The lightsabers felt pretty magical. Rewatch the scene on Dagobah when Luke fights Vader in the cave and you'll understand what I mean.

[aubreychatriot]

Crazy. I came across your video looking for the EXACT opposite - I hated how the sequel lightsabers looked in comparison to the prequels.
I’m leaving here with a changed mind, nicely done.

[thibson]

Amazing. Very good explanation of the process you used!

[fawkes]

Iirc, the sequel lightsaber props had LEDs in their blades, not unlike Force FX sabers you can buy. They still rotoscoped the traditional blade in post, but the practical effect caused by the LED blade is what gave off that nice-looking color falloff.

[strynger_]

i always liked the way lightsabers looked when Luke and Vader fought on the second Death Star. The white part of the blade was more colored i think, and it made a huge difference to me