VFX Artists EXPLAIN Evolution of Lightsabers

THIS EPISODE ►
In order to pull off their latest short "Lightsabers for Men," Niko sits down with the VFX Crew to break down the evolution of lightsaber CGi.

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[scottmanley]

I have several Manley lightsabers and the skills to use them.

[Debneyink]

I made lightsaber props on the prequels. We used a metal called durilium, and it kept on bending. But we kept on shooting with the actors fighting with bent rods.
I remember pointing this out to a guy from ILM he said don't worry we paint in the glow afterwards. I said yes but youre going to have to paint out the bent rods as well, so it doubles the work loads on each shot. He looked kind of worried.
We spray painted each of the the metal rods orange and green and then shrink wrappped plastic over them to stop flecks of paint firing off.
The hero handles would be moulded with a large screw thread placed into the each cast which we would screw the duriluium rods onto.

[priscilam.]

I'm a boomer and I have a request. The first time I saw 3D rendering as a kid was in 1986 with Kraftwerk's music video Music Non Stop. I'd love for you guys to talk about it sometime. Thanks for the awesome content as always!

[ekofever]

“I won’t stop making bad jokes until one of them is good”

“CUT”

[Lumibear.]

Brown is dark orange, you can’t do a bright brown. However, I used to play with led lighting, and discovered that if I put a pure red light on one side and a light green on the other of a textured surface, the eye was tricked into seeing brown within the light & shadow, so perhaps if you did a white core with a flickering red and green surrounding glow, with enough adjustment it could look brown?

[Cool_Story_Bruh]

I like how they were literally just mocking stereotypical manly stuff, and then gets sponsored with an outdoorsman kit.

[kosmiik]

"I only watched Star Wars once. I didn't think they were that good."

Corridor's crew next video: WE'RE HIRING!

[TheDesignerXD]

"Our Lightsabers are 2 inches longer and extra girthy for that slice." Best line ever.

[nickllama]

"I only watched Star Wars once. I didn't think they were that good."

It's as if a million voices suddenly cried out in hatred...

[jumpinjimflash]

The original Star Wars still rotoscoped the color over the scene captured light reflections from the sabers. By hand. Plus they had on set pyro effects coinciding with saber impacts.

[jasonblalock]

Heh, they skipped over my favorite low-tech lightsaber effect in the OT. When Obi-Wan faces Darth Vader and ignites his saber, there's no jump cut... because the reflective stick was already in place, and Alec Guiness was simply pointing the tip directly at camera so the length couldn't be seen. Then he rotated his wrist outward, and the camera's forced perspective made it look like the blade was extending.

[bad]

Nico's salt over the "fringe SW canon" is so perfect. Truly a man of distinction.

[Vladek]

3:17 Ryan vs Dorkman are some of the most legendary fight on the internet. The choregraphy is so well thought

[thewolfstu]

6:17 I just gotta say that, when it comes to things that are dark with a glow, it would be sick to see a "Blackhole" style effect where it's an inverted glow. Instead of pumping light out into the radius it instead absorbs the light, warping it around a true black core.

[Kafend]

Me who's seen Technology Connections about the color brown: it's actually just dark orange. Black would be a much harder color to make "glow"

[TheMasonX]

Having followed you guys for over a decade now, it's amazing to see how far you've come and to see you bringing new talent into the industry with your amazing crew. Keep up the awesome work guys!

[WeyounSix]

Rogue One was amazing for me tbh. I thought the scene where Vader opened his saber, and the red light illuminating him was the only light source... It was like the directors went "finally. we can use ambient light from sabers because our CGI is finally good enough.... lets go balls deep..."

[Dats_Mark]

Josh: "This is my first Video with you guys, what should I do to make sure the audience loves me?"
Niko: "Just Be yourself"
~ Filming Video ~
Josh: "I only watched Star Wars once. I didn't think they were that good."
Niko: "NOT LIKE THAT!"

[SoCloseToToast]

I love these professional dorks! Just seeing the BTS of Niko & Sam playing with the light sabers gave me extreme nostalgia. They are still up to the same shenanigans as they would many years ago. Love it!

[cyanimation]

Hate on the sequels all you want. Having LEDs shine on the actors' faces was amazing though.
(Though attack of the clones did have closeups of Hayden Christensen and Sir Christopher Lee with lights on them)