Is there a way to lock the lenght of the lightsaber?
I never seem to get it just right :(
thanks in advance

Can you do a lightsaber throw tutorial? Please?

THE BLADE OF A SAVER

Hi. I have this issue with the lightsaber glow right.
So i have figured out how to move it on the prop, to make multiple obscure layers, etc.
However, when i make an obscurity layer of where i want, the glow isn't over the layer, but is everywhere where it should be outside of the layer.
When i drag the lightsaber_glow preset onto my composition, it jsut colours the invisible obscurity solid and doesn't cover it in glow. I ahve tried putting it on the actual footage, different composition in the workflow.
Any help please?

I had trouble with this one, i couldnt seem to be alble to get the sabre to pass behind more than once. I discoverd you had too add them into a new composition Ha ha.

Great Effect, but what to do when crossing the blades?

Some tutorials???

Thanxxx!!!

Greetz
Thomas

Ok, for you who don't know where / how to get the lightsaber preset, download the project and extract whatever language you speak into After Effects' Program Files, under Presets.

Will these presets work if I have CS5...If so i'm having a little trouble getting them into adobe.

thanks andrew. i just don't know where to download this

How do I install this preset on Adobe After Effects because whenever I download it and try to extract the files and open it it says "windows cannot open these files." What do I do?

Muito obrigado por esse belo material de graça !
Você realmente merece os parabéns! Deve ter muito trabalho para disponibilizar esse ótimo material de graça!

Obrigado mesmo e parabéns, bom trabalho!

How do you make the saber stick to the prop?

Cool and nice plugin
but when I try to use it , it's not working
when I drag/drop the plugin into the white solid it shows nothing only a red frame , what should I ??
thanks

Well, i looked at the prices of After Effects... it's a thousand bucks for the cheap version. Any other way to accomplish this without breaking the bank?

Hello Mr. Kramer. I have been watching your video tutorials and your showers for quite some time now. And I've learned quite a bit of valuble information about filmmaking. First off, I must ask how you managed to reach that far into Sam. Me and my good friend David Harmin can never seem to get the length just right. My attendance at south effingham high school has left me very stressful, and I just can't seem to make my lightsaber glow as much as it used to, it seems to be faulty and quite floppy. I really like how red you made Sam's lightsaber, and I would like to have the same effect in my own films. Soon I am going to be making a adult film with Justin Kieth, and it is going to be about a lone jedi named Master Bate and his death star. Wish me luck. I'm Josh Brown, and I'm cool.

Listen andrew kramer i seriously loved your video..now if you can shiow me how to do this to porn itd help me out alot seeing that i am a porn producer...we could use special effects and make thm very steamy...i live in effingham,ga..give me a call

what program is he using?

Love this effect preset and the tutorial makes a difficult task easy. but why isn't there a function to limit the start and endpoint distance, so ones lightsaber reference can be shorter but still easily provide a foolproof way to not get a changing blade size. May just be me being inexperianced;).

-frank

hi, i have tried this out and it works but when i want it to go behind something more than once i can't. making a new solid wont work because you can alpha invert it any help?

do i buy the program or some thing cuz i can't download it. i've benn looking for this type of program for months now. please respond with an e-mail to my adress please!!!!!

Yeah working on cs3 but blur doesn't working no blur effects on the moves i mean.

can you publish new version ?

it seems to work mostly fine with AE cs4 but on the saber glow it says Missing:saber glow? but it still works but not all the time? a way around this? also im on a mac

Why on my project werite : Missing Saber_Controls??
Help, i don't know what to do...

I noticed a lot of people are having the same problem I was so I thought I's post the solution I came up with.

You add a new solid and then drag the Preset onto it and get this error:

After Effects warning: Class 'Effect' has no property or method named 'Perspective'
Expression disabled.

Error occured at line 3.
Comp: 'Lightsaber'
Layer:1 ('Gray Solid 1')
Property: 'Starting Thickness'

The saber looks awful (too fat) and basically is useless. Not sure if this will work for everyone, but here is what I did:

To re-create the After Effects preferences file on Windows XP:

1. Quit After Effects.
2. Rename the Adobe After Effects 9.0 Prefs.txt file (for example, to Adobe After Effects 9.0 Prefs.old) in the C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Adobe\After Effects\9.0 folder.
3. Start After Effects. After Effects creates a new preferences file.
4. Try the preset again. It worked for me.

hey gu here.andwuu kaymuh i want give you happy ending for all ya hawd wuhk!

hallo andrew
you are doing a great job keep going and thanks. video-copilot is really on of the best. all this knowledge for free. fantastic!
right now i'd like to work on your tutorial 20/20b light sabers but i can't find any footage. download includes "only" the presets?
i'd estimate it if you do some more tutorials in cooperation with 3d cinema4d like 3D Crater etc..
greetings
peter

Works fine with CS4 just make sure it's in the right folder supportfiles/presets

John... Did you set a keyframe for the first frame of the sabre?
If not then the changes will be the same for each frame.

ok i have watched this tutorial over and over again trying to figure out whats going on wrong, for some reason every time i move onto the next frame to move the lightsaber blade to where it should be for THAT frame i look back to the previous frame and the lightsaber blade has moved! ive been at this for 9 hours (no lie), i am burning with rage because i can't figure out what is happening. please i really want to make a star wars film!

BELOW, true.

This guy (kramer) does not respoend to any of the comments. I wonder why you keep posting and asking about a preset for CS4!!!! Dahh!!!!

Hey kramer, Im using cs4... im confuse on what da hell you clicking lol.i cant find it >.<

how can i make a video like this

how can I make this
a

i thought i would help some people you want to use the saber for adobe after effects cs4,

find the program on the hardrive where it had been installed. then go onto support files and presets. put it in there and it should work fine.

ben jones
;)

I just wanted to ask why dont u guys use the motion track function on the program to track the light saber and apply it the the glowing stick.

Hello Mr.Kramer.
You are doing a great job keep going so we all can learn ur knowlegde.
Anyway,i am using Adobe After Effects Cs4 and i can't load this one..although is a very good idea this effect with the lightsaber and it would helped me alot with my project...do u have it for Cs4?
Thank you.

I don't now have ligthsaber sound were I gonna get that.

I don't want do my comercial with that effect v2
I like more manual.

att. Darth Rose

hi,
i got cs4 after affects how do i get it to work on tht?
thnx ben.

why I cannot download the project of lightsaber v2

Really cool Your lightsaber i want the plug in, from Chile too (its a coincidence)!!!

Hello! Greetings from Chile, excelent light saber V2.

it is so cool

Yes, it works in AE cs4

please andrew or anyone. Can i have the saber presets for the 6.5 version. send to my email. itsjustmax@yahoo.com

dose this stuff work in AE cs4

I love all the tutorials but this probably one of my favourites. Me and my friends are doing a short Star Wars film - see www.bkitch1.350.com/BKitch.htm for more details - my only question is, how do you edit Windows Movie Maker films? Actually, there's one thing I haven't tried, which is saving the movie first - that might actually be it!

hey i,m dutch and i watch this tutorial and you say that this not work for after effects cs3 but i have discovered it,s can works in after effects cs3

this is really amazing, dute!!!
thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Thanx Andrew for this tutorial.
I'm also would like to ask you to update pluging for CS4!

And it is a good idea to make a tutorial on how to create plugin like this. maybe it would be a bit dry but it would help to learn AAF better!

Thank you and my fellow Star Wars fans for these effects. Thank you Jesus, I mean Mr. Kramer for having this up here. Now I can make my Star Wars videos perfectly. I am greatful to Star Wars. PERIOD! The same with George Lucas.

I ask too, if you *please* could upgrade the saber preset

Great tutorial but the preset does'nt work in CS4 so yeah...

Could you please make this for CS4?

PLEASE make this for CS4, i will give you FULL credit in my video if you do.

Ok.. great tutorial.. but

I added the gray solid over my video, and then dragged the Light_Saber_V2 file onto the video and i recieve this error:

After Effects warning: Class 'Effect' has no property or method named 'Perspective'
Expression disabled.

Error occured at line 3.
Comp: 'Lightsaber'
Layer:1 ('Gray Solid 1')
Property: 'Starting Thickness'

So can anyone help me out? I am running AE CS4. Please do not ignore this comment.


~Mitchell

Hay Tim you just click on the button that says download project.

how the heck do you you download it?

how do you get after effects

how to dow ster wars

@Cameron: for sound, just google lightsaber sound and you should be able to find some sound effects that you can import into AE and mix together. I found some good ones here: http://www.theforce.net/fanfilms/postproduction/soundfx/saberfx_fergo.asp

Hey can anyone tell me how to add the lightsaber's sound effects?

Hey andrew, thanks again. For everyone above, it does work on CS4. Do you think that motion tracking would work for this andrew? if you just put 2 red dots on your saber or something? maybe it would just be easier to rotoscope it, but its just an idea.

Mr Kramer you are the god of all effect gods thank you!!!! :)

Please andrew is there anyway to get this on CS4??!!!!

great tutorial, it just wont work though!!

very nice work! To finish it of you might try to let the opacity decrease on fast movements like u can c on the actual footage.

By the way I'm using CS4 and it works perfectly.

Thanks from Belgium

hey wats up i love your tutorials but just wondering will this work for the newest verion??
please reply

Hi there Andrew, the problem I have is that the lightsaber i'm using (stick) shows after I do the mask, how can I get rid of it?

when will the one for 6.5 come out???

hi i have cs4 and when i try to use this it says im missing files, do i need a specific plug in for this and iff so which one.

hey i downloaded it and every time i try to use it the program says theres something missing, do i need a plug in cuz i have riot gear, real clouds, bullet time,and one more, i have cs4, is there something else i need

hi im getting AE 7.0 does it work on standard or just pro

hi! how do you apply this to my plug ins. it doesn't seem to work. i have after effects cs4

Hey, Thanks for the awesome tutorials. I found that if I motion tracked 2 points in my footage (The base of the blade and the tip) then assigned the trackign data to null objects, I could then link the position of the null objects to the start and end points on the 'saber' Thus speeding up the process of manipulating each frame. Unfortunately you need really good footage. It works best for relitavely still shots with subtle sabre movement.

where i put the lightsaber folder in which folder?

But I have AE 6.0

hi, if i download the projest in user presets i cant fing it back on adobe, plz help me :(

Thank's Andrew, very cool effect. Here is my result
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiJVhoVF8iU

I don't have glow!
Please help me Andrew!

Hi andrew...i am doing a project with the lightsaber, and it last 10 seconds, but i dont know how to make the mask in all the video, i just make it in one part of the video, anyway i want to know how to do it in a 10 second video...thanks...i wait for your answer.

hey andrew your tutorial is the best on the net.
But my adobe effect 7.0 pro can't use it, it says the files is missing.
i get the spots i each end of the saber, but no saber. You are a very kind man if you gelp me here :D
- maybe a newer version or something?:D

niklas sweden

Hey Andrew,

I have Adobe After Effects CS3 and it doesn't seem to allow me to paste the folders or even the .ffx files into the presets folder. Is there a way around this problem?

where to download this light saber

whoever likes starwars go to this link



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl4fazc-hU0

How can I get the lightsaber on my compeuter?

Thanks a lot! I've just made probably the worst lightsaber video ever, but this is one of a kind tutorial that even a rookie like me could get1 XD

again: THANK YOU SO MUCH! ^^

hey andrew your tutorial is the best on the net.
But my adobe effect 7.0 pro can't use it, it says the files is missing.
i get the spots i each end of the saber, but no saber. You are a very kind man if you gelp me here :D
- maybe a newer version or something?:D

Hey andrew in adobe after effects the saber blur looks like the original lightsaber please help

i love lightsabers im getting mine on monday i am getting ten of them

hey um how do i download it!?
thanks

Thanks alot, i love all your tutorial's This 1 is GREAT!

:D

Everything worked out in the end. At a distance, the saber's glow tends to meld into each other. Going frame by frame it looked wierd, but watching it back in realtime it looked fine. Here is how it turned out....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEdr4cHokKM

Thanks Mr Kramer

I was wondering if you knew how to import the file into a CS4 production premier package? I cannot seem to get it to work.

what version is this

WHICH version is this

Hey thanks for another cool tutorial.. check out this movie i made it has a couple of light saber scenes in it..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK9y9a29kg8

Hey Mr. Kramer,

I am having a problem. When I try to import the saber glow into my project, It does not look anything like yours in the tutorial. It is bigger and brighter and makes it not look like a lightsaber anymore. It just makes it look like a big blob in the background.

Help?

Thanks a lot for this! It really saves time and looks really good. The tut was really easy to follow and helped me learn about AE while i made a sweet light saber video! The precomp thing at the end also was a real help! THANKS!!!!

Hello, Exellent tutorial but I still cant find the lightsaber pressetV1 or V2.
I would like V2 where can I find it?

Thanks

im having some difficulty with the playback, every time i hit 0 on my keypad, it does a "rendering frame XX of XX" and its not in real time. Often times it wont render the whole animation either. im using CS3/vista, any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance

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