I'm working on a test animation. Just to describe the scene, it's a Protoss (from the game StarCraft) who has his psionic blades ignited. I'm having problems with the blades though - I'm not sure how I can make em glow like they should, and it's really important that they glow because it needs to to be cool. ;) To give a reference more people would probably be familiar with, say for instance you wanted a lightsaber effect that could be achieved through poser, for an animation. How could you accomplish such a feat? I'm not looking to do anything too fancy, I just need to know how to achieve a basic glow effect. Thanks!

In the material settings for the blade, change both the Object Colour and Ambient Colour to the same value (bright blue, for instance). Then parent spotlights to the blade, pointed outward, so it'll actually illuminate its surroundings. If you're using the Pro Pack, motion blur will help, also.

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I'm sure you could apply this effect get what you're looking for. There's even a link to a lightsabre video demo.

Here's my try at the glowing blade. I'm not using transparencies to produce a fake volumetric effect, although it would certainly contribute to the illusion.

Video clip (MPEG format, 97KB)

If anyone's interested, I can provide the .pz3 file.

I think that is about the best you could get out of poser. That glowing effect is most done in post work...i recall somehwere hearing that the lightsabers in the 1st movies were all hand painted frame by frame....

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In the first film (Episode 4: A New Hope), the wizards at ILM used a number of techniques, including some that were practical (performed on the set, rather than added in post). They'd cover a blade in reflective material, and spin it with a motor hidden in the hilt. When lit, it appeared to glow. The colour wasn't particularly vibrant, however, especially from certain angles, and the props were rather fragile; they didn't hold up well during duels. If you watch the film carefully in its original form, you can actually tell when these were used. For later films in the series, and the Special Editions, the effects teams used rotoscoping exclusively. Nowadays, the painting is done by computer.

Well, I found a way to do it, and it seems to work from nearly all angles... I build the beam saber prop shown here, with two materials - the handle, and the blade. The blade itself, geometrically, is made up of a series of spheres of varying sizes... gets slightly larger shortly after it leaves the handle, and then get smaller and smaller until they reach the tip. In Poser, I set the handle material the way I liked it, then set the blade material as follows: Ambient and Diffuse color both bright green. Reflective color and highlight color jet black (0/0/0). I then set the Minimum (yes, MINIMUM) transparency to 100%... Maximum to about 20%... and falloff to it's highest setting (10). The end result is a beam saber whose blade seems to glow, with NO post work, at any angle, and thus suitable for animation.

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I've done that too; works pretty well. I might recommend that the innermost layers of the blade be white, rather than green, to create the two-tone effect seen in the movies and games.

(screenshot from Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast)

Valander,
where can i buy that storm trooper outfit in your pic???

My website

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Wolf: It's part of a pack I haven't even sent to my Beta Testers yet... but will soon be, and shortly after submitted to the store as "Iryana the Bounty Hunter"

Remember, kids! Napalm is Nature's Toothpaste!

Great!!

My website

YouTube Channel

Many thanks for all the advice. I'm trying out some of the stuff you guys have said right now.

Hello, I was wondering if anyone knows if the "The Ultimate Lightsabres Collection by Dodger" is setup to be used in Poser 5, The models work in Poser 5 and look great but the glow effect doesn't seem to be coming through very well. I have enclosed a picture of what I mean. The textures do show up in the materials tab, but don't seem to be applied to the model. What could I be doing wrong? I'm new to Poser 5 and any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance. :-)

Try these settings for the blade. Make sure the ambience has a value (like 1).

~DM

THANKS!!!! :-) Now I'll play around with the settings a little and see how bright I can get the saber blade. Thanks again! :-)

Ok I think I undersand how to do the saberblades now. Been experimenting with textures and how I can perfect the saber since you showed me what to do. Still a little more work to do but I thought I would show this image. What do you all think?

Cool! BTW there's a link to a tut on how to do this on the top of my downloads website.

Cool! Didn't even notice it there.

btw, since your here, what ever happened to the "Name the Mystery Lightsaber" contest?

~DM

No one won. The time limit has at this point been vastly exceeded and there was no winner. As a result, I'm going to put them in my free stuff for all. I really was hoping someone would figure out what they were. Anyway, the weapons were: (Right, w. Blue Blade): 'Vibrosword', Gamma World 4th Edition (Left, w. Red Blade): 'Lightsaber', Dungeons & Dragons Blackmoor setting. Yep, I kid you not. It was a 'Lightsaber' (sic) and that was the *only* name given it. It was detailed in a few of the Blackmoor modules. For those who don't know but do care, the Blackmoor modules are a series of old, old old D&&D Modules that cover the north lands of Blackmoor, some time travel, and the idea that those lands were, before being coverd in ice, the home of an advanced technological civilisation. They were re-released in the late 80s as AD&D modules.

BTW, In the Vibrosword above, I used the GammaSky reflection map that was included with my Gamma World Life Force Detector prop. In the Light Sabre, I used the 'dungeon.jpg' reflection map which actually contains a rendering of my vision of the not-front-door of the Tomb of Horrors.

O_o;; Wow, those are obscure! Ill have to look into that Blackmoor setting, sounds kinda fun! Am I correct in assuming thats first edition? ~DM

It's 0th edition D&D, and was re-released under 2nd edition AD&D, I believe (or possibly it was 4th edition D&D, but I think it was the former). I have the re-release of a few of the modules but they are in boxes at the moment, so I cannot verify for sure. But yes, it was possible to use a 'lightsaber' (sic*) in AD&D before third edition and the d20 Star Wars game made it possible to do without conversion B^) * The sic is because I'm a big proponent of using the English Language over the American Language**. I think a British English version of Poser should have been released so that things said 'colour' in the right places B^) ** I'm also in favour of reunification and submission to the Crown, and think this whole revolution thing was a sham, as we currently pay more (and a higher percentage, too) vice tax on cigarettes to the IRS than anyone ever paid the Crown on their tea. Further, a colonist in 1775 has a much better chance of influencing Parlaiment and the Crown than any individual American has of influencing Washington today. Re-establish the Tory Party! Bring Mother England back! Abolish the rebel regime in power for 200 years! Hail Queen Elizabeth! Long live the Queen! Hey, I lived in Aussie, and Aussie works better then America, so I'm just going on experience! But nobody takes me seriously. sigh B^)

Dodger... you DO know that cigarettes are nearly the equivalent of 6-7 bucks a pack over in Great Britain, right?

Remember, kids! Napalm is Nature's Toothpaste!