Star Wars Featurette: The Birth of the Lightsaber

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Recommends Doc · 2014-04 · Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange · on “What motivated Lucas to convert a torch (flashlight) into a deadly weapon?”

I strongly suggest you watch this featurette [this video] which goes through the entire creation of the lightsaber - from the idea, to the sound, to the special effects and etc.

Recommends Petersaber · 2015-06 · Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange · on “Why do the lightsaber moves of Luke Skywalker look so uncoordinated and crude compared to the prequels?”

An in-universe explanation is that Luke was... well... a trainee. Unexperienced. Not trained by a professional. His style was practical and simple, without any flashy moves. Lucas expounds upon Luke's training and knowledge of his adversary and how it impacted fight choreography in the below video around the 12 minute mark. An out-of-universe explanation is that in the old trilogy, they've used fragile, wooden sticks for lightsabers. Literally. Wood painted with highly reflective paint. These would often break. For episodes V and VI they'd use carbon rods. Sturdier, but still troublesome. In the new trilogy, they've used steel and aluminum rods. Much harder to break, but prone to bending. Al

Recommends user12183 · 2015-11 · Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange · on “Why Do Jedi Use One Lightsaber in Combat?”

A full look at the light saber in universe and out of universe including Lucas's original ideas along with how it evolved: Star Wars Featurette: The Birth of the Lightsaber [this video]

Recommends Cearon O'Flynn · 2016-01 · Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange · on “What is the shape of a lightsaber blade?”

The blades are supposed to be rounded as seen in the later films The narrowing that you see in ANH is due to the rotoscoping effects used to create the lightsabers and is merely a limit of the technology of the time as this was done manually in the 70s and 80s. The CGI created lightsabers of the prequels and The Force Awakens will be representative of the intended shape. Allowing them to round out the tips and maintain a uniform shape. One reason that rotoscoping was harder for the OT is the "sticks" used to fight with were much smaller in The OT [LINK] Compared to the subsequent films [LINK] Giving less area to "paint" with the rotoscoping It is a bit long but this video [this video] explains th

Recommends BCdotWEB · 2019-03 · Movies & TV Stack Exchange · on “How did the original lightsaber prop work?”

As stated in the answer to this question on the Sc-Fi and Fantasy SE [LINK] : In the video below, Mark Hamill and George Lucas briefly discuss the methods used to create the lightsaber effects in the Original Trilogy films. The effect was largely achieved by coating a thin wooden tube with reflective material (made out of movie screen) and shining bright spotlights onto it in order to make it appear fluorescent. They then used film filters in post-production to make that effect seem substantially more pronounced and to add colouring. Later films also used a technique called rotoscoping [LINK] to add the light flares and colouration. There is also this explanation [LINK] , which appears to us

Cites Oliver_C · 2014-04 · Movies & TV Stack Exchange · on “Total Recall (1990) nail color change effect”

According to Den Of Geek - Top SFX shots [LINK] : The nails are rotoscoped [LINK] to provide an area for an animated colour transition to take place, and that's all there is to it. Rotoscoping [LINK] refers to the technique of manually creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it may be composited over another background Some other examples [LINK] of "painting" over live-action film that predate 'Total Recall' (1990) : Who Framed Roger Rabbit [LINK] (1988) [ Source [LINK] ] [ Source [LINK] ] Original Star Wars [LINK] trilogy (1977-1983) Lightsabers Star Wars Featurette: The Birth of the Lightsaber [this video]

Cites Valorum · 2014-05 · Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange · on “How were the lightsaber effects done in Star Wars?”

In the video below, Mark Hamill and George Lucas briefly discuss the methods used to create the lightsaber effects in the Original Trilogy films. The effect was largely achieved by coating a thin wooden tube with reflective material (made out of movie screen) and shining bright spotlights onto it in order to make it appear fluorescent. They then used film filters in post-production to make that effect seem substantially more pronounced and to add colouring. Later films also used a technique called rotoscoping [LINK] to add the light flares and colouration.

Cites phantom42 · 2015-11 · Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange · on “Why do the lightsaber moves of Luke Skywalker look so uncoordinated and crude compared to the prequels?”

Lucas and Hamill address this directly in the Birth of the Lightsaber featurette from the DVDs. First Lucas explains that the battle between Obi-Wan and Vader is barely a fight at all, due to their age and condition. It started out as a kind of Oriental form of swordplay where there was a lot of honor involved, a lot of skill, and craft, and higher spiritual meaning to the swordfight. And, so they were very simple. And in the beginning, in the first film, Episode 4, there was this fight between a very old man, and a man who was only partially a man, mostly a mechnical being. So it wasn't really much of a swordfight at all. Hamill then explains that the lightsabers were meant to be heavy. Geo

Cites enkryptor · 2016-06 · Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange · on “How is it possible to do round swings with a lightsaber?”

In Star Wars movies we often see poi [LINK] -style lightsaber movements: [LINK] Poi performers (e.g. fire performers) use the weight of a prop to make it go round. To my understanding, to do this with a physical sword you need the center of mass (a.k.a. point of balance [LINK] ) to be out of the handle, which is typical for swords: [LINK] However, since lightsaber blade has near-zero mass, its POB must be inside of the handle. Moreover, the Wookieepedia article [LINK] claims that the blade actually has a gyroscopic effect (which makes swinging almost impossible): Due to the weightlessness of plasma and the strong gyroscopic effect generated by it, lightsabers required a great deal of strengt

Cites rtaft · 2018-01 · Movies & TV Stack Exchange · on “Why is Vader defeated so easily?”

He's old, out of shape, and half machine. Starting with the battle between Vader and Obi Wan in Episode 4 (which was far worse in quality between two fully trained Jedi), Lucas says: In Episode 4, it was a fight between a very old man, and a man who was only partially a man, mostly a mechanical being, so it wasn't really much of a fight at all. He goes on to describe each of the major one on one fights in the series, including the differences in attitude Luke has going into the battles in Episode 5 vs Episode 6. Episode 5 is really driven by revenge, where Episode 6 he sees the big picture and is doing what needs to be done.