I know it can be done in a in-depth style, but does anyone know of any quick and hopefully cheap plugins I could get to add a Light Saber effect for iMovie? Doesnt have to be perfect!
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Need Light Saber effect for iMovie HD!
- Thread starter nickyj182
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I've been googling around for ages. Apparently there used to be something called "Crimson FX" for older Mac systems, but alas! No more!
Now there's something free for PC but not mac!
http://lsmaker.uw.hu/page.php?main=lsmaker.html
I might have to go to dad's and eat humble pie learning how to use his PC for a few days. Yuk! I don't get why iMovie doesn't have it as part of their standard kit, as it is by far one of the most popular family movie special effects that kids will ask for.
Now there's something free for PC but not mac!
http://lsmaker.uw.hu/page.php?main=lsmaker.html
I might have to go to dad's and eat humble pie learning how to use his PC for a few days. Yuk! I don't get why iMovie doesn't have it as part of their standard kit, as it is by far one of the most popular family movie special effects that kids will ask for.
I googled and found this:
http://www.edhsw.com/mixscope/lightsaber.html
If that doesn't work, do you have FCE? It's slow, but you can keyframe in a glowing lightsaber that looks decent. After Effects also has a great lightsaber plugin.
Let me know
Thanks for the reply.
The Mxscope seems to be an application I'd have to buy, and that geared up for stop start animation.
FCE at $268 (Australian) seems a bit pricey just for getting my Star Wars movie made, as I just upgraded to iMovie09 for this purpose... expecting there to be something out there to download for Lightsabers. (Seeing as PC has a free download the way Mac used to have with Crimson FX).
http://store.apple.com/au/product/MB278Z/A?fnode=NDQ4OTY4OA&mco=NDQ4OTY2NQ
As for After effects... that's 10 times more expensive than FCE?
I'm interested anyway... you say FCE is "slow" but isn't it always slow and frame by frame? How could it be any other way? Is there some software that does a 'start' position and then a 'stop' position and fills in the gaps hopefully over the plastic lightsaber the kids were holding? I just don't know how that would work....
Hey, I just remembered. Have you ever used Blender on a mac?
http://www.blender.org/education-help/
Maybe that does it faster, once I learn how to use the massive app?
The Mxscope seems to be an application I'd have to buy, and that geared up for stop start animation.
FCE at $268 (Australian) seems a bit pricey just for getting my Star Wars movie made, as I just upgraded to iMovie09 for this purpose... expecting there to be something out there to download for Lightsabers. (Seeing as PC has a free download the way Mac used to have with Crimson FX).
http://store.apple.com/au/product/MB278Z/A?fnode=NDQ4OTY4OA&mco=NDQ4OTY2NQ
As for After effects... that's 10 times more expensive than FCE?
I'm interested anyway... you say FCE is "slow" but isn't it always slow and frame by frame? How could it be any other way? Is there some software that does a 'start' position and then a 'stop' position and fills in the gaps hopefully over the plastic lightsaber the kids were holding? I just don't know how that would work....
Hey, I just remembered. Have you ever used Blender on a mac?
http://www.blender.org/education-help/
Maybe that does it faster, once I learn how to use the massive app?
I've used FCE for lightsabers, and the only way I've seen how to do lightsabers is framing. You could do the start and stop method, but the lightsaber image may not exactly follow the fake lightsaber well enough to look good. The more time you spend on it = the better it will look.
FCE is what I would recommend, I've tried Blender for a few things, but it's not for editing things on top of video, it's for animation from scratch. I wouldn't recommend it. Look around Youtube, there's a few decent FCE lightsaber tutorials.
Well, there is something which makes it faster. You can use auto tracking in motion. Then you can "stick" you sword to it. the only thing is that it stays in the same position. The you'll have to keyframe it. Maybe someone knows how that's done in motion. I believe that you can do it in After Effects too. (this reply is not helping the starter, but just general information)
maybe you can buy flash
(no that's cheap). It'll do the same. or if you're a quick learner you can try a trial of after effects.After Effects offers a free trial for 30 days. There's a bit of a learning curve though.
So you would probably be better with something like the linked above.
So you would probably be better with something like the linked above.