Star Wars Costume/FX screentest

A short screentest to see how my lightsaber props and costumes look on screen, and to test the greenscreen process and some basic animation with Blender.

[@NinjaTyler]

I can't wait to see them!

[@FilmLearnin]

FLANNNNDERRRRS! dude...that was the funniest thing I've seen all week! you made my day. so weak... *wipes tear away from eye*

[@xXBocephusXx]

Awesome!!!

[@jbi]

I love your passion for SW! Great costumes

[@practicaldeduction6862]

love the mon calamari mask.

[@Goldencarddx]

love the Tie Fighter pilot costume!

[@lflank]

Shooting the raw footage didn't take long -- just a couple hours. But adding all the FX took a couple days. The lightsaber blades have to be done one frame at a time.

[@ObiWanShinobi12]

Maybe I'll say it again but I love your films!!!

[@lflank]

For the spaceships, I used Blender to animate some CGI models. For the cockpit scenes, I filmed myself in front of a green screen (actually ALL the scenes were me in front of a greenscreen), and added the backgrounds by computer.

[@gallantrymike]

Really awesome costumes and effects, great job!

[@lflank]

I'm working on it. Probably this weekend.

[@tiamat5774]

thanks for the tips!

[@dangkoen]

Awesome, dude!

[@kanterpro]

Wawe ! Impressive !

[@lflank]

The sound was fine while I was editing--it didn't get noisy till I changed it from AVI format to WMV format. I see some video noise in places too that wasn't there while I was editing. :(

[@lflank]

The TIE cockpit is a screenshot from the movie that I Photoshopped to remove the pilot. I wanted to do the same for the X-Wing cockpit, but couldn't find a good frame from the movie, so I used a rendered frame from a 3D CGI model that I found online -- but I don't remember now which model it was. I think it was one of the models from SciFi3d.

[@lflank]

I'm working on two new characters for short Star Wars films -- a Jedi master and his padawan. As for the FX, I did all of them in After Effects. I wanted to try several different ways of making the saber blade, doing the lightsaber startup, etc. Some I like, some I don't. But I wanted to see how they looked on screen. And I am just beginning to teach myself how to do computer animation using Blender, so I wanted to try out a few simple animations to see how they looked.

[@SirReelist]

NOT BAD!! I like it!!

[@Hellraiser618]

now that i think of it, i think they you're right

[@jrmagic43]

amazing job it looks awesome

[@lflank]

I only changed it to WMV because the finished AVI file was huuuuge and I didn't want to take all afternoon to upload it -- WMV files are much smaller. But alas, I'm pretty sure that's what introduced all the video and audio noise. :(

[@SirReelist]

The villian after Darth Vader CERTAINLY looks evil enough for his sword and the one before Darth Maul looks like a cool villain!

[@lflank]

There are actually several different methods of making sabers here -- I wanted to try them all out to see how they looked. I still think the old Photoshop Filmstrip method makes the best-looking blades, but it takes a really really long time. So I've settled on the Andrew Kramer plug-in for After Effects, with some tweaking.

[@zerozeroone4424]

Amazing effects nice 3d effect to you did a good job

[@lflank]

I actually used a couple different methods, because I wanted to see which looked best. The best-looking way, I think, is to use Adobe Premiere to break the clip into a filmstrip, and then use Photoshop to rotoscope the blades one frame at a time. I also did some of these blades with After Effects, using a plug-in that I found somewhere. It's a lot easier to use, but the edges it produces are too hard, so it doesn't look as good to me as the Photoshop method does.

[@ageshero]

Goodness gracious....

[@Enosy]

wow! this is amazing!! im subscribing

[@lflank]

I wanted to try a couple different ways of making the lightsaber effect in After Effects. Some of them look pretty good; some of them look too "hard". I still think the Photoshop method looks best, but it's an awful lot of tedious work . . . The trooper armor looks even better on screen than I thought it would. I don't know how that noise got into the audio -- wasn't there when I edited -- and I see some video noise too in some places. Maybe when I changed format from AVI to WMV?

[@lflank]

For special effects and green-screening, I use Adobe After Effects. For editing, I use Windows Movie Maker.

[@TNTflix]

Nice that makes me want to get after effects even more!

[@lflank]

@rhunin I did for some of them. For others I converted the film to stills and rotoscoped the blades using Photoshop. I wanted to see which looked better on screen.

[@lflank]

Once you have yourself filmed in front of the greenscreen, you use the "chroma key" function in your editing software (I use After Effects) to remove all the green and put in whatever digital background you like. Two things to watch out for: don't stand too close to the screen, or the green color will reflect onto your back side and cause a green fringe to appear around you -- it's hard to get rid of. And don't let your shadow fall on the screen as you are filming.

[@RadiatedLlama]

@RadiatedLlama Im sorry if you took it the wrong way i meant that its cool that you still love something like this

[@Seraphmortus]

Nice light sabers. :)

[@Enosy]

@RadiatedLlama WHO DOESNT LOVE STARWARS!!!

[@rdmio18252]

Two quick suggestions. For human rebel pilots, never light from above...it makes the entire face look yellow, as seen in this video towards the end. Also, with aliens, tuck the mask into the shirt, or the mask will be obviously a mask, and the skin will go over the shirt [as seen with your Mon Cal X-Wing pilot]. Otherwise great job with budget effects...the best kind!

[@DatoFarid]

yeah. i hope one day i cn create one presets LOL.

[@lflank]

The masks are Halloween costumes -- I aksed my friends to save them for me. I'm working on tutorial to make Jedi costumes (I'm also working on making a Han Solo blaster and a rebel Endor blaster).

[@tiamat5774]

ok, how do you do the back ground? maybe you should do a tutorial on that. I like your tutorials best cause you speak clearly and distinctly and give great instructions verbally. great video and thanks again for your help with the lightsaber prop making!

[@NinjaTyler]

Wow LOVED IT! Whered u get all the alien head pieces??? Loved ur diff. robes, u should make a tutorial on how to make Jedi/Siith robes!

[@lflank]

I made it from old plastic "For Sale" signs. See my "Storm Trooper Armor" tutorial.

[@lflank]

Yeah. It gives edges, especially on the inside, that are too hard, and don't have the nice blurry look that I get with the Photoshop method. I'll find the new version and give it a shot.

[@DatoFarid]

yeah i know what u mean man. if u watch my MARABAHAYA vid. thats what happened when i use WMV. the quality was much better (or maybe a bit) when it was avi. but yeah. i didnt wanna waste ma time too much but nvm. this is just a screentest and it's pretty well done. =)

[@lflank]

Yeah, it's not really hard -- it's just a piece of green cloth that is hung on a wall or clamped to a rack (there are instructions on the Web to make a rack from PVC pipe). The most important thing is to stretch the cloth really tight and get the lighting right -- there can't be any folds or creases in the cloth, and there can't be any shadows or bright spots on it. The easiest way is to film outside on an overcast day when there aren't any shadows.

[@sondreus24]

ididnt knew that ackbar was a jedi, but wel welll

[@DatoFarid]

this video rocks. the costumes r badass. well nxt time dont change it to wmv cause im facing the same prob too hahaha. windows pissed me lol.

[@lflank]

They are Halloween masks.

[@zcremator]

Very nice, Did the Jedi wear glasses?

[@lflank]

An animation program called Blender

[@tonygfactory09]

dud thats true

[@ilikestarwars473]

the costumes at 1:25 and 1:37 are creepy . u should make a rebel pilot costume tutorial

[@WATCHERINA7787]

he made them

[@Hellraiser618]

just a freindly nerdy correction, but it's KEL-DORIAN and they have 5 fingers.

[@freudenbergfilms]

I"m not too sure who it is at 2:06 but if you check out 0:07 I'm pretty sure that's Ned Flanders from the Simpson sporting a jedi robe LMFAO!

[@ultimatedesingers]

Where did you get the masks? They look great.

[@lflank]

Ned Flanders . . . ? Most people tell me I look like Jaimie from Mythbusters. ;)

[@alpha671000]

@RadiatedLlama lol

[@JPtoylover]

Why don't u do any tutorials on how to do those sweet alien costumes!? ( I specifically want 2 know how 2 make the mon calamari costume)

[@lflank]

I made it. See my "Storm Trooper Armor" tutorial.

[@lflank]

Hey! A Lot of Budweisers had to die to produce that belly. ;)

[@ventrillo1]

how do you put together these cool films

[@LtStarkiller]

Who jacked Darth Maul in the face at 1:43 ?

[@WagnerMusic1996]

lol at 1:27 the blade kinda comes out of the hilt

[@rhunin]

Did you use videocopilot's program for lightsabers blades?

[@DatoFarid]

plug in by andrew kramer right.? hehe. there's a new version of that plug in. try it =)

[@gapvtropper8521]

of the star wars armors ????

[@StarWarsFAN123456543]

@lflank did u make all of the costumes and props?

[@KEVQUATRO1]

how did you do the special effects with the X-Wing and Tie fighters

[@Riptuskan]

Would it be possible to buy a Stormtrooper FX Armor kit somewhere for someone about 6'6'' in hieghth? all the costumes ive found online are all 6'3'' and under. And it would have to be valid to be used in the 501st. im not old enought to join yet, but, i like planning ahead.

[@RadiatedLlama]

How old is he and he still is obsessed with star wars

[@gapvtropper8521]

and of waht kind of material you use ?????

[@rabentefel]

2.00 omg guckt der gestört

[@DatoFarid]

hehe its not ackbar but ther are several fellows from that species were jedi. just like kit fisto's padawan :D

[@CANNABEARDGAMING]

ITS A TRAP!

[@Monkeymoviesinc]

@chaman3872 everyone has a profession. his is star wars... is that a problem how can u even criticise u dont even hav good vids!! its not his fault he has glasses and he has way more views and subscribers than u could ever hope to have

[@varun009]

whos the guy at 2:06

[@lflank]

Too expensive for just about ANYBODY. ;) If you want to go trooping and join the 501st, you have no choice but to spend the big bucks. But for just a costume in a fan film, where you don't need to be hyper-uber-superduper-screen-accurate, there's no need to spend all that money.

[@Nissanas69]

at 01:06you sayd dont move jedi but episode 2 the clones were good and the clone was from episode 2 but in episode three the clones turn bad (or stormtroopers) and you had count dooku lightsaber but the lightsabers color should be red not purple purple is only jedis lighsaber colour

[@CokaRolla]

wtf 1:30 evil ewok?

[@Monkeymoviesinc]

chaman3872 i think his vids are awesome if u can do better show me

[@mansashaka]

first comment

[@obs222]

star wars geek >:c

[@UnNoSeQue2]

This is so fail its win

[@lflank]

@RadiatedLlama How old is George Lucas . . . . ? Idiot.

[@CommanderGooch]

wans't impressed with the Darth Vader costume