Thanks Ryan for posting this! It really helped me tonight. I did my first lightsaber rotoscoping with Adobe Photoshop. I didn't do much right now, but, by the end of my 30-day free trial, I should have much of what I want done, done. Thanks to Fender4me61 and thanks to Ryan W.!
ive used this tutorial hundreds of times and it works GREAT!!!!! Mac or PC it doesnt even matter any version SHOULD work to as llong as its made after this one was
Cool, I opened up photoshop with a pic while doing this (with CS4) and was able to follow along perfectly!! Thanks for posting! This is a great tutorial!!
Nice lightsaber tutorial. Ryan was precise and to the point. unfortunatly though i dont have access to adobe photoshop. but i do have access to macromedia fireworks mx and flash mx. would anyone know hjow to make a good looking lightsaber on either of those products? if so, please tell me, thanks
I dont understand why you did not used glow layer effect and did not mentioned Dodge layer. I think you can achieve better and faster results with those.
You'll probably won't read this, this video is about 7 years old. But I just wanna say that 6 years ago, I found this video, this learned me much, now I'm a Graphic Designer and it started with me photoshopping lightsabers! I just want to thank you for this! I've also wrote a small blog post on my website to thankyou but since youtube won't allow me to paste links in the comments I'll send it to you if your'e interested. I'm hoping you're succeeding in whatever you're doing these days! ;)
i believe i know what 2 do....it happened 2 me once......first off click the line tool button....then...on the top-left corner of photoshop (below the file button) there should be a "tool preset picker"....click on the arrow n there will be a box showing u the preset tool....next to it is another small arrow that points toward the right.....click on the arrow n find "Reset All Tools"....that will turn your line tool back 2 normal......i hope this helps......
Oh ye of limited intellect... You're obviously jealous cause he used it way before you ever thought of using it. The vid is interesting to watch and quite informative, always useful to know another way of achieving a particular graphical effect, marks for effort.
Nice work, dude. I´ve been "lasering" with photopaint for a long time and thought, my works are pretty well. But you are right, the gradual fading is a important thing and makes the lightsaber more genuine. I´ll adopt this at once. (5 stars)
Nice. glad to have learned this being a film maker myself with a 'glowing' monster to be featured in my next film. I like that approach. Any idea how to use this effect in AE? (after effects?) or on motion stills?
That was a good tutorial. Would it be possible for you to do one using Windows XP Professional? The reason I'm asking is because that's what I have & I need to learn this stuff for my career choice.
thrice (thrs) adv. 1. Three times. 2. In a threefold quantity or degree. So how do you apply this to a prop in a recorded video. Do you have to go frame by frame and edit?
fantastic had u just shown the photo i would never have known it was a photoshopped lightsaber now i can make my black saber with this method thanks lol
this works pretty well, but for some reason my photoshop doesn't like to give me the color i want with color balance, so i have a slight variation. use the line tool, the same as ryan says. but, pick your color first and make the lines in said color, and go through the blur stuff. then, create a white line over the rest. blur it anywhere btween 3 and 10, depending on how good it looks to you. but, overall it's a useful tutorial. i just varied the steps slightly to get the same effect...
Hey, this is an awesome tip! It has been working for me, until today. I think I screwed up my line tool or something. I have no idea how to fix it. It will act like it's working until I try the gaussian blur, and then it wants me to rasterize it. I am using adobe photoshop cs for windows xp. Can you help me?
Very good! I've always wondered how to do this thingys, and your tutorial had really clear information. I mean, I've seen other tutorials, but I guess I just needed a video to understand ^^ Anyways, the pictuer's rockin', and belive me; I will try to make something like this thanks to your tutorial! (sorry for my crappy english, I'm from Sweden xD)
You have the Line tool attributes set to Shape Layers, which will create a new layer that cannot be blurred. Set it to Fill Pixels by accessing the options palette (the row of icons at the top of the screen) and clicking on the 3rd icon in the first group of icons. Church96: this should solve your problem too.
You could have done that using an "Outer glow" Layer style (click on that icon with an "f" in a circle beneath the layer window) on only one layer with a white line painted over the prop. Would have been much simpler and quicker...
Nice man... Took me a few goes to get it.. I couldn't get my line tool to do the rectangle like you got, so I just made a few layers for each side, and it worked great! Yours was the first and only Tutorial that worked for me! Thanks man!
i cant do it damnit! i downloaded the adobe photoshop cs3 trail right? and when i do like make that line tool it makes this other layer, i dont no why, but anyway, when i click on layer and put the blur to 10 20 and 30 the lightsaber tool dind't blur! HELP!
I have a problem with this... When I use the linetool, it becomes another layer, so i have "layer1" "Shape1" "Shape2" and "shape3" When i dublicate the "layer1" and add blurs, it don't show. I use Photoshop CS2 Thanks.
I like your method. I've tried a couple, but yours seems the simplest and still effective. I'm going to try it on my next video project (Rotoscoping... Bleh) and see how it works out. Nice method.
Find out who did ALL the actual stunt-work and swordplay fight choreography for Darth Vader by watching this video! Star Wars Darth Vader Revealed by Viggo Mortensen (LOTR) watch?v=HpLkOjfsTBw
So much work for one picture?? Do you have to take a shot (from a movie) to make it look like a lightsaber or can you just stop the movie and fix just that frame and continue with the next??
Lol it was so hard back then now days it is so so easy. While you edited this movie (if you were editing for the movie actually) you had no idea how famous these movies would get.
Without "Geeks" you wouldnt be able to sit at a computer. You would still be sitting in a cave trying to figure out what that little green thing on the ground that doesnt move is.
How do make the line tool already perfectly angled as a rectangle so that it fits over the lightsaber? When i select the line tool it just stays as a thin straight line.
Ryan has an after effects tutorial for doing this in a movie on his website, www.ryan-w.com (for the record most home cameras do 29.97 frames per second I think it is)
why my photoshop cannot create that color balance effects even after i've screened the layer unless i change something which i dont know what. cn sumbody tell me.?
I downloaded this tutorial a couple of years ago...who knew then that I had been taught how to do this by a founder/star of Ryan Vs. Dorkman!!!!??? Awesome!!!
i have a problem i have no idea how to change the neutralcolor 4 the layer. i'm using another language then english but....i only need help with the neutralcolor
Хобби
![I Replaced ALL my ADOBE APPS with these [free or cheaper] Alternatives!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5EfqHg49kMk/mqdefault.jpg)
14 years later, still the best tutorial about this. Simple, and short.
Of all the methods I've seen here in youtube. This one is perfect, that is why I need to say this. Thank you sir, CHEERS!!!
Thanks for uploading. I just retouched one of my photos using Ryan's method - looks SO much better than my handiwork.
Whoa, almost 10 years old.... SHIT time passes fast
WOW! the others tutoriaks ain`t looking real but this is something else...
Dude, that rocks! When I get photoshop, I can finally make myself look like I have a lightsaber, pwnage!
isnt ryan weiber the one who was in Ryan Vs Dorkman? great tutorial by the way i will have to try this out myself.
Thanks Ryan for posting this! It really helped me tonight. I did my first lightsaber rotoscoping with Adobe Photoshop. I didn't do much right now, but, by the end of my 30-day free trial, I should have much of what I want done, done. Thanks to Fender4me61 and thanks to Ryan W.!
could you please right "Ryan Weiber" on the title? i was looking for this video but was not easy to find :C
Ryan is a legend. It's five years later, that mac he's on probably doesn't even exist anymore, and this is still the best tutorial I've looked at.
dude this is easy thanks man
wow thanks!
I'm going to try it:)
ive used this tutorial hundreds of times and it works GREAT!!!!! Mac or PC it doesnt even matter
any version SHOULD work to as llong as its made after this one was
I love my Mac. Need to get a Few programs for it.
This is better than my method I thinks.
Upgrade your Mac's OS btw.
thats clever and cool!!
Cool, I opened up photoshop with a pic while doing this (with CS4) and was able to follow along perfectly!! Thanks for posting! This is a great tutorial!!
Nice lightsaber tutorial. Ryan was precise and to the point. unfortunatly though i dont have access to adobe photoshop. but i do have access to macromedia fireworks mx and flash mx. would anyone know hjow to make a good looking lightsaber on either of those products? if so, please tell me, thanks
I dont understand why you did not used glow layer effect and did not mentioned Dodge layer. I think you can achieve better and faster results with those.
nicely done i loved this but some of us already knew how to do it.. thanks anyways..
very helpful. Thanks !!
I got a small question. Is there any easy way done in videos? Except for doing it frame by frame, or is that how LUCASFILMS does it as well?
I saw this one when I was 7 years old!
You'll probably won't read this, this video is about 7 years old.
But I just wanna say that 6 years ago, I found this video, this learned me much, now I'm a Graphic Designer and it started with me photoshopping lightsabers! I just want to thank you for this! I've also wrote a small blog post on my website to thankyou but since youtube won't allow me to paste links in the comments I'll send it to you if your'e interested.
I'm hoping you're succeeding in whatever you're doing these days! ;)
A COMMENT AFTER 4 YEARS
i believe i know what 2 do....it happened 2 me once......first off click the line tool button....then...on the top-left corner of photoshop (below the file button) there should be a "tool preset picker"....click on the arrow n there will be a box showing u the preset tool....next to it is another small arrow that points toward the right.....click on the arrow n find "Reset All Tools"....that will turn your line tool back 2 normal......i hope this helps......
wow, awesome dude, you're so cool haha
Great very usefull!
Nice tutorial. To bad you didn't show us how to make the tip of the saber however.
I'd really like to do this, so can anyone tell me what version of Adobe Photoshop they use.
now, for those who are jz getting the line, go change the pixel to a bigger one then oni u can get 4 lines.
what editor did u use?
I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 9. This Tutorial was very helpful. Thanks. Keep up the good work
will that work in macromidia fire works 4
nice i love macs
Ya i got the same probably, my line tool is just making a line...
would you say that photoshop would do better lightsabers than gimp would?
Oh ye of limited intellect... You're obviously jealous cause he used it way before you ever thought of using it.
The vid is interesting to watch and quite informative, always useful to know another way of achieving a particular graphical effect, marks for effort.
He's right, I've used this method and it is a lot better yhan using other methods like the outer glow feature in photoshop. Its just too opaque.
sweet!!! do you know how to do that in a video?
Nice work, dude. I´ve been "lasering" with photopaint for a long time and thought, my works are pretty well. But you are right, the gradual fading is a important thing and makes the lightsaber more genuine. I´ll adopt this at once. (5 stars)
Nice. glad to have learned this being a film maker myself with a 'glowing' monster to be featured in my next film. I like that approach. Any idea how to use this effect in AE? (after effects?) or on motion stills?
It is so much easier to use after effects
That was a good tutorial. Would it be possible for you to do one using Windows XP Professional? The reason I'm asking is because that's what I have & I need to learn this stuff for my career choice.
god bless ryan weiber, thanks to him know i can make my own lightsabers! Ryan if you are watching the comments i thank you!
thrice (thrs)
adv.
1. Three times.
2. In a threefold quantity or degree.
So how do you apply this to a prop in a recorded video. Do you have to go frame by frame and edit?
This method can now vote.
Still the best looking one, too. Fuck Outer Glow.
Adobe Photoshop is an image editing program which you can do basically anything with when it comes to images.
This thing is fun to draw stuff with and we can color our charecters fast to.
butt I dont like it when we have to go through so much instructions.
fantastic had u just shown the photo i would never have known it was a photoshopped lightsaber now i can make my black saber with this method thanks lol
Thats awesome except my "line tool" boxes only go horizontal or vertical, they dont automatically Ryans did
@essyayen Did he put the video out to show off his Mac? "Jeeze"..
What, what? Oh if you mean the price yeah its a $600.00 software. Photoshop isn't some rinky dink program, you can do anything with it.
i was never ale to sit through the entire movie but i've
seen most of them and i find this very useful
P.S I AM NOT A NERD!!!!!!!
Do you know if you where to use lightsabers on your films ? do you just do every fram for your film with that way that you did it ?
Hmm, doesn't work for me. The white wont change color. I've used it many times for similar stuff, I dunno what is up.
mines too .i have it in spanish and yes i know spanish but i cant find gizzing blur..what languege do u got it in
Uh, no. That would be horrible and slow. You would want to use something for video, like After Effects or Nuke.
this works pretty well, but for some reason my photoshop doesn't like to give me the color i want with color balance, so i have a slight variation.
use the line tool, the same as ryan says. but, pick your color first and make the lines in said color, and go through the blur stuff. then, create a white line over the rest. blur it anywhere btween 3 and 10, depending on how good it looks to you.
but, overall it's a useful tutorial. i just varied the steps slightly to get the same effect...
where did he get that pic?
Hey, this is an awesome tip! It has been working for me, until today. I think I screwed up my line tool or something. I have no idea how to fix it. It will act like it's working until I try the gaussian blur, and then it wants me to rasterize it. I am using adobe photoshop cs for windows xp. Can you help me?
Very good!
I've always wondered how to do this thingys, and your tutorial had really clear information. I mean, I've seen other tutorials, but I guess I just needed a video to understand ^^
Anyways, the pictuer's rockin', and belive me; I will try to make something like this thanks to your tutorial!
(sorry for my crappy english, I'm from Sweden xD)
You have the Line tool attributes set to Shape Layers, which will create a new layer that cannot be blurred. Set it to Fill Pixels by accessing the options palette (the row of icons at the top of the screen) and clicking on the 3rd icon in the first group of icons.
Church96: this should solve your problem too.
i got photoshop cs4 but i cant draw a line on the screen layer it comes as adiffirent layer by itself
what software is he using
why cant i seem to paint the saber
You could have done that using an "Outer glow" Layer style (click on that icon with an "f" in a circle beneath the layer window) on only one layer with a white line painted over the prop. Would have been much simpler and quicker...
Nice man... Took me a few goes to get it.. I couldn't get my line tool to do the rectangle like you got, so I just made a few layers for each side, and it worked great! Yours was the first and only Tutorial that worked for me! Thanks man!
i cant do it damnit! i downloaded the adobe photoshop cs3 trail right? and when i do like make that line tool it makes this other layer, i dont no why, but anyway, when i click on layer and put the blur to 10 20 and 30 the lightsaber tool dind't blur! HELP!
The Gimp is free / Open Source software that should be able to do the same.
www.gimp.org
I have a problem with this... When I use the linetool, it becomes another layer, so i have "layer1" "Shape1" "Shape2" and "shape3"
When i dublicate the "layer1" and add blurs, it don't show. I use Photoshop CS2
Thanks.
wut was that photoshop or whatever it was...WHAT DID U USE!?
2020 represent
its corona time
Not so much, actually.
I like your method. I've tried a couple, but yours seems the simplest and still effective. I'm going to try it on my next video project (Rotoscoping... Bleh) and see how it works out. Nice method.
Find out who did ALL the actual stunt-work and swordplay fight choreography for Darth Vader by watching this video!
Star Wars Darth Vader Revealed by Viggo Mortensen (LOTR)
watch?v=HpLkOjfsTBw
So much work for one picture??
Do you have to take a shot (from a movie) to make it look like a lightsaber or can you just stop the movie and fix just that frame and continue with the next??
Lol it was so hard back then now days it is so so easy. While you edited this movie (if you were editing for the movie actually) you had no idea how famous these movies would get.
Without "Geeks" you wouldnt be able to sit at a computer. You would still be sitting in a cave trying to figure out what that little green thing on the ground that doesnt move is.
i know ive seen them
How do make the line tool already perfectly angled as a rectangle so that it fits over the lightsaber? When i select the line tool it just stays as a thin straight line.
Ryan has an after effects tutorial for doing this in a movie on his website, www.ryan-w.com (for the record most home cameras do 29.97 frames per second I think it is)
why my photoshop cannot create that color balance effects even after i've screened the layer unless i change something which i dont know what. cn sumbody tell me.?
I downloaded this tutorial a couple of years ago...who knew then that I had been taught how to do this by a founder/star of Ryan Vs. Dorkman!!!!??? Awesome!!!
i have a problem i have no idea how to change the neutralcolor 4 the layer. i'm using another language then english but....i only need help with the neutralcolor
ok i have adobe ptosohp cs3 and when i make a new layer no "screen mode option" appears
nor is there a fill screen neutral color black either? help?
you need to use an adobe video thingy then export the video into photoshop then it has each frame as a picture then you edit each frame seperately.
i think the one from force-fx is better but its only my opinion
im using photoshop elements 7 and theres no "preserve luminosity" button.
HELP!!!
any one know how to get photo shop not from adobe cuz they want $666 kinda creepy
I'm not Ryan Weiber. I just found the video helpful so I posted it for all to see.
Yeah, he knows that ;)
But this is the method for photoshop.
Check RyanVSDorkman (1 & 2), and you'll see What this guy is capable of !
uuhh i am over here wat u told me, the photoshop cs3 trail, is that where u download it? or u download the adobe photoshop lightroom thing?
hi... i was just wondering 'cause i need to know. Can i get viruses from RUclips? i know I'm a noob but if anyone knows please tell me.
how would i make a curved tip becuase it doesn't look as well with pictures?
Well yeah, cause Mac has decided to market towards dumbasses, that's why :P
Is this only for still photos, or can a similar method be used for videos (I would assume that requires much more effect expertise)?
NICE ON! it looks amazin! better than the movies i think x] u should be the movie editor lol (in jking with that but ur rly good ;) )
now how the F*** do you do it in a movie?? THIS IS A WASTE OF TIME! You can just do it the way they do it with movie effects!
You should really think about doing more of these tutorials, it really helps to see it done instead of just reading about it.
to further make this more realistic, you should put a shine of green on the clothes as the lightsabre is a light source