Saturday, August 19, 2006

Episode VII: The Saber Dance

I'm fucking psyched! I got some footage of Mr. Z and his new friend engaging in a light saber duel (c'mon... get your minds out of the gutter!) and it turned out great. In order to preserve their anonymity, I shot them in silhouette in front of the window in the living room.



Okay, so it's not the greatest shot in the world, but it gets WAY better. I took a little video with my digital camera and got a short movie of the battle. Then I went on the internets and found me a fucking INCREDIBLE, FREE effects app called LSMaker to do me a little post-production on the clip. It was pretty easy to figure out and before long, I was makin' me some movie magic. Here's what I managed to crap out in about an hour and a half:



I'm still cracking the fuck up every time I watch it. It's hilarious because they were so busy dancing around and spazzin', they hardly even hit their sabers together. I tried to add some sparks when they got close, and my favorite part are the sparks I added when his friend hits the saber on Mr. Z's foot. Hilarious. Now all I have to do is find me some SFX and this thing will be golden.

I love that this sort of effect probably took a year for the original Star Wars movie, and now Johnny Moron here is pulling it off in a couple of hours. Industrial Light and Magic -- I am for hire.

It's killing me!

7 comments:

gradschoolknitter said...

All it needs is some dubbed in music and sound effects out of the originals and Mr. Z and friend are ready for the big screen!

Anonymous said...

that short buck-toothed kid looks like he's been watching too much SW. "The forth ith sthtrong in you, theek. But you're no match for my thuperior thkillth. Come, join the darkthide, young crabbydad."

crabbydad said...

Yes, anonymous. He must be a... (wait for it)... Sith.

[Erin, I'm working on the SFX and music. Hoping for a Labor Day release.]

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't that make him a.... thith?

crabbydad said...

Yeth. My mithtake.

gradschoolknitter said...

where can I dress up in my Princess Leia costume and line up for tickets?

crabbydad said...

Don't bother, Erin, the line's already around the block. Wait until "Episode VIII: Light Sabers are Fun until Someone Loses an Eye."