• Adobe After Effects

  Custom Lightsaber – Start Point and End Point

  Posted by Filip Stillerska on June 22, 2019 at 9:05 pm

  An easy way to create a simple lightsaber in AE is to use the “Beam”-effect, track the clip that you want to composite the saber into and then link the tracking data to the Beam-effect’s “Starting Point” and “Ending Point”. But how do you do this with a custom lightsaber, created in another composition? I thought it would be as easy as tracking the clip and then linking the tracking data to the position of two Puppet Tool-pins on both ends of the saber; I was wrong. Doing this results in a weird bend of the custom saber. I knew there are plugins, but this feels like it would be achievable without plugins.
  Any ideas?

  Project download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jwfb2evu9guxt6z/Custom%20Lightsaber%20-%20Start%20Point%20and%20End%20Point.aep?dl=0

  
  The beams (“lightsabers”).

  
  Using the Beam-effect I’m able to move around the start and end point of the saber.

  
  Trying to do the same thing with the Puppet Tool on a custom saber results in a weird bend, even if I change settings like “Mesh Rotation Refinement”.

  Blaise Douros replied 6 years, 10 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Doyle Lewis

  June 24, 2019 at 1:09 pm

  Use the 2 points of data as a position and scale track maybe and loose the puppet tool entirely? that would be my best guess without seeing the project myself.

  Doyle Lewis,
  Assistant Location Manager
  Warner Brother Pictures
• 

  Blaise Douros

  June 24, 2019 at 3:58 pm

  Just download Video CoPilot’s fantastic (and 100% free!) plugin Saber. It does more than just lightsabers, so you should have it in your arsenal anyway; it’s incredibly useful for all sorts of energy effects.

  It’s sort of silly to self-limit to only native effects when there’s a free tool that does exactly what you need.

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