Painting on Film.

Creating the Lightsaber- A lightsaber is essentially a metallic handle created with Graflex camera flash components and other things pieced together
to represent the handle of the weapon, where there is eventually going to be a blade of solid light. Many techniques were used to try and give the
effect of a glowing blade on screen. One technique used Scotchlite material, invented by NASA to add a high level of reflectivity to the steel rods inserted
into the handles. However, over constant use the reflective tape was tattered and torn. In the end it was decided to keep the rods, uncovered inside
the lightsaber hilts and later, use rotoscoping by tracking the rods on film  to digitally composite the glowing effect.
 
 

Various lightsabers used in the Star Wars Trilogy.	Mark Hamill and David Prowse's lightsabers shown in their bare rod forms.

 

Igniting the Impossible - Using special work stations, gels of light were projected through backlit film where the lightsaber blades were then filmed
as transparent. The "white" of the blade is actually the light of the projector, filmed by an opposing camera during compositing. Gels were proven at
first not strong enough to produce the intense color spectrum of the blades, so it was decided that the use of hand cut mattes would be incorperated
then each frame would be hand painted (rotoscoped) to bring out the intensity of the gels, previous attempt. This produced a stunning illusion of
blades of pure light stretching and clashing in the epic saga.
 
 
 

Here is the original footage shot with the rods. We can see there is no effects added at this point in the process.	Here is a hand cut/drawn matte, the white represents where the blades will go, and is transparent in the film at this point.

 
 

This is the hand cut/drawn matte with the gels and airbrushing applied to the frame. The black was then later keyed out to transparency.	The final frame with the blades added, making for a exciting visual effect, signature to the Star Wars franchise.

 

Now lets take a look at this process, in sequential order, as if it were a strip of film.

   Raw Footage.

Hand Cut/Drawn Matte.

Gel/Airbrushed Blades.

  Final Composite.

The final composite of lightsaber rotoscoping as seen in The Empire Strikes Back here.
 
 
 

Effects Animation.

The effects in Star Wars were not simply lightsaber blades but the same process shown above was also applied to blaster bolt effects, starship
blaster fire, and most memorable, Emperor Palpatine's devastating lightning in Return of the Jedi.
 

View the final composite of Palpatine's rotoscoped lightning as seen in Return of the Jedi here.