Lighsaber VFX Quick Test

This is a quick free time test of a lightsaber blade. I was doing it as an experiment during the vfx discussions in chat about the most efficient way to draw a lightsaber in post.

I think that the quickest way to do that is to set up a 2D asset of the blade and to draw 1 alpha channel. There is no much benefit from using a 3D cylinder or a "3DCard" in the comp because in any way you will need to adjust motion blur and unique angles of the blade. All the motion blur & perspective changes disappear behind the core colour of the lightsaber. So, the lightsaber colour layers keep the same size at any angle. The only element which is really changing is the core colour (white). So, if the comp artist will be forced to draw the core shapes anyway, why not to do it from the beginning and save some time? =)

Sorry for the blurred video content. This is the only one appropriate for this test on my phone which I have at the moment.

My first steps in HDR Panoramic Photography

One of my free time hobbies is photography. I like to visit different places and to capture them if it is convenient.
Not long ago I found interested in HDR panoramic photography. Because I was fascinated by HDR maps I was using during digital compositing. The resolution of those maps, their dynamic range, allowing me to insert a fragment of a simple image into a whole film sequence, to animate it and make the shot look significantly better.

So, I have started to learn how to create such things. I spent a lot of time on collecting the knowledge, theory, on practicing. A lot of my shooting series were not even close to be stiched. But with patience and analysys of my mistakes I have reached some good results, which I can share with you now.

This link leads to one of my results:

Mountain River Shakhe, Sochi, Russia 

This map was shot on a simple Canon 650D DSLR camera during a vacation in mountains of Sochi, Russian Federation.

360Cities does not need a full dynamic range, they just collect beautiful photos, but I have stitched a true HDR panorama as well. Just have not published yet. Working about the optimisation between filesize and quality at the moment. The final result exists as .jpg / .exr / .hdr in resolution of 28K pixels, which can be enough for any sky replacement task of visual effects for film or television.


You can view the panorama in a full-size window at 360Cities page

https://www.360cities.net/image/mountain-river-shakhe-sochi-russia

Here is a small preview of this panorama. You can scroll it, turn, rotate with mouse or arrows. And it is just the beginning.

Mountain River Shakhe, Sochi, Russia