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.
