We Makin' Us a Matte
Import your footage, and throw it in a new comp.
Create a comp-sized solid (any color) and apply the Beam effect to it (effect > generate > beam).
Ugh! That doesn't look nice. Change the inside and outside colors to pure white and take the softness down to zero.
Now, go to the frame when the saber will fully absorb the bolt.
Move the "Ending Point" to the lightsaber blade (where you want the bolt to make contact with the saber).
Click the stopwatch for the "Time" slider and set it to 100%. This should push the bolt onto the point on the saber. Tip: if it moves the opposite direction you probably mixed up the "End Point" and "Starting Point".
Move back, maybe 4 frames, drag your "Starting point" out of frame or, if you have an actor with a blaster, to the blaster barrel.
Play with the "Starting Thickness", "Ending Thickness", and "Length" until you have some good perspective and a good-sized blaster bolt.
If this is the only bolt you need/want you can pre-compose your bolt and name it "Glow" (this will make sense later). Otherwise, duplicate the solid with the beam effect on it and repeat this process.
Create a comp-sized solid (any color) and apply the Beam effect to it (effect > generate > beam).
Ugh! That doesn't look nice. Change the inside and outside colors to pure white and take the softness down to zero.
Now, go to the frame when the saber will fully absorb the bolt.
Move the "Ending Point" to the lightsaber blade (where you want the bolt to make contact with the saber).
Click the stopwatch for the "Time" slider and set it to 100%. This should push the bolt onto the point on the saber. Tip: if it moves the opposite direction you probably mixed up the "End Point" and "Starting Point".
Move back, maybe 4 frames, drag your "Starting point" out of frame or, if you have an actor with a blaster, to the blaster barrel.
Play with the "Starting Thickness", "Ending Thickness", and "Length" until you have some good perspective and a good-sized blaster bolt.
If this is the only bolt you need/want you can pre-compose your bolt and name it "Glow" (this will make sense later). Otherwise, duplicate the solid with the beam effect on it and repeat this process.
Da Glow (Fa Sho')
In your pre-comp, make a new black solid and put it below the blaster bolts.
Pre-compose the blaster bolt layer(s) again, but not the black solid. Name this comp "Matte"
Now, in the first pre-comp, apply a "Fast Blur" (effect > blur & sharpen > fast blur) to each bolt layer, check the "Repeat Edge Pixels" box, and set the value to 1.
Duplicate each layer three times. Give your first duplicate a blur value of 10, the second 20, and third 40.
In the main comp, apply the "Color Balance" effect to the bolt pre-comp.
Check the "Preserve Luminosity" box and colorize.
Pre-compose the blaster bolt layer(s) again, but not the black solid. Name this comp "Matte"
Now, in the first pre-comp, apply a "Fast Blur" (effect > blur & sharpen > fast blur) to each bolt layer, check the "Repeat Edge Pixels" box, and set the value to 1.
Duplicate each layer three times. Give your first duplicate a blur value of 10, the second 20, and third 40.
In the main comp, apply the "Color Balance" effect to the bolt pre-comp.
Check the "Preserve Luminosity" box and colorize.
Extras
Never stop there.
Add contact flashes when the bolts hit the lightsaber.
Also, to make the bolt "bounce" off of the saber, just go another four frames ahead of the "contact frame" and set the "Time" to zero again. You can also change the "Starting Point" to make the bolts bounce in a direction other than that of which they came in.
Add contact flashes when the bolts hit the lightsaber.
Also, to make the bolt "bounce" off of the saber, just go another four frames ahead of the "contact frame" and set the "Time" to zero again. You can also change the "Starting Point" to make the bolts bounce in a direction other than that of which they came in.
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