How to Make Lightsabers Light Up in a LEGO Stop Motion
With as large a fan base as "Star Wars" has, it was only a matter of time before people started making fan videos. And fans find it even easier to create their own Lego-themed "Star Wars" videos now that a number of freeware, stop-motion programs are widely available for download. Even though you easily can access these programs, it doesn't mean they include the necessary special effects. And really, what would "Star Wars" be without lightsabers? Fortunately, dedicated fans have created a program, dubbed LSMaker, to take care of this.
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Instructions
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Open LSMaker. Go up to file and select import. Select all the frames of the stop motion you wish to import. An image of your footage should appear on the right side of your screen.
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Select the color of the lightsaber by clicking on the "Color" option in the left window. When the popup window appears, click on the color you wish to use. Also click on the "Pieces" setting and set it to six. Then click on the "Flatness" setting and set it to 1. Click on "Okay."
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Click on the "Blade" color. Select white from the popup window. Click on "Okay."
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Click on the 0 to the right of the Color option. A dropdown menu will appear. Select "1, Render Using Color." Do the same for the 0 to the right of the Blade option.
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Use the slider halfway down the menu to adjust the lightness of your lightsaber. The lightsaber in your image will change as you do this. Change the lightness to your satisfaction. Click on "Lock." Note that the settings you have selected will be applied to all of your frames.
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Left click at the bottom of the lightsaber in your first frame. Right click at the top of the lightsaber. Click on "Preview" from the menu to see how it will look. Click on "Render Frame" from the left menu.
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Find the arrows at the bottom of your screen. They let you cycle through your frames. Click on the right pointing arrow to go the next frame.
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Left click at the bottom of the lightsaber and right click at the top of it. Click on "Preview," then on "Render Frame." Repeat this for each frame.
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Select "Export" from the menu at the top. Export the frames as .jpeg images. They are now ready to import into your stop-motion program.
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References
- Photo Credit Legomassen draengen vor image by omoritz from Fotolia.com
