There's a secret magic to creating the perfect lightsaber.
One of the most iconic elements of all things Star Wars is the lightsaber. Everyone knows what a lightsaber looks like, right? Well, so did Chris McLaughlin, Visual Effects Supervisor at DNEG, before he went to work on creating the VFX for Disney+ series Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, and then he was taught what really makes a lightsaber look like, well… a lightsaber.
Chris identifies the value of working with Chris Balog, Associate Visual Effects Supervisor at Lucasfilm, saying that, “It was good to get Chris’ input on the detail of the lightsabers. Everyone thinks they know what a lightsaber looks like, but now I really know. There was a very specific look: it’s about the amount of blur, the frequency of flashing and the colour of it. Our lightsaber in Skeleton Crew was slightly purple with a hint of cyan and blue to it”.
Indeed, Chris observes a connection with an earlier Star Wars production, explaining how “In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the Kylo Ren lightsaber had a kind of cross hilt, and it looked like it’s almost malfunctioning. Ours wasn’t quite as handmade as that, but the frequency of the flashes were definitely loosened up a bit".
For its work in a galaxy far, far away visual effects studio DNEG took a crew of about 800 artists on a journey to create animation and environment elements in three episodes of the latest tv serial, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, one of the best TV shows for VFX.
The studio’s work is featured in episodes 4, 7 and 8 of the show. Chris tells me how working on Star Wars for DNEG was a great opportunity, as this universe traditionally has been kept close to hand at ILM. “Creatively, Star Wars has traditionally been ILM’s playground and so it was a great opportunity for DNEG to get involved,” he says.
Of the creative process for Skeleton Crew, Chris notes that he worked with Production Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll, who has worked on Star Wars VFX since Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
“Having John Knoll at the helm, and leading from the front, was important," reflects Chros. "We did reviews with him every week. He would share individual shots from other episodes for reference; but, because of project secrecy we were working in a bit of a bubble, even internally.”
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James has written about movies and popular culture since 2001. His books include Blue Eyed Cool: Paul Newman, Bodies in Heroic Motion: The Cinema of James Cameron, The Virgin Film Guide: Animated Films and The Year of the Geek. In addition to his books, James has written for magazines including 3D World and Imagine FX.
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