Jm419
Sr Member
We all have the problem of displaying our props - but some of the hardest to display are lightsabers. Some of us display them vertically, some horizontally, and some in special protective cases. A lucky few of us own one of Fx-Sabers Master Yoda's masterpiece Graflex lightsabers, and even fewer own the Hoth lightsaber stand (I only know of one, for certain).
In the entire saga, (and no, The Clone Wars doesn't count), special attention is paid to only six instances where a lightsaber is not in its owner's hand. In The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon's lightsaber is featured prominently as it rests on the floor of the Theed Palace. In Attack of the Clones, Anakin's lightsaber is cut in two by Dooku during their duel, and is cast to the floor, useless. The curious trend occurs twice in Revenge of the Sith, with Obi-Wan's lightsaber is knocked from his hand during his duel with General Grievous and falls several hundred feet to land only yards away from Commander Cody, who later returns it to Obi-Wan. The second occurence is at the very end of the movie, where Anakin's lightsaber is cut from his grip by his mentor's blade, and falls to the sands of Mustafar. In A New Hope, Obi-Wan's lightsaber falls to nestle amongst his robes as the Jedi Master becomes one with the Force, and in The Empire Strikes Back, Anakin's lightsaber, now in the possession of his son, falls into a snowdrift in the Wampa's cave.
Now, out of these six occurences, only two of them happen in a natural environment - that is, where the lightsaber falls onto something other than a metal deck. This happens both times to Anakin Skywalker's second lightsaber, when it is dropped on Mustafar and later on Hoth. Naturally, it isn't particularly interesting to model a metal deck, so when Yoda released his special lightsaber stand, he chose the Hoth location - in part because it was a Graflex, after all, which was dropped, and in part because he could take some creative license with the environment, by adding ice crystals to what was in the film, white powder.
So, in the interest of solving one of my display problems, and to contribute something to this hobby (for once), I chose to model the other natural environment - the volcanic soil of Mustafar. Arguably, this is one of the more important moments of the saga, for when Obi-Wan stoops to pick up Anakin's lightsaber, for it is closing the "circle" which was opened in 1977, when Obi-Wan handed the same weapon to Luke. That moment, where he retrieves Anakin's lightsaber, is important both in our world and in his - for it is ancient practice to retrieve lightsabers of fallen Jedi Knights in the Star Wars universe, and we all knew Obi-Wan had to get possession of the weapon somehow.
It's not like anyone read that anyway. So, on to the pictures:
I wasn't quite sure how to model ash and rock while I was on a budget - but I figured out a way. Instead of modeling ash, why not use real ash, that's been through fire? It's the most authentic way to achieve the look, but it wouldn't hold up. So, I needed a base for the ash - and I came up with one. It's a well documented process to carve foam to create shapes - but I wasn't getting the look I wanted that way. I literally lit the foam on fire, which created such interesting melting patterns, and really mimics the look of the tortured landscape of Mustafar.
Now, the problem is this; though it looks great in person, how to I photograph it? The contrast is so huge that my camera either can't pick up little details, or washes them out in the flash. Unfortunately, the best photograph of my creative license that I took with my stand is this:
As you can see, there's light under the "rocks." I actually mounted 6 super-bright red LEDs under the rocks, and used them to create kind of a "lava glow" from under the rock, which provides another dimension to the stand. Like Yoda's ice crystals, there's no real lava in the area that the lightsaber is dropped in the film, but I figured I could always shut the lights down for movie accuracy.
Due to the nature of red light, and the fact that it's on the very edge of our visible spectrum, it doesn't photograph well - we all know this. The LEDs are "super-bright" LEDs, each putting out 5,000 mcds of light - for a total of 30,000 mcds in just under 18x14 inches of space. It's bright in person, but I wanted it to be subtle, not as bright as a lightsaber blade (obviously), but kind of...emanating from under the stone. While it works in person, it regrettably does not photograph well - but you can get the idea from this shot here.
So, in any case, I am proud to present my Illuminated Mustafar Lightsaber Stand, for my Anakin ROTS stunt.
For bigger photos, the album location is here:
Anakin ROTS pictures by Jm419 - Photobucket
Thanks for looking, everyone!
In the entire saga, (and no, The Clone Wars doesn't count), special attention is paid to only six instances where a lightsaber is not in its owner's hand. In The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon's lightsaber is featured prominently as it rests on the floor of the Theed Palace. In Attack of the Clones, Anakin's lightsaber is cut in two by Dooku during their duel, and is cast to the floor, useless. The curious trend occurs twice in Revenge of the Sith, with Obi-Wan's lightsaber is knocked from his hand during his duel with General Grievous and falls several hundred feet to land only yards away from Commander Cody, who later returns it to Obi-Wan. The second occurence is at the very end of the movie, where Anakin's lightsaber is cut from his grip by his mentor's blade, and falls to the sands of Mustafar. In A New Hope, Obi-Wan's lightsaber falls to nestle amongst his robes as the Jedi Master becomes one with the Force, and in The Empire Strikes Back, Anakin's lightsaber, now in the possession of his son, falls into a snowdrift in the Wampa's cave.
Now, out of these six occurences, only two of them happen in a natural environment - that is, where the lightsaber falls onto something other than a metal deck. This happens both times to Anakin Skywalker's second lightsaber, when it is dropped on Mustafar and later on Hoth. Naturally, it isn't particularly interesting to model a metal deck, so when Yoda released his special lightsaber stand, he chose the Hoth location - in part because it was a Graflex, after all, which was dropped, and in part because he could take some creative license with the environment, by adding ice crystals to what was in the film, white powder.
So, in the interest of solving one of my display problems, and to contribute something to this hobby (for once), I chose to model the other natural environment - the volcanic soil of Mustafar. Arguably, this is one of the more important moments of the saga, for when Obi-Wan stoops to pick up Anakin's lightsaber, for it is closing the "circle" which was opened in 1977, when Obi-Wan handed the same weapon to Luke. That moment, where he retrieves Anakin's lightsaber, is important both in our world and in his - for it is ancient practice to retrieve lightsabers of fallen Jedi Knights in the Star Wars universe, and we all knew Obi-Wan had to get possession of the weapon somehow.
It's not like anyone read that anyway. So, on to the pictures:
I wasn't quite sure how to model ash and rock while I was on a budget - but I figured out a way. Instead of modeling ash, why not use real ash, that's been through fire? It's the most authentic way to achieve the look, but it wouldn't hold up. So, I needed a base for the ash - and I came up with one. It's a well documented process to carve foam to create shapes - but I wasn't getting the look I wanted that way. I literally lit the foam on fire, which created such interesting melting patterns, and really mimics the look of the tortured landscape of Mustafar.
Now, the problem is this; though it looks great in person, how to I photograph it? The contrast is so huge that my camera either can't pick up little details, or washes them out in the flash. Unfortunately, the best photograph of my creative license that I took with my stand is this:
As you can see, there's light under the "rocks." I actually mounted 6 super-bright red LEDs under the rocks, and used them to create kind of a "lava glow" from under the rock, which provides another dimension to the stand. Like Yoda's ice crystals, there's no real lava in the area that the lightsaber is dropped in the film, but I figured I could always shut the lights down for movie accuracy.
Due to the nature of red light, and the fact that it's on the very edge of our visible spectrum, it doesn't photograph well - we all know this. The LEDs are "super-bright" LEDs, each putting out 5,000 mcds of light - for a total of 30,000 mcds in just under 18x14 inches of space. It's bright in person, but I wanted it to be subtle, not as bright as a lightsaber blade (obviously), but kind of...emanating from under the stone. While it works in person, it regrettably does not photograph well - but you can get the idea from this shot here.
So, in any case, I am proud to present my Illuminated Mustafar Lightsaber Stand, for my Anakin ROTS stunt.
For bigger photos, the album location is here:
Anakin ROTS pictures by Jm419 - Photobucket
Thanks for looking, everyone!
and I must admit, I would like to do something for my MR Mace Wind LE saber.
