Lightsaber Crafting Tutorial

Sared Kilvan · Post by **Sared Kilvan** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 4:06 pm

A good friend of mine, Adam 'Virtue' Fearn, (over at TJA.net) wrote this up some time back. It is a step-by-step tutorial for build a lightsaber from scratch. In it, he will walk you from the program installation/setup, to the final export of the finished and weighted weapon.

Don't let it scare you! This is nothing compared to modeling or weighting a player model, it is much simpler than that.

If you need any suggestions or help, I will be avaliable after the 22nd of this month.

Check it out, and may the shaders be with you!

Atrux Nuro · Post by **Atrux Nuro** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:31 pm

Good find, I actually stumbled upon this a while back, but I was too lazy to do it.

Illrian Damaris · Post by **Illrian Damaris** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 1:58 am

What, you're friends with Virtue, Sared? That's amazing! He's been on my MSN for quite awhile now. He helped me learn a lot on lightsaber making, and gun shooting in MBII. Virtue is amazing!

This is probably the greatest tutorial for lightsaber creating, and what's better is you can use this tutorial in 3DS Max as well, even if it's in Gmax.

Blavek Araven · Post by **Blavek Araven** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 7:15 am

This one is equally as good, if not better. Virtue and I go way back, about three or four years, used to attend "The Academy" under Dash. I believe Johauna did as well and a few others from ::JEDI::. Great guys and community.

"Inyri's Lightsaber Tutorial"

Eugen Darkrider · Post by **Eugen Darkrider** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 8:23 am

Yea TJA is a nice place.. Met Jo there.. that would be how I got in ::JEDI::

And V's tutorial is amazing. I remember doing my own hilt 1 or 2 years back with the help of it.

Ommar · Post by **Ommar** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 10:02 am

Great tutorials! Are there any that are that simple for player modeling?

Mazik Darza · Post by **Mazik Darza** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 10:12 am

Simple and player modeling don't fit in the same sentence

Edit: Awesome saber tutorials, I've seen these before and they're really useful

Illrian Damaris · Post by **Illrian Damaris** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 11:38 am

Yeah, there is no such thing as to a simple tutorial for model weighting.
There are a few out there that can be helpful, but don't explain it all.

Also, Blavek, I did not know you were also in TJA.net!
I also met Joh there, and I more then likely met Eugen there.
I think I even met Ametha there as well, so that's pretty cool. (:

I was there under Senatu, the family started by Maher and Qin-Tay.
I'm now under Maher as his TJA.net padawan, actually.
Virtue, Dash, Laz, and Jaina all taught me a lot, though.. lol
Also, has anyone noticed that TJA.net is down? It got hacked D:

Inyri's tutorial was nice, but... I was just never able to grasp it with hers.
I personally felt that Virtue's was a little more detailed, and easier to understand.
That's just my personal opinion, no one worry! lol.

Ruluk · Post by **Ruluk** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 3:45 pm

Why does everyone seem to hate player modelling?

You give way too much drama to it. Trust me, it's not difficult, it simply takes time. You can't expect to finish a model in one day... but if you do it with time, what would be the problem?

Ommar · Post by **Ommar** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 4:01 pm

I'd appreciate anyone making a list of the tutorials needed to start from scratch, since there isn't one big one.

Illrian Damaris · Post by **Illrian Damaris** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 6:44 pm

I wasn't personally complaining about modeling. Modeling is easy. Weighting that model can turn out to be the harder task at hand.
Modeling can be done in one day, actually, if you put enough time into it. If I really tried, I could knock out 2-3 a day... I just don't push myself to the limit.

I did do that with saber modeling, though. Which is how I got to where I didn't need the tutorial anymore.

Ruluk · Post by **Ruluk** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 7:42 pm

Wait, wait... Weighting, hard??

Nope. I insist that it just takes time, and the more time you give to it, the bigger chance of getting nice results.

Yeah, a model could be done in one day... but I'd doubt its quality heavily.

Illrian Damaris · Post by **Illrian Damaris** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 8:25 pm

Ruluk wrote:Wait, wait... Weighting, hard??

Nope. I insist that it just takes time, and the more time you give to it, the bigger chance of getting nice results.

Yeah, a model could be done in one day... but I'd doubt its quality heavily.

Yes, weighting can be hard depending on what you're trying to weight. Also, the quality? Are you talking about modeling from scratch? Your OWN tunic and everything?

Ruluk · Post by **Ruluk** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:11 am

Illrian Damaris wrote:
Ruluk wrote:Wait, wait... Weighting, hard??

Nope. I insist that it just takes time, and the more time you give to it, the bigger chance of getting nice results.

Yeah, a model could be done in one day... but I'd doubt its quality heavily.
Yes, weighting can be hard depending on what you're trying to weight. Also, the quality? Are you talking about modeling from scratch? Your OWN tunic and everything?

Everything from scratch would take you a big load of time. So no, not that. But, I'm imagining that you don't want to simply add a pair of horns to an already existing .3ds model, right?

You know, the whole process including weighting is time consuming, if you want it to look right. Good uvw maps, LoDs that don't screw up your model, precise weighting, specially in the hands and head, reducing the amount of trigs in your meshes, like the caps. Accomodating every single tag to its precise location...

You could simplify most of those things, thus saving several hours of work, but as I said, it won't have the good quality that you could have given it.

As a side note, if anyone needs any help on modelling and weighting, you can ask me as well.

(No skinning, though! I suck at that.

)

Illrian Damaris · Post by **Illrian Damaris** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:17 am

It actually isn't that hard at all. I've taken some body parts from the Jaden Human male body, the head of a Zabrak, the cape from the Ganondorf skin, the belt from the Anakin skin, put it all together where it worked very nicely, and it only took me a matter of 3 hours. lol.

But back to the lightsaber crafting. I'm still not that great on making lightsabers of my own, but I do know the process without needing a tutorial now. I remember the first lightsaber I made, was very... boring. It was more or less just a straight shaft, the bottom a little thicker then the top, and that's roughly it...

If TJA.net wasn't hacked and therefore, down right now, I would search for the image of that original lightsaber, because it was posted there.

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Lightsaber Crafting Tutorial

Lightsaber Crafting Tutorial