3DLuke's lightsaber, ROTJ

filip

Hi all,
Here is a model I made of Luke's lightsaber from ROTJ. This was made as an excersise to speed up my modeling workflow.

Comments and suggestions are welcome. I suspect there might be quite a few accuracy errors, so feel free to point those out.

/Filip

evil_genius_180

Nice model, I love lightsabers. Plus, they're great items for doing exercises for the purpose of learning/practicing/speeding up modeling, because they're not overly large or complex but they do require a number of different techniques to complete them. Aside from the modeling, I also like your metal material.

spacefighter

the model is good and the metal texturing nice and believable BUT

light sabers could never work, first light cannot be confined to a beam and it will fly off at 3x10^8 ms^-1. second even if you used a retracting blade that pumped out plasma and even if you had a compact enough power source it would still me a more effective weapon if it just fired plasma "pellets" (which is hard to do as plasma will separate out due to the charges repelling each other) or laser beams. also just consider the situation, you have a light saber, i have a space fighter. when i am in orbit there is nothing you can do to attack me but i can drop kinetic projectiles on you! OR you have a light saber but i have a gun,you can kill me if i am within your arms reach but i can shoot you from range and your reactions are not quick enough to block the bullet/projectile/laser beam from hitting you.

anyway sorry about the rant, good model and texture.

evil_genius_180

That's part of what makes lightsabers so cool, it's science that nobody understands. (hence, science fiction )

DCB

That's the hero saber you have there. It was only used in a single shot, the closeup of Vader turning it in his hands after Luke surrenders on Endor. The rest of the time, they use a series of hilts (resin castings and originals) all based on Obi-Wan's ANH stunt hilt. Here are some schematics if you are interested:

Hero prop: http://i.imgur.com/zDtjGlj.jpg

Stunt prop: http://i.imgur.com/Xhya9xb.jpg

filip

DCB wrote: »

That's the hero saber you have there. It was only used in a single shot, the closeup of Vader turning it in his hands after Luke surrenders on Endor. The rest of the time, they use a series of hilts (resin castings and originals) all based on Obi-Wan's ANH stunt hilt. Here are some schematics if you are interested:

Hero prop: http://i.imgur.com/zDtjGlj.jpg

Stunt prop: http://i.imgur.com/Xhya9xb.jpg

Thanks, I didn't know that! Looks like there is a quite big difference between the stunt and hero versions.

spacefighter

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

That's part of what makes lightsabers so cool, it's science that nobody understands. (hence, science fiction )

sci fi is science that is questionable and just within(or sometimes just outside) the realms of possibility. stuff like: ftl travel(although it is not possible to pass(or reach) light speed in normal space it may be possible to travel through wormholes/hyperspace/warped space to reach places faster than light would), time travel(once again no truly conclusive evidence either way), aliens(could well exist),artificial intelligences(growing more likely by the day),tricoders(a phone can now do almost anyhting they did and more),cyborgs(plausible but not yet developed),parallel worlds(there may well be a multiverse),invisibility(see metamaterials and plasmonics for developments in that direction),wonder materials(some of these could exist, other more/very doubtful),force fields(well there is a thing called a plasma window/curtain that can do some of the things they do)...

light sabers are a direct violation of everyting we know about light, it's not that we don't understand them, it's we understand full well they cannot exist! even if they could there are better methods of attack and defence that the energy could be used for.


did not notice in the film that luke holds a different useless device at all other scenes than the vader one, some people know some really random stuff.

colbmista

spacefighter wrote: »

sci fi is science that is questionable and just within(or sometimes just outside) the realms of possibility. stuff like: ftl travel(although it is not possible to pass(or reach) light speed in normal space it may be possible to travel through wormholes/hyperspace/warped space to reach places faster than light would), time travel(once again no truly conclusive evidence either way), aliens(could well exist),artificial intelligences(growing more likely by the day),tricoders(a phone can now do almost anyhting they did and more),cyborgs(plausible but not yet developed),parallel worlds(there may well be a multiverse),invisibility(see metamaterials and plasmonics for developments in that direction),wonder materials(some of these could exist, other more/very doubtful),force fields(well there is a thing called a plasma window/curtain that can do some of the things they do)...

light sabers are a direct violation of everyting we know about light, it's not that we don't understand them, it's we understand full well they cannot exist! even if they could there are better methods of attack and defence that the energy could be used for.


did not notice in the film that luke holds a different useless device at all other scenes than the vader one, some people know some really random stuff.

not a fan of starwars i take it

spacefighter

i like the films but for the effects rather than the plots, i think they should have had more space battles instead of light saber duels. maybe i should stop ranting over abuse of light beams now...

evil_genius_180

@spacefighter: You're right, of course. I actually misspoke when I made the distinction that it's science fiction. In fact, Jedi, the Force, their powers and lightabers all actually fall into the realm of fantasy, not science fiction. Fantasy works on the principle that someone or something has supernatural abilities to make it happen. Jedi and Sith can be equated to wizards, witches, sorcerers, etc. in fantasy. They operate on powers that we don't understand and aren't supposed to understand. When a Jedi (or Sith) crafts a lightsaber, they surrender themselves to the Force. Using the Force, they construct the weapon, so they're using their supernatural powers to craft them. This is something that only those strong in the Force and properly trained can do, so lightsabers themselves fall into the fantasy of Jedi. So, they don't have to work. After all, if they followed any kind of scientific principle, anybody could construct one. Any corporation in the Star Wars universe could mass produce them and they would lose any and all special properties.

Originally, George Lucas envisioned them in wide use. There's famous concept art of a Stormtrooper holding a lightsaber. (see attached) However, as he was creating the SW universe and deciding what fit where, he decided that lightsabers fit better with the mysticism of the Jedi Order, so he made them weapons exclusive to the Jedi, which made them fall into the Jedi's fantastic abilities and, therefore, need no explanation. So, no, they can't possibly work but that's OK because they're actually part of the Fantasy aspect of Star Wars.

bbzwbbzw

spacefighter wrote: »

i like the films but for the effects rather than the plots

The prequels sound right up your alley then.

spacefighter

bbzwbbzw wrote: »

The prequels sound right up your alley then.

yeah the prequels are the ones i prefer, especially the space battle at the start of ep 3 revenge of the sith(despite it's inaccuracies in motions). oh and evil_genius_180 , well said i suppose.