Episode 001 - Star Trek vs. Star Wars! The Great Lightsaber - Phaser Battle

Tim and Josh are watching a program about J.J. Abrams' Star Trek and end up in an argument about which is better: Star Trek or Star Wars. Their imaginary battle ensues!

Lightsaber Effect Tutorial

 * Difficulty: Medium
 * Needs:
 * Stick for reference
 * Adobe After Effects
 * A lot of time
 * 1) Get a base for the lightsaber. There are many tutorials online on how to build the hilt of the light sabers, but a toy lightsaber that extends works too.
 * 2) Use a stick of some kind, such as a cardboard tube or a wooden dowel, to make the length of the lightsaber equal in diameter.
 * 3) Tape up or spray paint your lightsaber's "blade" with a bright color, like yellow or neon green to keep it from getting lost in motion blur.
 * 4) Shoot your footage. Have a fight scene of some kind. Whatever you feel like.
 * 5) Open Adobe After Effects, import your footage and create a new composition. Create a white solid (Ctrl+Y on Windows, Command+Y on Mac OS X) on top of your footage. Drop the opacity of the solid just enough so you can see your footage below it.
 * 6) Using the pen tool, draw a mask on top of your lightsaber.
 * 7) Set a key frame for your mask shape and advance one frame forward (using Page Up or Page Down). Move the mask over the shape of your lightsaber and set another keyframe. Repeat this for the entirety of your footage where the lightsaber's blade is visible.
 * 8) Duplicate your solid layer four times (Ctrl+D on Windows, Command+D on Mac OS X) then create a pre-comp.
 * 9) In the pre-comp, create a black solid layer and place it on the bottom. Feather each of the solids containing your lightsaber mask.
 * 10) *Mask 1: 5 percent
 * 11) *Mask 2: 15 percent
 * 12) *Mask 3: 30 percent
 * 13) *Mask 4: 60 percent
 * 14) Disable the black solid in your pre-comp and select the composition containing your footage. Now your lightsaber blade should look more like a lightsaber. To change its color, go back to the pre-comp and add a color correction to it.
 * 15) Finally change the blending mode of the pre-comp to "screen" and you are done!

Phaser Effect Tutorial

 * Difficulty: Easy/Medium
 * Needs:
 * A gun, phaser or anything you want to fire
 * Adobe After Effects
 * 1) Shoot your footage, import it into Adobe After Effects and create a new comp from it.
 * 2) Create a new white solid.
 * 3) Using the pen tool create a mask the shape of a tear shaped beam. Set a keyframe for four to five frames. For each frame modify the beam's shape and position as it comes out of the gun and takes full form then deflecting off of a surface or lightsaber.
 * 4) Duplicate the solid layer containing your mask three times. Pre-compose these three layers.
 * 5) In the pre-comp feather each of the solid layers with the following values:
 * 6) *Mask 1: 5 percent
 * 7) *Mask 2: 15 percent
 * 8) *Mask 3: 30 percent
 * 9) Return to your first comp containing your footage. Add your desired color correction to your pre-comp and you are done!

Severed Hand Effect Tutorial

 * Difficulty: Easy/Medium
 * Needs:
 * A tripod (to make things easy)
 * Image of a gory severed end of a limb
 * Adobe After Effects
 * Patience
 * 1) With your camera locked down on a tripod, take a picture of your background to get a clean plate.
 * 2) Shoot a clip of your lightsaber blade moving over the frame and another clip with your actor holding their hand up in the frame, then moving it out of the frame.
 * 3) Import your clean plate, the ciips and the image of a gory severed end (GSE) into Adobe After Effects and place all of them in the following order
 * 4) *Layer 1 (top): actor's hand
 * 5) *Layer 2: lightsaber
 * 6) *Layer 3: GSE
 * 7) *Layer 4: duplicate of first layer
 * 8) *Layer 4: clean plate
 * 9) Create a mask around the actor's hand in layer 1 and set a keyframe for the mask. Go frame by frame, adjust the mask around the hand as necessary and set a keyframe for each frame.
 * 10) Move and adjust the size and position of your lightsaber footage as it cuts through the arm as the hand flys away.
 * 11) Turn off the lightsaber layer. Adjust the length of layer 4 so that the arm still shows. Create a mask around the arm and the rest of your actor's body. Make sure the mask's blending mode is set to "Add."
 * 12) Position and resize the gory severed end in layer 3 to match the size of the actor's arm.
 * 13) Turn on the lightsaber layer and that is it, severed hand by lightsaber.

Episode Sponsor
Netflix and Squarespace

Notable Quotes
"Set phasers to f*** you up!" -Tim

Trivia
This being the first episode of Film Riot, Ryan plugs the show again at the end. He also adds a single frame during the plug that says "Watch Film Riot" as a subliminal message.