1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,880
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

2
00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:08,920
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with

3
00:00:09,080 --> 00:00:17,840
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,

4
00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:20,680
Speaker 1: Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and

5
00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:23,040
Speaker 1: I am the tech editor at how stuff works dot com.

6
00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:25,040
Speaker 1: Sitting next to me, as he always does, is senior

7
00:00:25,079 --> 00:00:33,600
Speaker 1: writer Jonathan Strickland. I spilled my mini Glorians. Oh you know,

8
00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:36,040
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to get them up. So we're gonna

9
00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:41,919
Speaker 1: start off this podcast with a little listener tweet. This

10
00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:44,960
Speaker 1: listener tweet comes from Jacqueline Hyde, who says, got a

11
00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:50,560
Speaker 1: listener request for you, how lightsabers work. The force is

12
00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:53,800
Speaker 1: strong with this one, so we are going to talk

13
00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:56,680
Speaker 1: about lightsabers. This is kind of an interesting subject in

14
00:00:56,680 --> 00:00:58,840
Speaker 1: the sense that really it belongs and stuff you missed

15
00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:01,160
Speaker 1: in history class because it did happened a long time ago.

16
00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:04,679
Speaker 1: Any galaxy far far away, yeah, um, or technically it

17
00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:07,000
Speaker 1: could be fan stuffed, but they don't have a podcast,

18
00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:09,720
Speaker 1: so we're gonna tackle it before anyone can grab it

19
00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:13,200
Speaker 1: from our cold dead paddawan hands. As the Jedi would say,

20
00:01:13,319 --> 00:01:16,600
Speaker 1: niner naner, Yes, the Jedi would say, that, So, of

21
00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:19,840
Speaker 1: course we're talking about the civilized weapon from a or

22
00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:22,920
Speaker 1: the elegant weapon from a more civilized age. The light

23
00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:28,160
Speaker 1: saber as introduced to us through George Lucas's brilliant work

24
00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:32,440
Speaker 1: Star Wars A New Hope Um or Star Wars when

25
00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:35,280
Speaker 1: it first came out in nine. It was not American

26
00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:37,840
Speaker 1: graffiti as many people think. No, no, there was no

27
00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,560
Speaker 1: cameo of the lightsaber in American graffiti, although that would

28
00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:46,280
Speaker 1: have made that movie that much more awesome. So lightsabers,

29
00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:48,240
Speaker 1: of course, this is the weapon the Jedi used, the

30
00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:51,920
Speaker 1: the magic sword of the Star Wars series, and in fact,

31
00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:54,360
Speaker 1: when uh, most of the interviews I've seen with Lucas,

32
00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:57,640
Speaker 1: he just refers to it as a magic sword. You know,

33
00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:00,080
Speaker 1: I just said, it's that's what the purpose of it is.

34
00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:01,880
Speaker 1: It's just it happens to be called a lightsaber, but

35
00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:06,360
Speaker 1: a magic sword. So the problem with magic is that

36
00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:08,919
Speaker 1: there's not a whole lot to how it works other

37
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:14,000
Speaker 1: than magic. You know, you you're just totally getting into that. Early.

38
00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:15,760
Speaker 1: I thought we were going to go ahead and talk

39
00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:18,400
Speaker 1: about how it works, all right. Well, this has not

40
00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:21,360
Speaker 1: stopped people from telling us how it works, despite the

41
00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:23,760
Speaker 1: fact that it's magic. So let's talk. There are people

42
00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,440
Speaker 1: who will argue exactly how this works. It's not. As

43
00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:28,160
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, we have an article on how

44
00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:33,080
Speaker 1: it works. It's not cannon, and cannon is important to me.

45
00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:37,440
Speaker 1: But then again, you know what is canon? Jar jar binks.

46
00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:40,640
Speaker 1: So let's just move on into how lightsabers work. So

47
00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:44,280
Speaker 1: a lightsaber is made up of several different parts. You've

48
00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:47,800
Speaker 1: got the handle, which is pretty much where everything is, right, Yeah,

49
00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:51,320
Speaker 1: so the handle has at the base of the handle,

50
00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:55,560
Speaker 1: you've got the power sell and uh it's a it

51
00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:59,360
Speaker 1: was it dieci um, Yes, a dietium crystal. Alright, So

52
00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:01,120
Speaker 1: you've got the diet sham power cell that's in the

53
00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:05,080
Speaker 1: basic that's fine. You know what if they correct us,

54
00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:08,120
Speaker 1: if they take that time more power to that uh

55
00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:10,800
Speaker 1: diation power cell is in the middle of a power

56
00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:14,200
Speaker 1: of vortex ring and a power field conductor. Now where

57
00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:16,920
Speaker 1: does all this power go? You've you're generated that's essentially

58
00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:19,360
Speaker 1: like the battery of the lightsaber. That's the very base.

59
00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:22,240
Speaker 1: So and it's got a lot of energy stored in it,

60
00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:24,840
Speaker 1: lots and lots of energy. Now where does this energy

61
00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:27,560
Speaker 1: go once it starts to Emit from the power cell.

62
00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:30,880
Speaker 1: It goes into the crystal energy chamber right where you

63
00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:35,960
Speaker 1: have your primary crystal. Now, depending on whom you ask,

64
00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:40,800
Speaker 1: this crystal may or may not determine the color of

65
00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:46,920
Speaker 1: the lightsabers blade. Yes. Now, some would argue that the

66
00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:51,280
Speaker 1: real determiner for the lightsaber color is lies with the

67
00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:55,600
Speaker 1: Jedi him or herself and the force that that Jedi

68
00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:59,840
Speaker 1: abuse the crystal. So in that case, you could have

69
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,120
Speaker 1: any crystal and essentially have a lightsaber of any color.

70
00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:06,120
Speaker 1: It would all be up to the individual Jedi. Others

71
00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:10,680
Speaker 1: would argue, nay, tis not so, the lightsaber color is

72
00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:13,760
Speaker 1: dependent entirely upon the color of the crystal you select

73
00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:19,000
Speaker 1: to focus this power. Um, I'm gonna go with that one.

74
00:04:19,279 --> 00:04:22,880
Speaker 1: So you know, of course, we we also need to

75
00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:28,200
Speaker 1: talk about how Jedi lightsabers are different from Sith lightsabers

76
00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:32,599
Speaker 1: because they are so the crystals that Jedi use tend

77
00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:36,320
Speaker 1: to be natural crystals. They're crystals found in caves throughout

78
00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:41,520
Speaker 1: the galaxy Um, and so these crystals are they can

79
00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:45,039
Speaker 1: take the power and create the the the force of

80
00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:48,599
Speaker 1: the I guess, the actual lightsaber blade. It's the best

81
00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:52,040
Speaker 1: way of putting it. Um and the Sith What they

82
00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:54,840
Speaker 1: do is they'll they'll make a they'll make their own crystals.

83
00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:57,120
Speaker 1: They'll create a forge, and they'll build a synthetic crystal.

84
00:04:57,320 --> 00:04:59,919
Speaker 1: And there's tend to be red, which is why you

85
00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:02,600
Speaker 1: see sith like like Darth Maul or Darth Vader or

86
00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:06,880
Speaker 1: Darth Tyrannis walking around with a big old red lightsaber,

87
00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:10,640
Speaker 1: whereas Jedi they tend to stick with blue and green,

88
00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:16,200
Speaker 1: although other colors are also available. Yes, so there are

89
00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:18,120
Speaker 1: more that, but there are There are more than one crystal.

90
00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:21,280
Speaker 1: Though the primary crystal is uh is just one part

91
00:05:21,279 --> 00:05:23,839
Speaker 1: of that. There are second there are secondary and smaller crystals,

92
00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:26,320
Speaker 1: and it sort of depends on the Jedi who builds

93
00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:30,680
Speaker 1: the lightsaber, because the lightsaber is Creating a lightsaber is

94
00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:33,440
Speaker 1: part of becoming a Jedi. Yes, it's actually the final

95
00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:38,159
Speaker 1: step of Jedi training. According to a Darth Vader, Yes so.

96
00:05:38,839 --> 00:05:41,120
Speaker 1: But but what the additional crystals do is they actually

97
00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:45,640
Speaker 1: help focus the energy into a blade form, right right,

98
00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:48,080
Speaker 1: So the energy coming from the power cell, once it

99
00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:50,120
Speaker 1: passes through the crystal, that's what gives it the the

100
00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:54,560
Speaker 1: destructive force that we see from lightsabers. The other crystals

101
00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:58,800
Speaker 1: focus that into the blade um and depending also on

102
00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:01,960
Speaker 1: upon whom you ask, They may also give the the

103
00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:07,120
Speaker 1: lightsaber other certain powers, like it may enhance certain certain

104
00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:10,200
Speaker 1: aspects of the lightsaber. For example, we know that lightsabers

105
00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:15,480
Speaker 1: can deflect blaster fire. Some of these crystals are apparently

106
00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:19,920
Speaker 1: more effective at deflecting blaster fire than others, and others

107
00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:22,760
Speaker 1: may be better at cutting through certain kinds of material.

108
00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:27,880
Speaker 1: So uh Now, other other scholars will argue that's not

109
00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:31,440
Speaker 1: the case. The just focuses the blade, doesn't imbue it

110
00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:34,880
Speaker 1: with any other powers. Um. Personally, I haven't had my

111
00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:37,080
Speaker 1: hands on the lightsaber in a really long time, so

112
00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:39,720
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard for me to tell you exactly

113
00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:42,640
Speaker 1: what what which ones are right, And also I have

114
00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:46,799
Speaker 1: only ever really used one, so with that small sample size,

115
00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:49,359
Speaker 1: it's impossible to say yes. And and it's probably a

116
00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:51,960
Speaker 1: good time to point out that if you do have

117
00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:54,880
Speaker 1: the opportunity to use the lights remember it's it's not

118
00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:56,360
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that you just want to play

119
00:06:56,400 --> 00:07:00,520
Speaker 1: around with because it can be a very uh very dangerous. Yeah,

120
00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:03,040
Speaker 1: it turns out serious damage and when you can cut through,

121
00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:06,000
Speaker 1: you know, a foot of steel, that it's not the

122
00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:11,400
Speaker 1: best thing to you know, swatterfly with no UM. After

123
00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:14,520
Speaker 1: it goes through the christ the focusing crystal, it passes

124
00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:19,640
Speaker 1: through the blade energy channel again further refines the blade

125
00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:22,920
Speaker 1: and directs it into a straight line that would emerge

126
00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:26,200
Speaker 1: from the hilt. UM. And then at the very top

127
00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:29,440
Speaker 1: of your blade, you've got your your cycling field energizer's

128
00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:33,120
Speaker 1: your energy modulation circuits uh, and then you've got your

129
00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:36,760
Speaker 1: your controls. Your controls adjust the power of the blade,

130
00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:39,840
Speaker 1: and it also adjust the length of the blade. So

131
00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:43,560
Speaker 1: even though we normally see lightsabers used at A at

132
00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:46,800
Speaker 1: a pretty standard length, most people have it at A

133
00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:49,320
Speaker 1: whenever they turn on their lightsaber, it's pretty much the

134
00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:52,960
Speaker 1: same length each time. Technically you can adjust that, so

135
00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:55,440
Speaker 1: you can make it longer or shorter using the blade

136
00:07:55,480 --> 00:07:58,720
Speaker 1: length adjustment UM. And then there's a magnetic magnetic stabilizing

137
00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:01,800
Speaker 1: ring and a blade trial emitterr UM at the very

138
00:08:01,840 --> 00:08:04,560
Speaker 1: top which helped control the blade so it doesn't just

139
00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:08,400
Speaker 1: zap out when you turn it on. UM. That's your

140
00:08:08,440 --> 00:08:14,400
Speaker 1: basic anatomy of your lightsaber hilt. And then of course

141
00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:17,720
Speaker 1: then there's the activation matrix, which is the Star Wars

142
00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:22,280
Speaker 1: term for the on switch. I just I love that part.

143
00:08:22,280 --> 00:08:24,559
Speaker 1: They are the handle is about thirty centimeters in length,

144
00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:28,560
Speaker 1: so they're not ridiculously long, right, um, which is good

145
00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:32,120
Speaker 1: to know. It generates an arc wave energy field, and

146
00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:37,600
Speaker 1: this is why the blades actually have a stopping point. Yes,

147
00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:40,120
Speaker 1: and it has it. It produces sort of a gyroscopic

148
00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:42,560
Speaker 1: effect to which is why you have to be very

149
00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:45,640
Speaker 1: careful with it because you know it has it has

150
00:08:45,679 --> 00:08:47,320
Speaker 1: a pull to it if you will, right. But that

151
00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:50,400
Speaker 1: also makes it easier to use, because otherwise it would

152
00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:54,400
Speaker 1: be like swinging a flashlight around. There'll be no feedback

153
00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:57,480
Speaker 1: from swinging the handle, and it would make it much

154
00:08:57,480 --> 00:09:01,440
Speaker 1: more difficult to master allie saber if you didn't have

155
00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:04,800
Speaker 1: that gyroscopic effect when you started swinging it around. Um.

156
00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:07,280
Speaker 1: So the blade arc tip, that's the very end of

157
00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:12,040
Speaker 1: the lightsaber, um, and it's it's the arc committer is

158
00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:16,120
Speaker 1: what's keeping it from becoming like a blaster. Actually, lightsabers

159
00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:20,760
Speaker 1: pre date blasters, um. Before it was a more civilized

160
00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:23,120
Speaker 1: after all as it was and you know, I guess

161
00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:26,280
Speaker 1: civilized means that you locked each other's limbs off, as

162
00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:29,559
Speaker 1: opposed to shooting each other from very far away. Uh.

163
00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:33,520
Speaker 1: Never never bring away lightsaber to a blaster fight. Oh wait, no,

164
00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:35,200
Speaker 1: you could do that. No, yeah, you can't do that

165
00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:38,040
Speaker 1: because yeah, all right, so let's talk about it's about

166
00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:41,960
Speaker 1: that's that's the basics of building your lightsaber. Um. Now,

167
00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:47,200
Speaker 1: each Jedi builds his or her own lightsaber as part

168
00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:50,640
Speaker 1: of their training. Uh, and they're gonna build it according

169
00:09:50,679 --> 00:09:54,640
Speaker 1: to their own particular fighting style. Now do you have

170
00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:59,200
Speaker 1: you heard about the different Jedi fighting styles? No? I haven't.

171
00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:03,960
Speaker 1: There are seven major forms of lightsaber styles. Yes, okay,

172
00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:05,200
Speaker 1: well why don't you I want don't you tell this?

173
00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:07,720
Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna go into a little detail, but

174
00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:10,719
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna do this as a pretty high level thing.

175
00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:13,319
Speaker 1: You don't need to get into depth. This isn't Jedi

176
00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:16,679
Speaker 1: fighting style stuff. That's right. Yeah, that's another podcast that

177
00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:19,760
Speaker 1: we're starting next month. You'll start requesting now. Um, next

178
00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:22,600
Speaker 1: month being April. I can't imagine when the first episode

179
00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:27,960
Speaker 1: will come out. So, so the the the fighting styles

180
00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:29,320
Speaker 1: that you can think of it kind of like martial

181
00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:32,040
Speaker 1: arts styles. Um, you know, not all martial arts styles

182
00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:34,559
Speaker 1: are alike. Cut on day is very different from jiu jitsu,

183
00:10:34,679 --> 00:10:36,840
Speaker 1: which is very different from a keto, which in turn

184
00:10:36,920 --> 00:10:42,120
Speaker 1: is different from hap keto. Um, there they're drunk Jedi style. No,

185
00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:44,880
Speaker 1: there's no drunken master Jedi style, although I hear Yoda

186
00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:48,160
Speaker 1: can get up to some wacky shenanigans on a Saturday night. Uh.

187
00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:52,320
Speaker 1: The seven forms of lightsaber combat are actually listed as

188
00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:54,280
Speaker 1: you know, Form one, Form two, Form three. They each

189
00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:56,040
Speaker 1: have their own names, but I'm not even gonna try

190
00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:59,520
Speaker 1: and pronounce them because they're all alien and I don't

191
00:10:59,559 --> 00:11:01,680
Speaker 1: have the k ability. I don't actually know what the

192
00:11:01,679 --> 00:11:03,800
Speaker 1: pronunciation is for most of them. But if you hadn't

193
00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:06,320
Speaker 1: spilled your mini chlorine, you'd be fine, I know. In general,

194
00:11:06,400 --> 00:11:09,600
Speaker 1: Form one is the foundation. It is the basic form

195
00:11:09,640 --> 00:11:14,120
Speaker 1: of lightsaber combat. It's your basic strikes, your basic defenses. Um.

196
00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:17,560
Speaker 1: It teaches you how to view the body as a

197
00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:20,560
Speaker 1: series of targets, like you think of you divide up

198
00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:24,160
Speaker 1: the body like the head is a certain uh certain target,

199
00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:28,040
Speaker 1: the arms, the torso, and you know, attacks are very

200
00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:31,640
Speaker 1: specific to each target. You know, different slashing techniques and

201
00:11:31,679 --> 00:11:37,319
Speaker 1: hacking techniques. So Form one is kind of lightsaber combat

202
00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:40,360
Speaker 1: one oh one. Everyone pretty much goes through that. Form

203
00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:45,280
Speaker 1: two is dueling. Now, this lightsaber combat really concentrates on

204
00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:50,480
Speaker 1: finesse blade control. Footwork. This is the kind of of

205
00:11:50,760 --> 00:11:55,559
Speaker 1: style that Count Dooku slash Darth Tyrannis used. Yes, now

206
00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:58,920
Speaker 1: that is why his lightsaber handle actually has a curve

207
00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:00,319
Speaker 1: at the end of it. It's so that he can

208
00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:03,000
Speaker 1: hold it kind of like a pistol grip, gives them

209
00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:05,520
Speaker 1: a lot of control over the tip of the blade.

210
00:12:06,040 --> 00:12:09,160
Speaker 1: And that's just his style of dueling. Now, this was

211
00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:12,640
Speaker 1: much more popular before blasters came out because it was

212
00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:15,920
Speaker 1: just really meant for lightsaber to lightsaber combat. Once blasters

213
00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:19,760
Speaker 1: came out, people Jedi began to realize that the in

214
00:12:19,880 --> 00:12:23,640
Speaker 1: order to deflect these these blaster bolts, they would need

215
00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:26,720
Speaker 1: to adapt their fighting style. This is not the best

216
00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:29,640
Speaker 1: style to use if you're being shot at by stormtroopers,

217
00:12:29,640 --> 00:12:34,640
Speaker 1: for example. So, uh, but that was Trannis's favorite form.

218
00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:37,720
Speaker 1: Then there's four three, which is defensive where you are

219
00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:41,240
Speaker 1: trying to reveal the least amount of target space on

220
00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:44,640
Speaker 1: your body. So it's really good for defending against blasters

221
00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:47,640
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Form four is an acrobatic style,

222
00:12:47,679 --> 00:12:50,840
Speaker 1: lots of flips and spins. You're using the force to

223
00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:54,240
Speaker 1: boost your your physical abilities, so you're you're spending more

224
00:12:54,320 --> 00:13:00,280
Speaker 1: on uh, these acrobatics than on your blade at that point. Yes,

225
00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:04,720
Speaker 1: so Yoda uses that a lot um if you've seen

226
00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:07,520
Speaker 1: him fight Count Dooku, he's like a little queens and art.

227
00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:11,720
Speaker 1: And then uh FOM five that uses the deflective nature

228
00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:16,400
Speaker 1: of the lightsaber to reflect blaster fire. Um you you

229
00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:20,680
Speaker 1: use use strengthen your attacks, so it's a more brute

230
00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:24,120
Speaker 1: force kind of a of approach. This is the style

231
00:13:24,559 --> 00:13:28,360
Speaker 1: favored by a certain Skywalker family. Both Anakin and Luke

232
00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:33,560
Speaker 1: used Form five. Form six combines elements of Forms one

233
00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:37,520
Speaker 1: through five UM, but it also teaches that you should

234
00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:41,040
Speaker 1: be detached from emotion. You should be using very calculating

235
00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:44,640
Speaker 1: UM ways of of moving. You shouldn't let your emotions

236
00:13:44,640 --> 00:13:48,719
Speaker 1: dictate what you're doing. Form seven is kind of the opposite.

237
00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:52,400
Speaker 1: That's leveraging your emotion into power and using that to

238
00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:56,320
Speaker 1: fight your opponents. This was what Darth maul Uh used

239
00:13:56,400 --> 00:14:01,080
Speaker 1: with some reliance on on on Form UH four as well,

240
00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:04,440
Speaker 1: the acrobatic style. Now, of course he had a double

241
00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:07,960
Speaker 1: bladed lightsaber, and those don't work all that differently than

242
00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:11,560
Speaker 1: a regular lightsaber. They're just basically two lightsabers attached together

243
00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:14,560
Speaker 1: at the hilt. So there's there's four crystals instead of

244
00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:17,040
Speaker 1: two or a minimum of four, because you have to

245
00:14:17,040 --> 00:14:19,640
Speaker 1: have for you know, two of the generator type and

246
00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:22,560
Speaker 1: two of the focusing type at minimum in order to

247
00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:26,320
Speaker 1: create the two blades. By the way, those focusing crystals

248
00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:29,840
Speaker 1: are usually add again crystals usually, but you can also

249
00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:32,760
Speaker 1: find them on Dantweene as well as many many other

250
00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:36,760
Speaker 1: uh planets within the Star Wars galaxy. Yes, until Senti

251
00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:40,880
Speaker 1: Star comes after you and you know calls you a coward. Right,

252
00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:46,160
Speaker 1: I'm sorry I switched genres. Are you lost me? You

253
00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:49,600
Speaker 1: lost me? Seriously, you never played Seni Star. I rarely

254
00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:55,640
Speaker 1: played Star anyway. Also, um depending uh way, way way

255
00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:57,960
Speaker 1: way back in the past, back when the Jedi were

256
00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:02,080
Speaker 1: um much more new rus. The color of your blade

257
00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:05,720
Speaker 1: also would indicate what what kind of Jedi you are.

258
00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:08,880
Speaker 1: For example, if you had a blue blade, that signified

259
00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:11,320
Speaker 1: that you were a Jedi guardian and so you're much

260
00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:13,760
Speaker 1: more you know, kind of a physical you would get

261
00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:16,120
Speaker 1: into the fights. You would you know, defend people with

262
00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:20,240
Speaker 1: your your prowess. UH green would suggest that you were

263
00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:23,520
Speaker 1: a Jedi consular, and this would be someone who was

264
00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:29,640
Speaker 1: much more thoughtful, kind of contemplative. And then um yellow

265
00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:32,400
Speaker 1: would indicate that you're a Jedi Sentinel, and that's someone

266
00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:36,479
Speaker 1: who kind of was in between the other two, so

267
00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:40,680
Speaker 1: so not as physical as the Guardians, but not as

268
00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:44,720
Speaker 1: brainy as the others either, So Yellow and Blue domat Green.

269
00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:49,480
Speaker 1: This is true. I learned that somewhere. So should we

270
00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:52,680
Speaker 1: go into the other aspect of light tabers. So you

271
00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:55,600
Speaker 1: mean we're actually gonna step outside of the realm of

272
00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:58,680
Speaker 1: Star Wars at the time and thinking that maybe we

273
00:15:58,680 --> 00:16:02,280
Speaker 1: should do that. That's where idea, all right, So that's

274
00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:04,600
Speaker 1: within the Star Wars universe, of course, that's how they

275
00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:07,480
Speaker 1: supposedly work. And I should also add none of that

276
00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:10,040
Speaker 1: is cannon. And when I say cannon, I'm talking about

277
00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:13,920
Speaker 1: the stuff that Lucas himself has signed off on as saying, yes,

278
00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:17,800
Speaker 1: this is officially part of the Star Wars history. Um,

279
00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:20,880
Speaker 1: most of that is just the movies. Um to some extent,

280
00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:23,400
Speaker 1: you could argue the books as well. Some of those

281
00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:26,400
Speaker 1: Lucas has more or less said, yeah, even though that

282
00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:28,360
Speaker 1: didn't appear in the movie, that is cannon as well.

283
00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:32,440
Speaker 1: But he never goes into explaining the blades in the movies.

284
00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:35,200
Speaker 1: And so this is really other people trying to um

285
00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:39,880
Speaker 1: rhet coon really to explain why this stuff works. Yeah,

286
00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:43,200
Speaker 1: um yeah, basically, and if you're unfamiliar with the term,

287
00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:46,720
Speaker 1: and cannon is uh like basically they're written instructions for

288
00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:50,080
Speaker 1: how a a magical or you know, fantasy or science

289
00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:53,520
Speaker 1: fiction universe operates. It kind of helps you write the stories.

290
00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:55,880
Speaker 1: And the Star Wars cannon sort of came about after

291
00:16:56,400 --> 00:16:58,640
Speaker 1: some of the stories had already been in practice, so

292
00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:00,600
Speaker 1: it's a little looser than some of the right. So

293
00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:02,360
Speaker 1: if you were to read some of the comic books

294
00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:04,320
Speaker 1: or some of the other books that have been written

295
00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:06,680
Speaker 1: in the Star Wars universeit you might notice that they

296
00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:10,600
Speaker 1: sometimes contradict what happened in later movies, and that's because

297
00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:13,400
Speaker 1: they're not cannon, all right. So moving on to how

298
00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:16,480
Speaker 1: they actually created this effect, which is really which is

299
00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:19,160
Speaker 1: really fascinating too, I think right now now, First of all,

300
00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:22,320
Speaker 1: in a New Hope, the first film, they hadn't originally

301
00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:26,440
Speaker 1: considered animating or adding any light to these at all.

302
00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:30,040
Speaker 1: The original idea was that the lightsabers were going to

303
00:17:30,119 --> 00:17:34,119
Speaker 1: have there were these these uh I think it was

304
00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:37,840
Speaker 1: three sided three sided poll that came out kind of

305
00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:41,240
Speaker 1: a triangular pole and each side was was coated with

306
00:17:41,359 --> 00:17:44,560
Speaker 1: a very reflective material, and they used a lamp that

307
00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:46,439
Speaker 1: was on the same side as the camera and focus

308
00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:48,639
Speaker 1: the light so that it would reflect off of it

309
00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:51,320
Speaker 1: be really shiny, and there was a motor inside the

310
00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:55,000
Speaker 1: handle that would direct the side to be aligned properly

311
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:58,040
Speaker 1: for the camera. But the effect was not as a

312
00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:03,440
Speaker 1: zippy as Lucas wanted. So Um they started to cast

313
00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:06,400
Speaker 1: about and see if they could find some other way

314
00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:09,960
Speaker 1: of making this magic sword seem really magical, and they

315
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:14,639
Speaker 1: contacted an animator by the name of Nelson Shin. Nelson

316
00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:18,560
Speaker 1: Shin took a week and looked at this footage that

317
00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:23,840
Speaker 1: had been shot and used an effect called rhodoscoping. The

318
00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:28,400
Speaker 1: the technique and animation technique is actually very old technique.

319
00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:32,200
Speaker 1: A lot of people and myself, including associated with AHAs

320
00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:35,600
Speaker 1: take on me video. I associate it with Ralph Box

321
00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:40,520
Speaker 1: She's um Lord of the Rings movie. Also Wizards was

322
00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:43,040
Speaker 1: another movie he used it in. But it's it's where

323
00:18:43,080 --> 00:18:46,600
Speaker 1: you take live action footage and then you overlay animation

324
00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:49,919
Speaker 1: on top of it, sometimes replacing the live action footage entirely,

325
00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:52,840
Speaker 1: sometimes enhancing it, and in this case it was enhancing it.

326
00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:55,960
Speaker 1: So what he did was he used animation cells to

327
00:18:56,200 --> 00:19:00,960
Speaker 1: create this this glowing blade effect on top of the

328
00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:04,359
Speaker 1: the actual physical rods that were in the shots, and

329
00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:09,440
Speaker 1: then uh using you know, synchronizing the cells that he

330
00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:13,480
Speaker 1: had created with the actual film overlaying the animated effect

331
00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:17,080
Speaker 1: on it, creating a new print that combined these two

332
00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:20,120
Speaker 1: individual prints. And that's how you you know. He sent

333
00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:21,840
Speaker 1: that back to Lucas and said, well, here, you can

334
00:19:21,880 --> 00:19:25,080
Speaker 1: try this and see if this works. Lucas liked it. Um,

335
00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,960
Speaker 1: they decided to go with that approach. They refined it

336
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:30,480
Speaker 1: a little bit. They added some color so you had

337
00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:34,280
Speaker 1: different color blades because originally they were both white and uh,

338
00:19:34,359 --> 00:19:38,360
Speaker 1: and that was the beginning of the lightsaber effect. Now,

339
00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:43,080
Speaker 1: in the first three films, which episodes four or five

340
00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:46,639
Speaker 1: and six, UM, they used the rotoscoping technique where they

341
00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:51,640
Speaker 1: would essentially hand draw these things on cells. Um. Basically,

342
00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:53,720
Speaker 1: what they do is they put that cell over the

343
00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:57,720
Speaker 1: original film and color it in and then but that's

344
00:19:57,720 --> 00:19:59,840
Speaker 1: not but that's not all of it, because that does

345
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,439
Speaker 1: add some color to it. But from from there they

346
00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:05,560
Speaker 1: have to shoot more film with the cell and the

347
00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:08,719
Speaker 1: original and when they do that, they shoot it over

348
00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:12,960
Speaker 1: a black background and use a light diffuser over the lens. Yes,

349
00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:16,560
Speaker 1: they double exposed the shots and that that makes them

350
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:18,920
Speaker 1: really pop. That makes that makes them look sort of

351
00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:22,199
Speaker 1: you know, gives them that sort of otherworldly effect, you know,

352
00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,680
Speaker 1: how bright they are in the shots. So kind of

353
00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:29,600
Speaker 1: sophisticated when you think about it, but very very time consuming, right, Yes,

354
00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:32,520
Speaker 1: it took took a really long time. It took slightly

355
00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:35,000
Speaker 1: less time by the time they got around to the

356
00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:37,399
Speaker 1: prequels episodes one, two, and three, because they could do

357
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:40,120
Speaker 1: it all digitally, But somebody still has to go into

358
00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:43,400
Speaker 1: the computer and you're doing it. You're doing it all

359
00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:48,679
Speaker 1: in computer as opposed to doing it on hand handmade cells. Um. So,

360
00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:51,000
Speaker 1: I mean, it still takes time, it's just not quite

361
00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:53,760
Speaker 1: as time consuming, except for the fact that Lucas decided

362
00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:56,080
Speaker 1: to throw in about I don't know ten times as

363
00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:58,879
Speaker 1: many lightsaber battles in those first three movies as the

364
00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:03,399
Speaker 1: original trilogy and bind Um. The The actual hilts of

365
00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:06,800
Speaker 1: the lightsabers were made up of old camera flash battery

366
00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:11,120
Speaker 1: packs and other odds and ends like stuff from hardware

367
00:21:11,119 --> 00:21:16,320
Speaker 1: stores like plumbing um gaskets and things like that. Now,

368
00:21:17,119 --> 00:21:20,159
Speaker 1: they shot these movies in England, so they were raiding

369
00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:24,440
Speaker 1: various British hardware shops. So a lot of the materials

370
00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:28,000
Speaker 1: that they used to build the lightsaber handles are very

371
00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:30,240
Speaker 1: hard to find or sometimes impossible to find in the

372
00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:32,800
Speaker 1: United States, which is why it's kind of challenging to

373
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:36,960
Speaker 1: create a model of those those first. Again, this is

374
00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:40,040
Speaker 1: for the first trilogy four or five and six. Um,

375
00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:43,080
Speaker 1: it's hard to make those faithfully just because it's hard

376
00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:45,320
Speaker 1: to get those parts in the United States. Um. Now

377
00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:48,520
Speaker 1: for episodes one, two, and three, those were all machined

378
00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:52,399
Speaker 1: and so there's all like routed. They designed them in

379
00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:54,840
Speaker 1: a computer and then and then made use a router

380
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:57,639
Speaker 1: to cut custom parts and then assemble them. So it

381
00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:00,000
Speaker 1: wasn't like they were just grabbing whatever they could find

382
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:03,160
Speaker 1: and and and sticking it together. Um, they came up

383
00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:05,320
Speaker 1: with the concept and artists came up with the concept

384
00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:08,280
Speaker 1: and then they built it from scratch. That was actually

385
00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:11,080
Speaker 1: one of my questions, like where the Jedi going to

386
00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:15,000
Speaker 1: machine these parts? And you know, do they is electrical

387
00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:24,880
Speaker 1: engineering part of their training. It's in the CAD system,

388
00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,440
Speaker 1: very very nice, a lot of a lot of rascals

389
00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:29,040
Speaker 1: and the CAD system. As it turns out, I think

390
00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:30,919
Speaker 1: Han Solo actually spent a lot of time in the

391
00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:35,760
Speaker 1: CADS system. Very nice. No, it's funny because when I

392
00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:38,159
Speaker 1: started doing the two of these, the two pieces of this,

393
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:41,320
Speaker 1: the fantasy part and the you know, special effects, how

394
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:43,840
Speaker 1: do they make it happen? I started thinking about that way,

395
00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:46,680
Speaker 1: So who's actually making these? You know? Because each one

396
00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:48,960
Speaker 1: is different. Well that's one of the things too that

397
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:52,159
Speaker 1: uh um and I think is at least somewhat cannon,

398
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:55,720
Speaker 1: is that it's all sort of individualized, you know, to

399
00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:58,119
Speaker 1: the Jedi. So I'm wondering if you know, they have

400
00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:00,480
Speaker 1: to go down to the shop, you know that thirty

401
00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:03,200
Speaker 1: fourth floor and go, yeah, I need can you make

402
00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 1: sort of the the arc tip sort of in this shape? No, no, no,

403
00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:13,280
Speaker 1: not exactly like that. Yea, yeah, you know it. It's

404
00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:15,359
Speaker 1: kind of sad because when I look at the props

405
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 1: from the first trilogy, those look like things that have

406
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:22,119
Speaker 1: really lived in that universe for a really long time.

407
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:23,880
Speaker 1: I mean, the ships are all beat up, and even

408
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:26,760
Speaker 1: the Jedi. Uh, the Jedi are beat up. The jedire

409
00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:30,600
Speaker 1: beat up pretty bad. But no, even the lightsabers look

410
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:34,280
Speaker 1: like they've been well used. Whereas the if you look

411
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 1: at the prequels. Everything looks like brand new and sparkly,

412
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:40,480
Speaker 1: and it's just a little it doesn't feel to me.

413
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:43,280
Speaker 1: It almost feels like it's two different universes. Well, you

414
00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:46,960
Speaker 1: know they are like years apart and on and thirty years.

415
00:23:47,119 --> 00:23:49,840
Speaker 1: Come on, do you really want to go down this

416
00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:53,200
Speaker 1: road because we don't recording for like twenty four minutes.

417
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:57,600
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go fortably conservative, but that would be

418
00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:00,240
Speaker 1: only because I'd have to stop and get are to

419
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:03,480
Speaker 1: drink something. So let's we So we talked about the

420
00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:06,399
Speaker 1: fact that you know, rotoscoping, either digitally or by hand,

421
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:11,760
Speaker 1: that replacing frame by frame. These these rods, the physical

422
00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:14,119
Speaker 1: things that were in the shot, and you needed the

423
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:16,400
Speaker 1: physical rods because you needed to be able to make

424
00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:19,280
Speaker 1: contact when you're doing lightsaber battles. Right now, I think

425
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:21,679
Speaker 1: that's a good point. The handles that they use in

426
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:24,280
Speaker 1: the movies right now are you know, plastic handles with

427
00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:29,560
Speaker 1: aluminum rods, and they're they're basically cylindrical and colored red,

428
00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:32,160
Speaker 1: blue or green. They actually had to wrap the the

429
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,760
Speaker 1: aluminum rods in construction paper because they were giving off

430
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:39,200
Speaker 1: too much dust when they were colliding during the lightsaber battles.

431
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:42,720
Speaker 1: The original trilogy used I think wooden dowls. I don't

432
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,880
Speaker 1: think they used aluminum, at least not in the first film. Yeah,

433
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:47,480
Speaker 1: I would imagine that would be a little hard on

434
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,639
Speaker 1: your wrists too, because they're actually, you know, having a

435
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:53,880
Speaker 1: sword fight with aluminum rods. And yeah, now la rons

436
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 1: are are thinner than what you see on the screen. Um,

437
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:58,320
Speaker 1: they're not as they're not as thick as as the

438
00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,159
Speaker 1: lightsaber blade appears to be. But yeah, they need that

439
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:03,400
Speaker 1: so that they can do these moves and and make

440
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:06,080
Speaker 1: it look convincing. Otherwise you would have lightsabers passing through

441
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:09,600
Speaker 1: one another and that would just not look right. So um,

442
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:11,680
Speaker 1: so there is a physical object there that you are

443
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 1: are concealing with the the overlay, and um, before we

444
00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:19,440
Speaker 1: get into how you can do this yourself, I wanted

445
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:22,439
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about the sound effects. They

446
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:25,400
Speaker 1: were designed by Ben Burt, who was he's a brilliant

447
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:29,120
Speaker 1: sound designer. Um. Sound designers are I think of them

448
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:31,920
Speaker 1: kind of like a very specific type of engineer. Sound

449
00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:33,680
Speaker 1: designers are the kind of people who can walk into

450
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:37,159
Speaker 1: a room and just take a second and think of

451
00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:39,800
Speaker 1: a billion different ways to use the sounds that are

452
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,240
Speaker 1: naturally occurring in that room. Most of us we walk

453
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:44,840
Speaker 1: into a room, we'll hear a noise, and then within

454
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:47,640
Speaker 1: a second we are already ignoring it. It's just been

455
00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:50,359
Speaker 1: incorporated into what we think of as the background. But

456
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 1: if you ever take a moment and really listen to

457
00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:55,880
Speaker 1: your environment, you start to pick things out as as

458
00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:57,920
Speaker 1: they happen. Well, he's one of those guys who can

459
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:01,240
Speaker 1: hear a noise and immediately say, hey, uh, this would

460
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:03,919
Speaker 1: be great for blah blah blah. And when he was

461
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:06,240
Speaker 1: tasked with finding a noise for the lightsaber, he actually

462
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:09,640
Speaker 1: says this was the first sound he designed for Star

463
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:11,960
Speaker 1: Wars was the noise of the lightsaber. And he did

464
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:16,080
Speaker 1: it with a combination of two noises. One was from

465
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,680
Speaker 1: an old projector. Uh, there was an old projector that

466
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 1: would made this humming noise as it ran. And if

467
00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:24,800
Speaker 1: you ran two of those projectors, you've got a good

468
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:28,119
Speaker 1: little harmonizing effect with the hum and that's so that

469
00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:32,199
Speaker 1: formed the basis of the wow when you fire up

470
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:35,920
Speaker 1: your lightsaber. Um. The second was noise that you would

471
00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:39,680
Speaker 1: get if you ran a microphone near a television. It

472
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 1: would be this buzzing noise feedback yes, that that gives

473
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:46,880
Speaker 1: it the kind of little crackle sound that you also hear.

474
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:50,600
Speaker 1: That's just sort of uh, kind of a light sound

475
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:55,040
Speaker 1: underneath the thrumb. And then whenever someone would wave a lightsaber,

476
00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:58,200
Speaker 1: well you have to create the wow noise. The way

477
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,320
Speaker 1: he did that was he would move a microphone past

478
00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:03,719
Speaker 1: a speaker that was playing that. Um, the the the

479
00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:07,159
Speaker 1: humming noise, and the Doppler effect would take care of

480
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:10,240
Speaker 1: the rest. So you're just moving a microphone around a

481
00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 1: speaker and then it's translates into the womb womb womb

482
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:19,880
Speaker 1: when you're waving your lightsaber around. UM. Absolutely brilliant. One

483
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:22,920
Speaker 1: of the uh you know, there's there was no going

484
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:26,159
Speaker 1: into a a synthesizer or going into a studio and

485
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:28,359
Speaker 1: trying to create this sound from scratch. He just found

486
00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:31,440
Speaker 1: a practical way of creating it and uh, and it's

487
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:34,760
Speaker 1: one of those things that is forever married with the

488
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:37,320
Speaker 1: Star Wars universe. You hear that sound, you know immediately

489
00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:40,720
Speaker 1: what you're listening to. Now, let's say you want to

490
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:45,159
Speaker 1: do this yourself, it's quite possible. Well, you have to

491
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:48,119
Speaker 1: spend all that fuel getting to the other star system.

492
00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 1: You know, I don't mean building a real one, I

493
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:54,440
Speaker 1: mean like creating the effect in a video. So, uh,

494
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:57,480
Speaker 1: you can do this yourself with the right kind of software.

495
00:27:57,720 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 1: And uh, there are a lot of different video and

496
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:03,400
Speaker 1: suites out there that have the effects that you would

497
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:06,760
Speaker 1: need in order to create a lightsaber effect. Um, most

498
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:09,920
Speaker 1: of them are like things like Adobe has several There's

499
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:12,639
Speaker 1: even a tool that's called l S Maker which allows

500
00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:15,520
Speaker 1: you to create a lightsaber effect pretty easily. In fact,

501
00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:17,560
Speaker 1: all you have to do is do two clicks and

502
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:20,480
Speaker 1: you create the basis of a lightsaber effect for a

503
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:22,960
Speaker 1: single frame of video, and then you can go in

504
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:26,399
Speaker 1: and tweak the effects so that it looks exactly the

505
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:28,679
Speaker 1: way you want it to. But again, you have to

506
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:31,639
Speaker 1: do this frame by frame, so it's not like you

507
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:34,720
Speaker 1: do two clicks and it magically turns something into a lightsaber.

508
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:37,560
Speaker 1: You actually have to go through each frame and replace

509
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:43,400
Speaker 1: the the physical object with the lightsaber representation and order

510
00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 1: for it to work properly. Yes, but YouTube is filled

511
00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:49,200
Speaker 1: with people who have done this successfully. Yes, yes, and

512
00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:52,479
Speaker 1: some not so successful. Some of them are pretty awful.

513
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:55,600
Speaker 1: But uh, the same effect. You can use the same

514
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 1: sort of technology to create other effects besides the lightsaber effect.

515
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:01,600
Speaker 1: It's just that's one of those that is pretty easy

516
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:05,520
Speaker 1: to to apply because really you're talking about a straight line.

517
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 1: It's not that complicated. Um. It is time consuming though,

518
00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:12,040
Speaker 1: it can take hours and hours and hours to render

519
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 1: a video that would only last maybe thirty seconds, especially

520
00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:19,240
Speaker 1: if you have multiple blades on there. That can because

521
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 1: each blade is going to require a different layer in

522
00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:26,960
Speaker 1: your video. So you're gonna if you have like six

523
00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:30,120
Speaker 1: Jedi out there and they all have lightsabers at six

524
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:32,080
Speaker 1: layers of video right there in order for you to

525
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:35,600
Speaker 1: have all the effects come together properly. And then if

526
00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:37,480
Speaker 1: you know, they clashed and you have to add the

527
00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:40,120
Speaker 1: sparks right there's and you have to and it's it

528
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:42,920
Speaker 1: can be challenging. I mean it's it's not it's not

529
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:45,040
Speaker 1: something that you're gonna be able to whip out in

530
00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:48,120
Speaker 1: an hour. It's gonna take a while, but it's it's doable,

531
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 1: and most of the software is you know, like I said,

532
00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:53,640
Speaker 1: there's some software out there that's free that you can

533
00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:55,960
Speaker 1: use to create this effect if you have the time

534
00:29:56,360 --> 00:30:00,600
Speaker 1: and patients and a little bit of artistic ability. Yep,

535
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:03,640
Speaker 1: I have none of those three, I think. Um, well,

536
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:07,600
Speaker 1: the force is weak with Pulette. But uh, I guess

537
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:10,480
Speaker 1: we can wrap this up and we'll we'll finish with

538
00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:15,479
Speaker 1: a little more listener mail. This listener mail comes from

539
00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 1: Matt and Matt says, Hey, Chris and Jonathan, thanks for

540
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:21,200
Speaker 1: taking my request about the dangers of Wikipedia. You guys

541
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:23,800
Speaker 1: are awesome and I am totally having a star struck

542
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 1: moment right now. O m G. The tech stuff guys

543
00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: are talking about me. You two are great. Ps if

544
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:31,840
Speaker 1: either of you are Trek ease. I can't remember if

545
00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:34,120
Speaker 1: you have mentioned it before. I just got done watching

546
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:36,360
Speaker 1: one of my favorite episodes called The Offspring from the

547
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 1: Next Generation, where Data becomes a dad Data. I guess

548
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:40,800
Speaker 1: I'm sorry he hates it when he when you call

549
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:44,160
Speaker 1: him Data. I remember that episode. Great episode, check it out.

550
00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:46,400
Speaker 1: So I figured we'd talked about star Trek for a second,

551
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:50,080
Speaker 1: since we talk about Star Wars for thirty minutes has

552
00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 1: a serious cannon, live long and prosper Thanks Matt and

553
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 1: we it was our pleasure to talk about Wikipedia. We

554
00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:01,520
Speaker 1: haven't received any hate mail on that yet. Time will

555
00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:04,400
Speaker 1: tell if that'll change. If you would like to send

556
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 1: us a message, please no hate mail, just tell us

557
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 1: how much you love Star Wars and that you want

558
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,800
Speaker 1: to build your own lightsaber. Now you can write us

559
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,640
Speaker 1: tech stuff at how stuff works dot com and check

560
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 1: out the website how stuff works dot com. We do

561
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:22,960
Speaker 1: have how lightsabers work right there on the site. Yes

562
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:25,400
Speaker 1: and uh. If you do decide to build a lightsaber,

563
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:29,640
Speaker 1: don't hit anybody with it or yourself. And may the

564
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:36,160
Speaker 1: Force be with you always for moral This and thousands

565
00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:38,960
Speaker 1: of other topics. Does it how stuff works dot com

566
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:40,720
Speaker 1: and be sure to check out the new tech stuff

567
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 1: blog now on the how stuff Works homepage. Brought to

568
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 1: you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,

569
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 1: are you