Master K Saber – An Obi-Wan Kenobi inpsired hilt

Hello Everybody and welcome back to my regular posting slot. I hope you all enjoyed my mid-week post featuring PsychoSith’s fabulous artwork. Today I return to my usual schedule and have a saber inspired by the hilt owned by the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace. I noticed that his saber although nice was a little bit angular and looked as if it had sharp edges, so I wondered if I could make a model of it and “soften” the corners around the emitter and on the handgrip. I set to work and came up with this new contoured version…

Master K Saber desert 1

Master K Saber desert 2

Master K Saber desert 3

I remodeled the ridges of the handgrip but kept the scalloped shroud (I’ve grown quite attached to this style of shroud!) however if you look closely at the original hilt there were two notches located just where the heel of your palm would rest so I removed them to improve comfort. I also smoothed and rounded the cutouts on the emitter shroud. I have held a few real life replica models  of Kenobi’s hilt and the aluminium could be a bit sharp. I modified the pommel from my “Trooper” hilts as they were originally inspired by Obi-Wan’s to start with. So being as there wasn’t too much work needed to remodel this hilt I felt I should create a few variants…

Dark Master K Sabern 1

Dark Master K Saber 2

Dark Master K Saber 3

And with a simple switch of paint this hilt takes on a sleek sinister Sith look. The hilt details are still there but black objects don’t show very well against other black objects and I decided to make an alternative Sith hilt with a red and black marble like handgrip…

Now I had made two Sith hilts, I thought how about a nice golden Jedi hilt? I painted a version in gold but I think it kinda looks more like C-3PO. I added a Jedi Order logo printed on the underside and I think you can just see it…

Jedi Master K Saber 1

Jedi Master K Saber 2

Now some very long time followers may remember a hilt I designed inspired by one of rock’s greatest guitarists (and part time keyboard player) who also has a name with three initials….EVH….well this next image shows an updated EVH hilt…

And if you haven’t guessed, the guitarist is none other than Eddie Van Halen, famous for the songs Eruption and JUMP! This saber’s colour scheme was created using the same technique as my Sharkaradon Saber hilt and is coloured the same as Eddie’s famous Frankenstrat guitar.

I stopped here as I was getting carried away. But I think I proved that a single hilt can be made to look like many different styles.

I have to apologise there aren’t any “Studio Pictures” but this past week I have been really busy creating some animations for a special hilt I’ve built for a YouTuber I’ve recently met whose nickname is Nothin’ Nerdy. I commented on a video, then left a comment on her livestream and to my surprise Nerdy immediately responded to me! I have had a few chats with her since and said that when she reaches 1000 subscribers I would post a design for her. So if you are interested in the computer game Star Wars The Old Republic then please check out her YouTube channel Nothin’ Nerdy where she livestreams sessions playing the game. And if you subscribe and help her reach 1000 I will be able to post her saber sooner!

So I think that just about covers everything for this Obi-Wan Kenobi inspired saber, I hope you liked it and all it’s variants. I still have many more saber designs to come in future posts including the new Nothin’ Nerdy hilt. There are also my “Master Series” hilts and more new original hilts. I want to say a big thank you to you, my viewers, your support is fantastic and keeps me posting. I’ll end here, Till next time….

“Master K Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design inspired by Obi-Wan Kenobi’s saber from “The Phantom Menace” and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and “The Phantom Menace” and all other Star Wars related names, logos, images are Trademarks/©Copyright of Disney?LucasFilm.

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PsychoSith Saber’s “Asgardr” – Art inspired by one of my designs!

Hello Everybody to a rare midweek post! And it is for very good reason I am sharing this with you all as I have been honoured with a magnificent accolade. My friend and fellow saber designer PsychoSith has produced some artwork inspired by my Thor crossguard lightsaber “Asguard”. You will recall I 3D modeled PsychoSith’s fantastic drawing called “The Durasteel Dove” and Psycho decided to return the honour and drew a set of sketches of my “New Asguard Saber” hilt. So here is the set of images Psycho sent to me….

PsychoSith’s “Asgardr” hilt

PyschoSith’s full artworl

PychoSith’s Guardian warrior 1

PychoSith’s Guardian warrior 2

I was absolutely speechless when I saw the finished product. Psycho had sent me a sneak peek when he asked if I minded him attempting to recreate one of my hilts but it was just an initial pencil sketch….I had no idea he would go to town and produce a full Bayeux Tapestry style artwork! His attention to detail is phenomenal, from the gold accents around the emitters and pommel, to the Celtic Knot activation switch and then the most difficult part…the scroll work etching! I found it difficult to replicate etching and I used a computer design package but Psycho drew the pattern on the handgrip by HAND! The Guardian warrior on the right of the image even has the hilt in his hands and the saber is complete with the Electric Lightning blue blades. As if all of this wasn’t enough take a look at those robes….and as a final finishing touch Psycho even mimicked the typeface font lettering I use for my labels and watermark!

I would have been honoured just by this token of appreciation but it goes much deeper than that as the “Asguard” hilt design (click HEREto see the original post) is the very same one I modeled but my laptop crashed and wiped the files so I lost it. I had one single image of the hilt that I later discovered had backed up to another file hosting site I use. That image is here:

Original Asguard Saber

So in a way Psycho has gifted me with my most treasured design that I partially lost. I intend to get this art transferred onto a canvas frame when I can afford it so I can hang it in my flat.

So for a final time (here at least) I wish to say an enormous thank you to Psycho, my friend, you are a true gentleman…and truly a talented artist!

Thank you also to all of you, my viewers, for checking this awesome artwork out and for all the support you have shown me and PsychoSith, whether you are a first time visitor or one of my regulars you’re all very much appreciated. I hope you will return this weekend for my usual weekly post, I think I might post my Kenobi tribute design. And it has a few surprising variants! Till next time….

“Asgardr” is an artwork produced by PsychoSith/PsychoSith Sabers and is a ©Copyrighted work of PsychoSith 2019. “Asgardr” is used here with permission. All content including original designs, images and material are covered by ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019.

Sharkaradon Saber -Inspired by Riff Tamson

Hello Everybody, today we have another watery weapon, but this time it doesn’t belong to Aquaman or even Admiral Ackbar….it belong’s to an adversary of the great admiral and a character named Riff Tamson! Riff Tamson was an aquatic being from the planet Karkaris and his species were known as Karkaradons. The Karkaradons were involved in the Battle of Mon Cala that took place on Ackbar’s home world of Mon Cala. On Mon Cala there were two species (the Mon Calamari and the Quarren) that lived in peace but the war brought tensions and the friendship between both species was strained. The Confederacy of Independent Systems led by the infamous Count Dooku sensed an opportunity to benefit and gain control of the watery planet of Mon Cala by triggering a civil war…then sending their own forces in to take over the two weakened native species. And to accomplish this Dooku sent Riff Tamson to lead an aquatic army to seize the planet.

Riff Tamson – Copyright Disney/LucasFilm

Tamson as you can see was a humanoid shark and when I built my Altenweg Shoto and Darkshoto hilts I realised the emitters reminded me of something….and it BIT me. The emitter openings looked like a shark’s mouth so I decided to create a colour scheme based on Riff Tamson to decorate this saber. I just have “Glamour Shots” for this hilt but I have more than usual and I have an animation so I will show you the first batch of pictures….

Sharkaradon Saber 1

Sharkaradon Saber ignited

Sharkaradon Saber pommel

Sharkaradon Saber side view

As you can see this is quite a colourful hilt and has a scaly texture to it. And I know botanical experts will point out that sharks (and Riff for that matter) don’t have scales like a fish. But I do know sharks have a special textured skin that has very small scale like plaques. Speedo the swimming costume manufacturer made a swimsuit for Olympic athletes that had a special “scaled” texture inspired by sharkskin, to make the swimmer more streamlined. Giving the saber this scaly pattern allowed me to add the light and dark blue colours along with the white you can see on Riff’s outfit. The pommel has a flared “tail-like” shroud and at the opposite end of the hilt is the “Shark’s Mouth” emitter that triggered my imagination. Here is the next batch of pictures including the shark mouth….

It’s a Sharkaradon Saber!

Sharkaradon Saber scale texture.

Sharkaradon Saber crystal chamber

Keep still and it will swim away!

The emitter with the upper and lower curve just reminded me so much of a shark it was a no-brainer to make this version. The texture is a modified version of the material I used to create a rock like texture for my LOTR Barad-Dûr saber but I added three colours to the surface. The saber blade, activation switch and Opee Sea Creature crystal all have an aquatic sea blue cyan glow. I now think it is time to see how good this saber is and take it for a swim…here it is with the other fishies…

I think it looks good and works quite well underwater!

BUT HERE IS A SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT! DO NOT PUT ANY LIGHTSABER INTO WATER! WHETHER IT IS A TOY VERSION FROM A STORE LIKE WALMART OR AMAZON, OR A LIGHTSABER FROM A CUSTOM SABER COMPANY…..ELECTRONICS AND WATER DO NOT MIX! THE SHARKARADON SABER IS FICTIONAL AND YOU SHOULDN’T PUT YOUR SABERS INTO WATER OK?! STAY SAFE!

I apologise I had to put that disclaimer and warning in but I did see a video on YouTube recently where a person put his saber into a swimming pool to see what would happen. He was lucky in that the saber just stopped working but it could have turned out worse if the battery inside it ruptured or the circuits shorted and gave him a shock. Anyhoo, that just about wraps things up for this post but before I go I have a BIG announcement of a really special PsychoSith Sabers design which I will post this Wednesday – you won’t want to miss it!

As always I will end by saying a big thank you to all of you for looking in on this post, whether this is your first visit or you are a regular viewer (such as the kind folks in India who call in) you are very much appreciated and please come back to see what else I have in store for future posts. Till next time….

“Sharkaradon Saber” is a For Tyeth Edition design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. It was inspired by “Riff Tamson” who appeared in “Star Wars- The Clone Wars” and is a Trademark/©Copyrighted property of Disney/LucasFilm Ltd.

Altenweg II Saber -a PsychoSith Sabers design

Hello Everybody, today as promised last week, I am pleased to welcome back my friend PsychoSith with his second saber design. This amazing saber was the inspiration for my Altenweg Shoto hilts I posted last week. PsychoSith as you may know is a fantastic artist with a great eye for details when designing hilts and this one is no exception. He posted this image on the Ultrasabers’ forum and it caught everybody’s attention…

The members of the forum were very impressed and one member commented they’d be interested to see how it looked as a full model and hinted that I build a 3D model of it. To be honest I was already working on doing just that so I could present some renders to PsychoSith as a gift so he could see his creation in three dimensions. Now, PsychoSith’s image is a flat side on view so there was a lot of  details absent (such as how thick certain parts were or was the hilt symmetrical or asymmetric) so I had to use some artistic license and make assumptions based on other designs. But I came up with a model and created some basic “studio shots” of it. Here they are…

Altenweg II studio picture 1

Altenweg II studio picture 2

Altenweg II studio picture 3

Altenweg II studio picture 4

Not too bad from one image! I had just learnt a new 3D modeling technique called “Face Poking”, yes that is it’s name, which allows a model part to be subdivided into smaller surfaces or “faces” and each face is assigned a “vertex point”. This point can be moved in virtual space so that the flat surface is then stretched up to form a pyramid shape. I divided the lower handgrip in this way and “face poked” the smaller surfaces and when those surfaces where stretched they formed the textured grip! However, it was the foregrip that I really liked and it had a beautiful scalloped cutaway to reveal the lightsaber blade within it. In PsychoSith’s sketch you can make out what appears to be some etching or panels embossed into the grip so I used the same trick I used on my Thor inspired “New Asguard Saber” to etch a tribal pattern into the underside of the hilt. it was whilst modeling this section I realised that it would make a nice saber in it’s own right. Other details include an emitter within the foregrip which is visible when the hilt is turned off and the activation switch is actually an elongated “Trigger” switch you can see on the textured lower handgrip. Now I think it’s time for a few proper “Glamour Shots” and take the hilt for a “spin”…

Altenweg II picture 1

Altenweg II picture 2

Altenweg II picture 3

Altenweg II picture 4 (Note the second emitter port)

Altenweg II picture 5 (Hm, I could make a saber from this!)

You will have noticed the saber now has a red blade and looks much more metallic! The saber had the metallic material in the studio pictures but there was nothing to reflect on it’s surface, so appeared matte, however using a background image the saber is shown in much better lighting and the metal reflects the surrounding image making it look more realistic. All in all I think PsychoSith did a fabulous job on creating this hilt.

And that I think just about covers this second offering from PsychoSith. I’d like to thank him for allowing me to share his work with you all here and I hope to post even more of his saber here in future. I will also be posting more of my own designs too of course along with my “Master Series” (inspired by fan favourite sabers). I also have that pair of hilts for the “Mysterious Character” from The Rise of Skywalker…and I may be honouring another YouTuber with a hilt! So a lot more to come in future posts. I hope you will return to see them, but for now thank you so much for visiting today, whether this is your first visit or you’re a regular, you’re very much appreciated…..Till next time……

(Phew, I nearly ran out of breath listing all of that ^^)

“Altenweg II Saber” is a PsychoSith Sabers design and is ©Copyright of PsychoSith Sabers. The Blender 3D model and animation are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019.

Altenweg Shoto and Darkshoto – Inspired by PsychoSith’s Altenweg II

Hello Everybody, I hope you all enjoyed my debut art collection last week. It gave me time to work on some animations for my upcoming hilts and I also managed to come up with a new design inspired by my friend PsychoSith’s “Altenweg II” saber he sketched a few months ago and posted on Ultrasabers’ SaberForum.com (I will be posting Altenweg II next week!). And this new hilt is a weapon known as a Shoto, which is a slightly smaller one handed saber used mainly for defense to block attacks while you use your main weapon to attack.

There was a section of Altenweg II that I loved and that was the handgrip with a scalloped cutout. I thought that part would make an awesome body for a hilt in itself so I set to work and built an emitter and pommel for it. Now the reason I liked the cutout was that I imagined the cutout would allow the internals of the saber to show and so I added a crystal chamber. The saber took shape nicely with sweeping lines and looked a little bit like this…

In this Wireframe image you can just make out the chamber sat within the cutout. The saber also has the “Choke Point” which is the thin neck that connects the emitter to the body. The pommel is made to mirror the emitter as I used the outer shroud of the emitter and shortened it slightly to form the part. I also added a neat three dimensional speaker/ventilation grille in the pommel. There is also some nice accenting ridges and colours on the hilt but you can’t tell that from a wireframe can you? You want to see some “Glamour Shots”…OK here are a few pictures….

Alrenweg Shoto Hilt

Alrenweg Shoto Emitter mouth

Alrenweg Shoto reverse view

Alrenweg Shoto Top view

Alrenweg Shoto Pommel with Grille

Alrenweg Shoto Crystal Chamber

I was quite pleased how this hilt turned out and I felt the lines swept nicely from the tip of the emitter to the tail of the pommel. I achieved this by using the emitter shroud as the pommel but I also shortened it slightly and rotated it 180 degrees so it was “upside down”. This created the illusion of an elongated “S” shape if drawn from the tip of the emitter to the end of the pommel. Careful inspection of the pommel also reveals my 3D grille I modeled for the speaker/cooling vent. The scalloped cutout from PsychoSith’s hilt perfectly houses my crystal chamber and switch section. And on the emitter and pommels I added raised ridges with a contrasting colour which I felt help define the sweeping lines. And as I have been tinkering with animations I thought why not produce a quick 360 degree animation of the hilt. (Again it is short as I am limited in how long these clips can be – but when I have time I am working on some special animations which are coming soon) Here is the Altenweg Shoto 360…

I also discovered that this hilt would make a good looking “Darkside” version too so I built a “DarkShoto” hilt with a reverse colour scheme and Sith red crystal and blade. And as I am an “equal opportunities” type person and believes in balance of all things I guess I had better post the “DarkShoto” pictures too…here are a few more “Glamour Shots”…

Altenweg DarkShoto hilt

Altenweg DarkShoto reverse view

Altenweg DarkShoto top view

I really think this hilt has a good balance of elegance and evil! It still manages to look good despite it’s evil intentions, plus piano black and silver is a classic colour combo. While I built this version I figured I might as well give it the 360 treatment as well so here is another quick clip, this time of Altenweg DarkShoto…

This clip shows the hilt from a slightly different angle which caught my attention to a detail that led me to produce a THIRD version of this design. But I will save that one for another post as it is inspired by and connected to a particular “watery” Star Wars character! I seem to be very busy with all these hilts.

I think that just about wraps up this post and I hope you enjoyed it. I have to thank PsychoSith for his original  saber which triggered this design. He is a great artist and I have more PS sabers coming soon (Alltenweg II of course next week). I also have a whole pipeline of sabers to show in the next few months including my KOTOR/SWToR inspired sabers, there is my “Mystery Guest” hilts which I teased last week with the “Colour Cube”, and if that isn’t enough I have my “Master Series” models to showcase! Speaking of which…

I hope you will return to see all of this and maybe more in future posts but for now thank you so much for all the support of myself and FTSabersite. You are all very much appreciated and please continue to comment, like and spread the word about the site. Till next time….

“Altenweg Shoto” and “Altenweg DarkShoto” are “For Tyeth Editions” designs inspired by PsychoSith Sabers’ “Altenweg II” copyrighted design. All “For Tyeth Editions” are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019.

For Tyeth’s Fine Art Gallery – Lightsaber Art

Hello Everybody, and welcome to the Grand Opening of my new virtual gallery of saber designs. It was suggested to me a few posts back that I compile a collection of some of my saber “Glamour Shots” to post and this weekend seemed a good time to do so. I have been very busy working on some animations and videos which ties up my laptop because when I render animations it takes all the processing power my laptop has. But I have a few pictures lying around my workshop and so will post those here today and there is a few new bits to show you all. So please follow me and enter the gallery….

First up is an early Blender 3D design and one I am surprised turned out so well as I must have made many mistakes building it. I call this hilt “Aquaman Bend”

“Aquaman Bend” a weapon for a watery warrior

I was really pleased that this design worked because I had a hard time working out how to achieve the “Bend” in the hilt, while making sure all the parts lined up after I had bent them! It also has a nice perforated handgrip shroud which when viewed from different angles looks like either Aquaman/Jason Momoa’s tattoos or the new scaly wetsuit seen in the sequel movie. Maybe Marvel liked the look of my saber and incorporated the pattern into the costume.

Next up is a design I made for my friend Lady Revan a member of SaberForum.com. Lady Revan cosplays as Revan from the Knights of the Old Republic computer game and also as Bastilla Shan another in game character. Lady Revan has been petitioning Ultrasabers to add a Bastilla hilt to their product line and so I built this 3D model to show them how it could look…and here it is…

Bastilla Shan staff for Lady Revan

Now the focus point of the Star Wars saga was of course Anakin Skywalker, the young boy from Tatooine who was freed from slavery but would later become one of the greatest evils in the galaxy, Darth Vader. He later redeemed himself in Return of the Jedi as he saved his son, Luke Skywalker, but Anakin had some dark times in his life and used a couple of sabers. I built renditions of those sabers and here is one of the lightside sabers he owned….

“Vengeance Saber” Anakin’s last lightside hilt

This hilt is the one he owned and used to slay the Tusken Raider clan that kidnapped his mother, Shmi Skywalker. Her treatment in captivity led to her dying and Anakin in a fit of rage killed the Tuskens, including the women and children. This act led Anakin down the path to the darkside of the Force and to his transition into Darth Vader. And Darth Vader had a new saber to represent his new darkside character and so i built one of Vader’s hilts (he had three versions, one in each film of the original trilogy)…

Darth Vader’s hilt

Ok, I am at the halfway point of my first collection and next up is the latest “New” lightsaber staff that we saw in the trailer for The Rise of Skywalker which hits cinemas in December (2019). The hilt belongs to a character that looks like a darkside version of the heroine of the sequel trilogy, Rey. In the trailer we see a short glimpse of “Rey” holding a double bladed hilt which then hinges open and forms a double ended staff weapon..may I present Rey’s saberstaff…

“Rey of Darkness” Staff lightsaber

The Rey staff is the latest canon saber in the Star Wars saga but I also have a new thing to show you all and that is a new technique I have learnt and been playing with. Now I don’t know where it will come in useful but I have learnt to replicate cloth in Blender. There is a function that modifies a flat plate and deforms it so that it bends and folds like a sheet of cloth. If that plate has an image pasted onto it  you get something that appears like a draped sheet (maybe a flag)….

 

“Temple” Saber on cloth plinth

New Steampunk inspired hilt on plinth

The two sabers above are resting on an “L” shaped block which I have draped with a “cloth plate” to make it look like a sheet. And of course I pasted my website’s logo onto it. Maybe I could get some towels or flags printed with that design to sell! You may recognise the gold “Temple” saber but the silver hilt is a model of a modified Ultrasabers Aeon. I modeled the Aeon so the members on SaberForum.com could see how that hilt would look in different colours and with different custom parts.

So I have been busy designing while I have been animating and here is a teaser for an upcoming hilt for a mysterious new character that will appear in The Rise of Skywalker. There are clues in the Art Deco inspired text, the colours used on the cube and the textures so you might be able to guess who it is if you search the Internet for images of new characters. And this mystery character will get two hilts in a matching pair. Here is the teaser…

I am nearly at the end of this post but as you can see I still have a lot more to come in future posts. There are the sabers for this new Mystery Character, my upcoming adventures in animation, more from my friend PsychoSith and his Saber Doodle artwork and if that wasn’t enough…there are the remaining “Master Series” hilts and more new original designs. I hope you will all return and see what I have in store – it’s going to be busy. But for now thank you for visiting my new gallery, whether this is your first visit to FTSabersite or you are a regular, you are all much appreciated. Till next time…

All designs and renders shown above are “For Tyeth Editions” or “Inpsired By” designs built and rendered by For Tyeth. They are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. “Rey”, “The Rise of Skywalker” and all other Star Wars related names, logos, images and other material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm.

“Rey of Darkness” The Movie Clip – For Tyeth Animations

Hello Everybody, today I hope to show that I am always trying to stretch my skills and the limits of my laptop. And I will attempt to accomplish this by showing you a little animation video that I put together after thinking about my post last weekend. I built a replica 3D model of Daisy Ridley(?)/Rey’s new “Switchblade” double ended lightsaber based on what I saw in the trailer for The Rise of Skywalker. Well the fact Rey might have a red lightsaber made SW fans excited but not only that but it folded out to form a saberstaff,

Around the 1min 45sec mark we see Darkside Rey brandish, then extend her staff and I realised that static images didn’t really show my replica off at it’s best….it needed some MOTION! So I animated the opening sequence…and then did a bit of Video Sequence Editing in another section of Blender 3D. I’ll talk about this later in this post but first here is my little attempt…(it is short for a video but I have a limited laptop!)…..

YAY! My efforts paid off I think, at least the video played. Believe it or not, this little clip took about three days to produce, partly down to hardware and partly down to the fact my first animation I programmed incorrectly. As you can see from the trailer Rey holds her saber and the BOTTOM half hinges and swings downward, but guess what wallybrain did? Yep, I animated the TOP saber to swivel up and over like this…. but when I realised, I found I couldn’t just flip the footage as you would be able to tell it was upside down! So I had to re-program the animation and re-render the footage. I admit it wasn’t as difficult to do the second time but was just time consuming. I had already spent several hours merging objects in my 3D model to make animating easier (you can combine multiple parts into single objects which means each saber – blades, emitters, handles and pommels are each one solid piece). Now the saber hinged and swung downward like this…

That fixed the animation but I still had work to do to make a “video” out of it, and that is where the Video Sequence Editor in Blender 3D played it’s part! As the title suggests the Video Sequence Editor (or VSE for short) is a section of Blender that allows you to edit your video footage and add special effects and soundtracks etc. Luckily I used to be a musician so I am fairly comfortable using “Sequencer” style software having worked in recording studios. However Blender has a few quirks where things don’t work as they should or as I’d expected. But that aside after an hour I worked it out and I set about arranging the footage. This included adding an Intro and Outro plate (a bit like opening titles and end credits) plus I added a transparent overlay that had my Copyright watermarks on (sorry I have to do that but I have had my images and content used without my permission before and this helps dissuade such activity!). To do all this editing you have a screen where all the parts are represented as little coloured strips on a timeline and you can layer parts and move them about etc…the screen looks like this…

The animation is actually the teal blue coloured strip and the Titles and transparent overlays are the purple ones. You may have seen similar screens in “Behind the scenes” documentaries of film and music production. This is the “Cutting Room” as it were of Blender, and if Marvel have used Blender then it’s good enough for me! (The first Marvel Logo animation with the comic book clips flashing in the background, shown at the start of the films was done with Blender!)

So I can say “That’s a Wrap!” I apologize that there weren’t as many saber Glamour Pictures this week but when I tell you that just the animation alone has over 178 separate images in it you might forgive me! Trust me though I have many more new designs to show you in future posts including my “Master Series”, some new Episode 9 themed sabers and some classics….plus I have more sabers from my friend PsychoSith. Thank you so much for looking in on this post and for all the support you show me, whether it’s your first visit or one of my regulars remember you’re all much appreciated. Till next time…..

“Rey of Darkness” saber is a For Tyeth Edition replica and is Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. “The Rise of Skywalker” and all trailer footage, names, logos and related material are Trademark/Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm. “The Rise of Skywalker”will be released on 20th December 2019.

 

“Rey of Darkness” Saber – For Tyeth’s Edition

Hello Everybody, now technically as I type this it is 03:30 Friday morning in the UK, so it is the beginning of the weekend (sort of) but I am so excited I felt I had to post this now.

I have over the past 2-3 days been working on a 3D model of “Darkside” Rey’s new double lightsaber switchblade staff. I started off with a screengrab from the new trailer which was very blurry and didn’t show much detail, however I interpreted it as best I could and came up with this “windowed” version with a very poor looking hinge (that semi-circular black thing on the pommels)…

Blurry screen grab

My first build attempt

I thought it was OK as a base model to later modify and so I went crazy and spent most of the day “tinkering” to make it better and more accurate. I found a much sharper image of the saber and found that I had obviously made mistakes, the four windows were in fact part of a “Slotted” emitter with a circular “Glass Eye” window. A Glass Eye window is the round lens that is found near the emitter of a Graflex lightsaber which allows the light from the blade to shine through (In reality it was the lens for the light measuring mechanism of the Graflex camera flashgun handle). I realised I needed to tweak the proportions and thickness of the coloured bands, I also needed to add a few detail parts and REALLY needed to do something with the hinge. I believe that some film trickery helped how the saber looked in the trailer as it extends but I haven’t got that good to do an animation like that…yet! So here was my second build with a hinge I made based on a Universal Ball joint seen on drive shafts of cars…As you can see I added a Universal Ball joint hinge, which is the two spherical pommels connected by a curved plate. The plate pivots 90degs at both ends so that the saber handles straighten out to point in opposite directions and form the staff. I also installed a couple of activation switches to match the blades, but I still knew I could do better so I worked on a more accurate hinge mechanism that looked like the one on screen (even if the bracket seen on screen can’t hinge!). I built the new hinge and that brings me to my final version which I present here. I am sure I have still gotten parts wrong but if I try and make more fixes then I might ruin what I have already (maybe when better footage/images are released I might revisit this hilt) Now onto the “Glamour Shots”…

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded 1

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded 2

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded 3

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded 4

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded 5

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded 6

“Rey of Darkness” saber folded (note the hinge!)

I added a ring of Hexhead Wrench screws around the switch section along with a pair of switched (I am still not certain where the real switch position is so this could be changed later) Also added are the black rectangular blocks with the thumbscrews. The hinge, I suspect is an end cap for scaffolding poles used for mounting Amateur Radio enthusiasts’ antennae (this piece encloses/connects the bottom of the mounting scaffold pole and the bottom of the aerial tube itself). I think it looks like the one seen in the pictures and video. And now you want to see the staff version right? OK, here are the extended staff “Glamour Shots”…

“Rey of Darkness” Extended 1

“Rey of Darkness” Extended 2

“Rey of Darkness” Wireframe

Hopefully I have done a good job overall. This is the most intensive project I have done, both in detail and timeframe…a lot of detail in a very short amount of time to build. And I think I may have beaten the big names in custom saber manufacturers in displaying a version of this hilt!

Well that just about wraps up this post, except to say I am really looking forward to seeing “The Rise of Skywalker” in December (20th) and find out for certain whether Rey has turned to the Darkside or if this is a “Clone” of her, or even just a Force vision flashback/premonition (hard to see the future is, always in motion it is!). So as is my tradition, I’d like to thank you all for looking in on this design and for your support of me and my site. Whether you are a new visitor (and there have been a few recently) or a regular caller, you are all very much appreciated. If you liked what you saw please spread the word about FTSabersite to friends and be sure to call back to see many more new hilts and designs in future posts. Till next time…..

p.s. I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to have a rest over a long weekend now (Phew!) Back to work on Monday….

“Rey of Darkness” saber is a For Tyeth Editions rendition and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. The Rey “Switchblade” saber staff, and all Star Wars names, logos, images and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm ltd 2019.

“Rey of Darkness” Saber – The “Switchblade” saber update!

Hello Everybody, just a quick post to let you know I have been busy “tinkering” with my attempt to recreate the new “Switchblade” saber seen in the new teaser trailer for “The Rise of Skywalker”. I have managed to get a better resolution picture of the new saber/staff and so reworked my first attempt. Below is a “clay model” render to show the new build off (I feel like a car manufacturer showing of a new car shape with one of those clay sculpture models seen at motor shows!). In a change of schedule due to this new buzz there will be a FULL COLOUR gallery and post coming this weekend, but for now here’s that clay model picture just to get your attentions!

Thanks for looking in on this announcement and I hope to see you all this weekend for my post on this model. Till this weekend…..

“Rey of Darkness” is a For Tyeth Editions design and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. It is based on the new lightsaber from the upcoming movie “The Rise of Skywalker” and all Trademarks/©Copyrights belong to Disney/LucasFilm 2019.

“Rey of Darkness” staff – For Tyeth Edition

Hello Everybody, yesterday a teaser video dropped for the new film “The Rise of Skywalker” and there was an immediate buzz about the last few seconds where we see something we are all dreading (unless you are part of the Sith!) – REY as a Darksider?

She has a double ended, folding staff lightsaber and dark robes which brings me to the reason for this impromptu post. I have two questions….

Will Rey turn to the Darkside? And second….should I keep working on this design to make it better?

Let me know! Thanks for looking in on this quick sneak peek…man I can’t wait for the 20th December now! Till next time….

“Rey of Darkness” staff is a For Tyeth Edition rendition and is ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2019. It is inspired by the design seen in “The Rise of Skywalker” trailer which is Trademark/©Copyright of Disney/LucasFilm 2019.