[Super 73] make electric scooters, and they made some Star Wars Speeder Bikes with a twist for Halloween; adding some mirrored panels around the bottoms of the bikes made for a decent visual effect that requires no upkeep or fancy workings. Having amazed everyone with the bikes, they followed them up with a video of the build process.
The speeders are shells built around their Super 73 electric scooter, with bases of what looks like MDF sitting on anchor points. Onto the base platforms goes cardboard and expanding foam to create the correct shapes, which are then sanded then coated in fiberglass and bondo. Then it’s time for paint, weathering, and all the assorted bits and pieces needed to make the speeders as screen-accurate as possible. The real finishing touch are the mirrored panels to conceal the wheels and create a levitation illusion. As long as the mirrors are angled so that they reflect the pavement when viewed by a pedestrian, it works fairly well.
Top it off with costumes and a ride around town (with plenty of cameras of course, they naturally wanted to grab some eyeballs) and we have to say, the end result looks nifty. Both the showcase and making-of videos are embedded below.
Corrugated cardboard makes a great building material that is versatile and readily available, if you know how to use it effectively. And if levitation that isn’t an illusion is what piques your interest, you can see it done acoustically as well as magnetically.
Fantastic!
It’s all Fun and Games until someone get’s impaled then sued by Disney.
Surely, Disney would be sued due to letting their IP drive around uncontrolled, impaling people?
sued? Disney paid for this, Neistat is in the video = paid promotion PR piece.
even has fake cops at the end for that clickbaity viral video shitness.
Drone flying over NY streets is a nice touch, illegal in most of NY including half of Manhattan.
The scene was fake but the cop was real.
The drone shoot had a permit and was performed by Droneworks Studios.
at least Droneworks Studios looks like a place that would have commercial drone license and bother to call the airport
What is that yellow tool called, that’s being used on the fiberglass at about 02:30 in the build video…? I have one of those and I don’t know what to call it or do with it.
It might be a brand name, but it is called a “surform shaver”
It is a rasp.
Officially, it’s called a rasp plane. My dad did autobody in the 80’s and always called it a “cheese grater”.
Also called a Surform plane, but that’s a brand name of Stanley Tools.
Sureform shaver/plane.
Use it like you would coarse sand paper.
WOW that certainly brought a smile to my face that I can’t wipe off!
That was awesome –
Who’s steering? Too many hands on the handlebars. Passenger on rear unless in the East.
If you could stabilize the boom, even better. Potholes!
Next, video screens instead of mirrors with chameleon circuits.
You’re onto something there,
Extending the idea:
Find and use those Pseudo-3d screens (Think like the 3DS or similar), multiple per-angle cameras and a little post-processing, put screens back to back on both sides to make those “Obviously a mirror trick” shadows disappear then the illusion will be complete.
Though, that’ll be an expensive hack: Especially if one was to crash into something.
Genius
Right up until someone claims the mirrors blinded them, cause and accident, death, other.
But otherwise love this!
I wonder if the sound effects was only on the video editing or if they did some thing about it in the real design, that was awesome. Good job.