How to Create a Lightsaber Effect in Photoshop

As any veteran Jedi can tell you, it's difficult to be taken seriously as a warrior of The Force when you're holding a plastic lightsaber. No amount of solemn Jedi robes and determined scowling can make up for a lightsaber that's deemed safe for kids 7 and under. Here's a quick and easy way to add an authentic-looking lightsaber blade to your Jedi pics using Adobe Photoshop.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Lay the Foundation for Your Lightsaber Blade

1. Take a picture of yourself holding a lightsaber hilt in an intimidating pose. Any store-bought hilt will do, but if it has a blade attached, remove it. If you don't have a lightsaber hilt you can wrap a paper towel tube in tin foil, but you might have to scowl extra hard to counter-act the lameness.

2. Upload the picture to your computer and then open it in Adobe Photoshop.

3. Create a new layer by selecting "Layer > New > New Layer" from the menu bar or just hit "Shift-Ctrl-N." All of the following steps will be applied to this layer, so make sure you don't accidentally de-select it.

4. Select the "Line Tool" and choose white for the color. Make the width of the "Line Tool" about 75 percent of the width of your lightsaber hilt in the picture. On the new layer you created, use the "Line Tool" to drag out a white line from the end of your lightsaber hilt to what appears to be a reasonable blade length.

5. Choose "Layer > Rasterize > Shape" from the menu bar then select the "Magnify Tool" and zoom in on the tip of the white line you just drew.

6. Round off the end of your white line. Still on the same layer, select the "Brush Tool" and add a single dot over the very end of your white line. The size of the dot should be as close to the width of the white line as possible so the dot does not appear as a bulge.

Add Realism to Your Lightsaber Blade

7. Zoom out to normal size by selecting "View > Actual Pixels" and then select "Filter > Blur Gausian Blur" from the menu bar and set the "Radius" of the blur between 1.5 and 2.0 pixels. You may need to adjust the "Radius" depending on the size of your picture, but try to set it so that the edges of the white line are slightly blurred but the center of the line is still a solid white.

8. Choose "Layer > Layer Style > Outer Glow" from the menu and move the "Opacity" slider all the way to the right to set it at 100 percent.

9. Select the color of the glow. This will be your lightsaber color. Red or green works best.

10. Change the "Spread" of the blur to around 12 percent and the "Size" of the glow to around 12 pixels.

11. Set the radius. Again, select "Filter > Blur > Gausian Blur" and set the "Radius" to the same number of pixels as you did in Step 1.

12. Flatten the image by choosing "Layer > Flatten Image."

13. Place crosshairs. Select "Filter > Render > Lens Flare" and select "105mm Prime" option. Place the cross hairs where your lightsaber meets the hilt and adjust the size of the lens flare so that it is just a small glow. Click "OK."