How to Make the Lightsaber Blade Effect on a Mac
The Star Wars lightsaber effect is an iconic image from film history. Star Wars fans all over the Web have created their own fan-made photos featuring glowing lightsabers, even without the special effects teams and large budgets involved in creating the movies. If you would like to add the glowing lightsaber effect to your photos, you can do so using your Mac. You will need Adobe Photoshop, Pixelmator or the free photo-editing software alternative GIMP.
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Instructions
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Open your photo image in Photoshop or GIMP.
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Create a new layer and change the blending mode to "Screen."
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Select the "Bezier" tool and make a selection of the area where you wish the lightsaber blade to appear. Convert the area to a selection and use the "Fill" tool to fill it with white.
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Duplicate the layer twice, then click on the first layer and choose "Filters," "Blur" and then "Gaussian Blur." Adjust the amount of blur to around "5." Add blur to the second layer with a setting of "20" and the third layer with a setting of "40."
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Right-click the top layer and choose "Merge down" and set the new merged layer to "Screen," then repeat this process on the top layer until all three layers are merged.
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Click the top layer and click "Layers," "Colors" and "Color Balance." Move the sliders until you find the color you want. Select "Preserve Luminosity" if you choose.
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Tips & Warnings
Experiment with different Gaussian blur settings to make a larger or smaller glow effect.
