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Make a light saber. Part 2 of 4
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Create a Light Saber Blade:
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1.
Elegant Weapon
One of the skills you'll need if you aspire to join the order of Jedi Knights is to construct your own light saber. I can help you with the blade.
This tutorial began when a reader asked me how to go about making a saber blade in Photoshop. I had done something like this before, for a web site, but since it didn't seem to matter, the method I used ended up looking cool, but differed a bit from those seen in the film. Well, I love a challenge, and am a believer that all things are possible through Photoshop, so I dug out a magazine my son had and our DVD of the film and checked out exactly how those guys at Lucasfilm made those blades look the way they do.
It took a while for me to accept that the heart of the blade was actually pure White, and that it was a feathered glow that mostly provided the color. I had these photos of my son and I from Halloween 1999, when we unashamedly dressed up as Jedi. I always meant to do something with them in Photoshop, like stick us in a scene from the film or whatever, but didn't get around to it until now. Lets see what I did: |
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 2.
Shape of the Blade
After outlining my son and liberating him from the original background, I used the Pen Tool  to outline the toy light saber's blade. The shape was right, so why mess with it? I chose the Pen tool because I needed a smooth combination of straight lines and curves for the shape. This created a Path which I saved by giving it a name in the Paths Palette. You can see the active path in the image at left. |
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 3.
Filling with Colors
On the bottom of the Paths Palette, the third button from the left "Loads path as a selection". I did this and then filled several layers with color to make the basic blade. Looking at my Layers Palette on the left you can see I have a white layer and several blue layers.
The reason for multiple blue layers is that each one has different degrees of feathering on it to create a glowing effect. To create the blue layers, I loaded the Path as a selection, then chose Select: Feather... and entered a number. The amount of feathering you want is determined by the number you assign; and the number you choose will depend on the resolution of your image. Just experiment if you're unsure. Then create a new layer and fill with your foreground color (I chose a blue).
I use the keyboard shortcut alt/option-delete to fill with foreground color, and if you do this on a feathered selection, you can press the combination more than once to fill with color a little more each time. |
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 4.
Blurring
To create the white layer, I loaded the Path as a selection, then chose Select: Modify: Contract... to shrink the selected area a little. I only wanted the heart of the blade to be white. Next comes Select: Feather... to make the edge a little blurry.
After the shape was filled with white and there was a blue layer underneath, I added a Layer Mask to control how much white I wanted to show. Here's how: Click the Add a mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. Look at the image in step 3 above to see the mask icon on the "White Blade" layer. Click on the Layer Mask's icon and choose Filter: Blur: Gaussian Blur... to blur the edges of the blade enough to suit you. The more you blur the mask, the less "pure white" shows through at the heart of the blade. |
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 5.
Outer Glow
At left you can see what the light saber looks like so far in the hands of this very young jedi. Not bad but I need to add an outer, or secondary glow which is quite transparent, but bleeds pretty far from the actual blade.
To do this, I created an entirely new selection. Again I used the Pen Tool to draw the shape I wanted (one that was fat at bottom and tapered as it went up) and then converted the path to a selection. Then I simply filled with the same blue on a new layer underneath the previous ones, and lowered the layer's Opacity until it looked suitable. |
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 6.
Review
Take A look at left to see how the blade turned out. I made the image below to illustrate how the blade layers "stack up":
Top Layer: Blade Selection: Contracted, feathered & filled with White. Layer Mask added; then blurred.
2nd Layer: Blade Selection: Feathered & filled with Blue.
3rd Layer: Glow Selection: Expanded, then Feathered a lot, & filled with Blue. Opacity= 37% This is the widest glow.
Bottom Layer: Glow Selection: Feathered a lot, & filled with Blue. Opacity= 66%
If you get the chance check out the saber Obi-Wan holds on the cover of the DVD of Phantom Menace. IMHO, it does not look as good as the one you are now able to create. Why? The photo of the actor has been severely retouched (cleaned up) but still looks photographic. The blade doesn't- it looks painted. Neither is the glow quite large enough. I based mine on photos and actual frames from the film. Also, it doesn't look long enough. Size does matter- at least when it comes to light sabers.
My point? Lucasfilm needs to hire Mr. Photoshop! Team members, I won't forget you. |
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 7.
2
for the price of 1
I also made a saber for myself, because my goal eventually was to create a Star Wars-like scene I could use on a T-shirt or something for my son. Since you now know how it's done, I thought you'd like to see how it went. (Also, this is my favorite of the two)
In this image, you can see the path I've created which will become the shape of the glow. I love this shape. It looks like an elongated flame and was based on a glow I observed on a still of Qui-Gon. |
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 8.
The
Layer Mask
In the image on the left side, you can see what the layer mask that is attached to the White (top) layer looks like when it is visible. To view a layer mask this way, just alt/option-click the layer mask icon on the layer in question. You get a nice view of the exact shape I have.
In the right image, a close-up of the base of the blade. |
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 9.
Your
skills are complete.
Now you know enough. Go forth and populate the world with light sabers.
Take a look at this finished view and even though you're seeing a shrunk down JPEG, you can see how I tried to put a little reflection of the blade's glow on my head and hand. Most if not all of the movie stills I've seen don't feature this, but I thought, if that saber is that bright, then it's going to cause some color reflection on anything in its vicinity. |
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 10.
Read
On...
These guys mean business! Check out my next tutorial in this series to see these would-be Jedi-Knights finally get placed in a suitable environment. It's called Create a Sci-Fi Background. |
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