so these nodes offer more control over materials and such in blender? (ie, less post pro needed)?
Interesting…
Where can I aquire one of the testing builds? I looked on the forums but couldn’t figure it out 
Cool
Lensflare in photoshop
Added the tutorial to the Wiki tutorial list.
This is very funny; a long time ago I modelled a lightsaber using a similar technique.
This file was created in september 2004, the halo material isn’t that good though.
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This technique is old for me too, I used this one in early 2005. I just never did feel the need to share it
But I didn’t do it as early as 2004…so all hail R@ as the first discoverer!
And his lightsa… er, dagger.
Here Is Waht I Get When I Do This Turoial Is It A Bug??? I Seriously Copied It Exactly If Any One Wants Me To Post My Blend File I Will
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Good tutorial, but maybe it should be moved to the tutorial section of the forum?
RANKN67, it’s probably a scaling issue. Try either messing with the halo sizes or scaling your lines way up and subdividing more until you get a good looking length/width ratio.
[Edit] “The Force is with you young skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet.”
Got It To Work, I Found Out That It Was Because I Must Of Screwed With The Render Settings Becaus I Went Into The Blender Folder And Deleted The User Settings Called .b And It Restored My Defaults, Thank You For The Tutorial
new prob, when i scale the sabe it keeps the halo blade size the same
All you can do about that is change the HaloSize.
hehe ^^
OK, here are my first 3 tries.
I did this a while back and got similar results; i.e., not nearly good enough, but never bothered to post.
Now that my friends and I are trying to do a star wars short, it’s absolutely CRITICAL that I figure out how to do this effect in Blender, as I don’t have the budget for other software.
So yeah, I’m under a bit more pressure to get it right now 
Thankfully…
OK, so here are my 3:
First, this one, which is completely green and looks more like bacteria than a lightsaber
After rereading some of the comments and scaling and subdividing some more, here are the next two:
As you can see, I have the inner blade inside of the outer blade going nicely now.
BUT, what I’m lacking is the glow thingy as in the last screenshot of Jason’s tutorial.
In this state it looks utter crap for a movie of any sort. IMO 
That HARDLY [actually it doesn’t even come close] compares to these:
What I’m missing is the fuzzy, mottled look; it looks to blocky the way I have it.
And I think the glow is a bit wider or something.
Anyway I’m sure compositing nodes can help?
I.e., this could be a basis, and then can I add these other effects in the compositing nodes?
Anyone care to explain how?
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP!
Thanks!!
~LC
Hmm, check out this .blend, see if it helps. saberblade.blend BTW, if you need any saber hilts for your fan film, I can offer you Darth Vader’s. (ANH version)
Well heres my lightsaber:
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/7711/lightsaberle4.jpg
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/2641/lightsavermo9.jpg
I modeled a LEGO hilt with MLCad, imported it into Blender, and made a lightsaber with it… I’ll try to find the file.
EDIT: Found it.
wow! great tutorial. thanks so much.
does anybody have any ideas about how I would go about putting my new blade in a movie of my brother and I?
Yes, I’ve done that myself a few times.
Simply load the video into the background of blenders camera view and then rotate and move the blades to follow the blades in the movie. I assume you know how to load videos and such, as well as keyframe the blades.