🚀 go-pugleaf

Here's a little tutorial that I made up for my After Effects class last week. It's more complicated than the lightning solution, but looks much, much better and is atually easier by the time all is said and done. Email me or at least post if you have any questions or problems. This took my class about 30 minutes to do, and then as long to implement as they wanted. 

I would make a comp that is about 640 x 50, make a colored solid layer that is the same size (make the color of the solid a mid-brightness). Then, make a very simple mask that is in the shape of the blade itself (leaving open space around the edges. Duplicate the layer over itself. On the top layer, add a 10 pixel gaussian blur and set its transfer mode to "add". Then, duplicate the blurred layer 2 more times. 

Next, bring your live-action footage into another full-sized comp. Next, bring the lightsaber comp in on top of the footage. Go into the lightsaber comps transform tools, and set the horizontal anchor to about "-5". Turn on the motion blur button above the "switches and modes" panel and then check it for that layer. 

With the anchor point set up this way, you can just make the position of the saber follow the "actors" hand, and then use then use rotation, size, and scale to make it match. The keyframe assistant works great to ease motion in and out as well. The motion blur will give it a realistic trail when it moves quickly. 

Good luck! 

steven