My saber, Used your tut and got my fam....

Hey, I found your guy's tutorials for sabers and whipped up this little ditty..



I emailed it to my family saying...

It ended up fooling 2 people so far. MAN you wouldn't believe how excited they were thinking that it actually was for real.

(I hated to let them down, but it was fun.)

Thanks for the great tutorials.

-ZEphYR-

Nice. Very nice. The things you can convince your family with Photoshop...

Welcome to PSFX! I'm glad to hear that you've found this site helpful. How'd you find us?

Good thing you put a mosaic filter on your face, hides your identity

very nice zephyr haha, the saber's awesome
just u gotta hav a bigger glow, as dan sayd.
But i like smaller glows to, just not to small, no offense

Thanks. I put the mosaic filter on there cuz I wasn't sure of the forum rules on posting pictures of ones-self.

I found this site off of a search for Photoshop tutorials. There was a link for the light saber tutorial.

Forget Joe's technique, mines wayyyyyyyyyyy better:



I'm just kidding with you Joe

Nice trick zephyr...That would be pretty funny.

xz64, your glow is a bit off...it disappeared on the light wall.

You wanna take this outside, sonny?!

Just kidding, just kidding. We all have our own lightsaber preferences...

Zephyr--there are no rules regarding posting images of yourself. You're free to "censor" your face if you want too--I'd do it, too--but it's not required by any means.

That happens with some techniques. If you've got a predominantly brightish background, it's often necessary to use a completely different method. I've just today figured out a more effective way to show lightsabers against a bright background...

Can you please tell us the technique?

hahahahahaha
yeh i would like to hear the techhy plz joe

Sorry, I still prefer a smaller core. I also like how you could just see the tip of the saber on the original.

Your glow seems a little purple.

Not trying to bash, just sying (like joe) everyone prefers they're own method. and to tell the truth, I used a combination of both of your methods.

Thanks for all the great feedback!

yeh i prefer smaller core to.
they look betta, in my opinion
btw zeph howd u get the core to go smaller and smaller?
(if it does go smaller and smaller or just me)

WELL......since you ask...

First I hid everything except the handle.



Then, I drew some Guide lines following the thinnest part of the handle using the line tool (U key...also draws shapes.) PS. these are drawn on a seperate layer.



After that, I can use the guide lines to select a nicely shaped, and slightly tapered, core with a rounded tip using the polygonal lasso tool (L key.)



Then just fill it in, deselect, and hide the guides; and you should have somethin' like this to start your core.



Hope this is what you were looking for. Excuse the poor quality of the images... I was going for small file size and quick upload.

Right now, the technique for use with brighter backgrounds is still in the works. But basically, I'm resorting to layer styles to get me the effect I want.

The Hard Light and Overlay blending modes with the Outer Glow effect can be very useful in certain circumstances. But that by itself gives a rather plain and unrealistic glow, so I throw in some Drop Shadow in a rather unorthodox way. After adding the Outer Glow, I activate Drop Shadow and set the blending mode to Screen or Color Dodge. Then I set Distance to zero and fiddle with the settings. What it boils down to is I'm just creating a second Outer Glow with different settings.

Did you try using the layer as linear dodge instead of screen for blending? I haven't tried yet, but it may work.