HOW TO: Make Kylo Ren’s Unstable Lightsaber Blade in Photoshop

As you may recall (Medium + Behance), I’m in charge of making Golden Gate Garrison’s 501st trading cards. This time we had a member who requested a Kylo Ren trading card. Making a lightsaber in photoshop is quite easy, but an unstable blade lightsaber…? not so much.

Doing a bunch of research I saw a ton of people make Kylo Ren’s unstable lightsaber blade, but they all seemed a bit off to me. So in the end I made my own version. I hope my techniques below will help you create Kylo Ren’s lightsaber for whatever project you are working on!

Ok, So What Version…?

First off, what version are we making?
In my head I have a good idea of what it should look like… Something not perfect like a normal lightsaber, has some sparks, bumpy edges, and maybe some detail inside the blade.

Thats it right?

Well, not so simple.
Currently there are a ton of official ways to make the unstable lightsaber blade, which makes this a bit harder to pick what direction to go.

Screenshot from Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Star Wars Force Friday (2015) Toys “R” Us Poster Giveaway

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens Movie Poster / Box Art

Star Wars Hasbro Toy Packaging (2015)

As you can see there are sight variations between each. Some are more sparky, others are more lightning, but they are all slightly different from each other.

My Version

I chose to stick as close as I could to the actual movie screenshot, I felt it was more in universe than the rest and the closest to “real life”.

Photoshop Brushes

First Stop, Photoshop brushes!

When exploring techniques on how to make the unstable lightsaber blade, the best way I found was with a few sets of Photoshop brushes.

Firebrush, created by suztv (Suzanne Powell): Download Brushes

Sparks and Fire, supplied by WeGraphics: Download Brushes

Creation Time

Time to create this unstable lightsaber blade!

Step 1

Prepare your subject.

Use the Pen Tool to cut your subject and lightsaber blades out of the photo.

Step 2

Main Lightsaber blade.

Within Firebrush set, select the highlighted brush.

In the Brush Pallet, under Color Dynamics, set all presets to 100%.

Holding SHIFT, draw a straight line.

Under Adjustments, select the Brightness/Contrast and set the brightness to -90.

On 3 separate layers, draw 3 lines (doing this step will smooth out the edges a bit). Then Align Horizontal Centers to center the lines.

Merge the layers together, either by Converting to Smart Object or Merge Layers.

Step 3

Side blades.

Same as above, (draw 3, then merge) but these draw the blades shorter.

Edit > Transform > Perspective. This will point the blade tips a bit.

Point the blade tips, 1.2 degrees, or what looks good to you.

Step 4

Color the blades.

Layer Style: Color Overlay

Layer Style: Gradient Overlay (Note: you might need to play with the Scale, depends on how big your lightsaber is)

Red Hex Code: ea3d00

Layer Style: Outer Glow

Red Hex Code: ff0000

Step 5

Align the blades to your subject.

At this point you should have something that looks like this.

Step 6

Add sparks!

Play with the Sparks and Fire brush set to get your desired amount of sparks. There is no real rule to this, just do what feels good to you.

Use Sparks and Fire Brush Set.

Layer Style: Color Overlay

Layer Style: Outer Glow, Red Hex Code: ff0000

Step 7

Add reflecting light.

Using Masks and a soft brush, add red reflection where you feel it would be.

Layer Style: Color Overlay

Step 8

Add it all together.

In the end, you should have something that looks like this.

The Final Look

Front & Back, Golden Gate Garrison 501st DS-37973 Trading Card

Printed, Golden Gate Garrison 501st DS-37973 Trading Card

Final Thoughts

Overall I’m extremely happy with the final results. Yes, it’s not EXACTLY like the movie saber, but hey, I think it’s extremely close. If I was to do it over, I would probably make the bumpy lightsaber blade a bit less uniformed and remove a bit of the texture inside the lightsaber…. but that’s next time!

I hope you enjoyed this article, and any feedback or comments are aways welcomed!

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/joblesspunk
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