This tutorial will teach you how to create a Light Saber - the weapon featured in the Star Wars saga. This is an intermediate tutorial that will require you to know your basic way around 3D Studio max. Our tutorial will be divided into two parts: Part I will teach you how to model the handle and the blade while Part II will teach you how to create the glowing blade and the animation process.
Part I
A) Modeling the Handle
Create a cylinder in the front viewport, and then make sure it's parameters are the same as the following specs:
Radius: 1,Height: 15, Height Segments: 5, Cap Seg: 1, Sides: 18.
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This cylinder will be the handle of the Light Saber, to start remodeling it to wanted shape; we need to convert it to an editable polygon, so right click on it, and from the Transform" menu select Convert To: > Convert to Editable Poly.
In Modify Tap, change selection mood to Vertex" , and start moving the second and third rows of the vertex as in the image below.
Now change the selection to Polygon", we are going to edit the polygons to give more details to our model. From the left viewport, select all the first and third sets of Polygons at the same time. Click on small window button next to Extrude" 
. The " Extrude Polygons window should open up, select Local Normal as ¡°Extrusion Type¡± and change the value of Extrusion Height to 0.2, hit OK to apply extrude and then close the window.
While the polygons are still selected, click on the small window next to Bevel" 
. The ¡°Bevel Polygons¡± window opens up, select ¡°Local
Now select the last set of polygons and apply Bevel the same way you did in the last step. Change the Height value to -0.079, click on Apply again and finally change the value to 0.11 and click on OK.
From the perspective view, select the top cap and apply Extrude to it . On the Extrude Polygons" window, select Local
The handle of our Light Saber is almost done. A smoother shape would always look better, you can apply the Mesh Smooth modifier to it and that would do the job. Select the cylinder from the scene if it is not already selected, and then from the Modifier List select Mesh Smooth.
On the "Subdivision Amount" rollout, change the value of iterations" to 2. Doing this last step should smoothen the handle.
Tip: Using Mesh Smooth" could slow down the updates on the viewports. It is better to use the options under "Render Value" to set the iteration to 2 and changing the previous iteration to 0. This would smoothen the objects upon rendering only and not while viewing in the viewports.
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The only thing remaining in the handle is the grip - we are now going to add more details to it. On the front viewport. Using "Spline" draw the following simple shape ( 
) and place it in the position illustrated in the image below:
Note: To create Spline go to Create Tap>Shape>Line
Duplicate the shape using Mirror Selected Objects ( 
), in the Mirror: Screen Coordinates" window select Y as Mirror Axis and Copy as Clone Selection, hit "OK" to make a clone of your image. Now move the clone shape to the opposite side of the original shape.
Select both shapes and select Extrudefrom the Modifiers List. In the Parameter rollout, make the following changes
Amount : 7, Segments : 1, then place both shapes in the grip area as illustrated in the second image below.
Optional step: you can add Mesh Smooth to the shapes if you would like to. Select both of the extruded shapes and add Mesh Smooth, use the value of 1 for iteration.
While the shape is still selected, hold down shift and rotate the shapes 45 degrees. A Clone Window should open up. Select Instance as Object, and set the Number of Copies to 3. This should conclude the work on the handle. You can click on render to get something similar to the image below.
B) Modeling The Blade
Modeling the blade is a simple job. Go ahead to the front view and create a simple cylinder with the following specs: Radius: 0.6, Height 40, Height Segments: 1, Cap Seg: 1, Sides: 18. You will then have to place it on the front hole that you have created in the handle.
A) Creating the Glowing Materials and Maps
The Light Saber is now ready and it is now time to apply materials to it. Hit "M" on your keyboard to open up the "Material Editor".
1- The Handle Materials:
Select the first slot in the window and name it "Handle". The next step is to make the following changes in the "Linn Parameter" rollout:
"Specular level" : 61, "Glossiness" : 63
Finally, scroll down to the "Maps" rollout and then add "Ray Trace" map on the "Reflections" slot. Click on the "None" button next to "Reflection" and select "Ray Trace" from the list and reduce the value to 40. Check the images below for more information.
Tip: Specular level & Glossiness both deal with light in that they affect the way a material reacts to light. You may want to change the values of these to see how the material could react differently to light.
We need another material for the grip . Create the second material with the same parameter as the first one, you do this job easily by simply dragging the material from the first slot to the second. Change the name to "grip" and then change the "Diffuse" colour to "Black".
Our materials are now ready. Assign the first material to the handle by selecting the handle from the scene and the clicking on the "Assign Material to Selection" button 
that could be found in the Material "Editor panel". Assign the second material to the grip using the same procedure.
2- The Blade Material
Back to the "Material Editor". Select a free slot and change the "Diffuse" colour to the colour that you wish the blade to be coloured in. I picked blue. You will have to set the "Self-Illumination" to 100. Once you're done, assign the material to the blade.
- The Glow Effect
The final effect to add to our blade is the glow. Open the "Environment & Effects" window by pressing "8" on your keyboard. Click on the "Effect" tab, click on "Add" and then select "Lens Effect" from the list. Scroll down to "Lens Effect Parameter" rollout and add "Glow".
The "Glow" effect is now done, however, we still need to setup its parameters. Scroll down to the "Glow Element" rollout and make the following changes in the "Parameter" tab: Size: 0.1, Intensity: 161. You should also change the "Radial Colour" to the colour you want the blade to glow in.
Tip: You can try different Size and Intensity values to reach your own personally preferred result.
Access the "Options" tab and check the "Object ID" checkbox. You will have to remember the number ID as this value tells Max to make all the objects that have this ID to to have the glow effect we just created.
Close the window and get back the scene. Select the blade and right click on it to access the "Transform Menu" from which you should select "Properties..". In the "Object Properties" window, look for "G-Buffer" and change the Object Channel to 1. This number is the value that we used as the "Object ID" for our Glow Effect.
We are done, render the scene and you should get an output similar to what we got in the image below:
Move the time slider to Zero and then activate the "Auto Key" by clicking on it. Move the time slide to 20 and move back the top vertex to its original place. Hit "Auto Key" again to deactivate it. You can hit "Play" to playback the simple animation you just made.
- Final Scene Setup
I added four omni lights with a value of 0.3 for the Multiplier with shadow. A large "Plane" was put under the Light Saber to case the shadow Omni. A mid-gray coloured material was applied to the plane.
- Exporting The Animation
I used the "Video Post" to export the renders in sequence of images in JPEG file format. Those JPGs were imported to Flash to create the animation you see in the SWF movie below.
This concludes our tutorial. I hope that you learnt some new techniques on how to model, make materials, apply effects, and create animations in 3D Studio MAX. You can download the final result 3DS file here if would like to take a closer look at my work. If you still have a question please feel free to visit Oman3D Forum or simply contact me at fadi_shehadeh at hotmail dot com.
- End of Tutorial
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