Modeling and Animating a Light Saber in 3D Studio Max
By Fadi | Winner of Oman3D Tutorial Competition 2005This 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.
. 
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.
