I can make pokemon and fireballs; the light saber should be easy enough to create, I thought. Then I saw the super dark footage from the underground Jedi party. Still though, I pulled off something somewhat respectable and I'd like to tell you how to do it.

1. Brighten the footage to you can see where the damn hands are.

In After Effects CS6, I had the most success brightening the Exposure rather than using curves. You can do this by selecting the clip you're working on and going to Effect-->Color Correction--> Exposure. An exposure increase of 2 does wonders for dark clips, the downside is that it gives you a lot of grain. Select the clip, go to Effect-->Noise & Grain-->Remove Grain. For almost the entire process I used an exposure of 5, and then reduced it when I was done.

2. Trace the light saber with the pen tool.

So, if our lovely Asian dancer had a stick or something in hand, this would have been way easier because I wouldn't have to guess where the blade should be. Otherwise, create a new white solid. Start tracing where the light saber should be using the pen tool and using position and scale, keep adjusting the light saber's place and size throughout the clip. Don't make the noob mistake of forgetting to key frame each change!

3. When the light saber goes behind the Jedi, hide it!

You can do this with a second mask on the light saber layer set to "subtract."

4. Add some badass light saber sound effects and you're golden!

Here's a decent sound pack: http://theforce.net/fanfilms/postproduction/soundfx/sabersounds.zip

5. Perfectionists should round out the top and bottom of their light saber

OR use this argument; Jedi technological advances in light saber crystal alignment have resulted in a flatter, 2D blade better for parrying and advanced combat. Vibrosword anyone?

Do or do not.