I had to put the preset into the After Effects folder before I could actually start working on the project itself. I chose to do the Lightsaber version 2 effect.
First I had to put the footage of the lightsaber "battle" without any special effects, then I had to put the effect in from the preset folder of After Effects.
After that, I just had to take the start position at the hilt of the lightsaber, and the end position at the tip. Then I went frame by frame, moving the lightsaber each frame.
I had to put a mask around myself so the lightsaber would appear to go behind me like it does, which involved making a new solid, and using the pen tool to go around my body. Then, I keyframed the mask position and just moved the vertices of the mask frame by frame to where they needed to go.
Then I had to make sure the playback looked good, and it did. So I rendered and turned it in. I learned that I can make really cool videos in this way and next year, when I am in entertainment, I will use this.
