a lightsaber effect in maya is really easy. I have done one here


basically just take a cyllender, stretch it out to make it the lightsaber shape. select it's color to be off white (if it's a blue saber add a little blue, but it shouldn't be noticeable, if red saber make red, etc...) then select that same color in the incandesance. then duplicate that cyllender. Make scale it a little thicker than the original, hide the source nad put on a new saber. Select the color of hte saber in the color node and put up the glow. Instant lightsaber.