Now start adding those keyframes, wherever needed. It might be easier to do keyframes every second or so, then go back and add them wherever needed between those (as opposed to doing them in a linear fashion, from start to end). Some frames may need just a position or rotation keyframe, while others will need all 3 position, scale, and rotation keyframes. Whatever gets the job done. Try to avoid any amount of time where the saber's position doesn't change; this looks really fake.

For scale keyframes, you are going to want to keep the girth of the saber the same, only changing the length. So you will need to uncheck the "Preserve Frame Aspect Ratio" option in the scale dialog. Adjust the scale when necessary to match the length of the stick in the captured video.

Your composition should now look something like this.

For any question please contact me (Joe Bloe) at joebloefx@hotmail.com or visit my web site at http://visualfx.iscool.net/

Now I know you are probably just itching to render a preview, so go ahead. You might want to enable Motion Blur for the composition and the saber layers. Hopefully the saber matched the footage pretty well. If not, go back and fix any sloppy keyframes, and add some where needed.

Now you are ready to move on to Step 3: Layering.