With a supplied model, I textured, lit, and animated Darth Vader’s helmet for the opening shot of a Sky Movies: Star Wars advertisement. The shot was designed to have Vader barely visible at first, gradually emerging from the darkness as his lightsaber swooshes past.

Passes were rendered from Cinema 4D and composited in After Effects. The lightsaber effects were created using a combination of Cinema 4D passes and After Effects techniques.

For the smoke effects, I used Turbulence FD, ensuring the lightsaber dynamically interacts with the smoke as it moves through the scene.