In this tutorial I will show you how to make a cool laser beam. In the end it will look like the image below.

This first thing you need to do is make a new file in Photoshop and make the bg black. Now make a new layer, and with the square selection took draw a small rectangle through the middle of your picture. When you have selected it, fill it with white.

Now duplicate the layer. Now on the layer that you duplicated (layer above background layer) deselect everything and go to filter>blur> Gaussian blur And choose the value of 10, or another value depending on the size of your image.

Now go to the layer above the one you are on (the duplicate) and do the same blur, but with a value of 3.

Now you should have a picture similar to this one.

Now make another layer, above all the other, and fill the whole layer with a nice purple color. Now change the layer option to "Color" instead of normal.

Now your beam. should turn purple.

Now that we have the basic beam. we are going to make something that it is coming out of. So use the square selection tool and make a square to the side of your image.

Now use a gradient of your choice with a light and dark gray color as your background and foreground and play around with it until you get something like the one below. Then just duplicate the layer, and place the gradient on the other side of the beam. as well.

Now you can keep adding little details until you get something you like. I added some difference in brightness and some 1px bevels. I then took the airbrush tool and colored the top and bottom of the gradient a little to make it look more 3d.