Regarding the painted blade, it's pretty obvious from the video and from several posters' words that this effect only works reliably in 2D. When put into motion, the black blocks aren't in the correct postion to be seen at all angles. If you are going to do this effect for a display piece, why not use a polygonal clear insert in the blade? Say you make it hexagonal...you could alternate surfaces from clear to opaque, or whatever choices of colors you want. Say you want a purple blade with a blue aura...paint them alternating blue and purple. When displaying, you just ensure that the view is perpendicular to the purple face. Again, this idea should only be taken into consideration for a 2-dimensional approach.