Alright, so, imagine you were making a lightsaber in Unity. It’s a rod that glows.
Alright, I want to make something that glows in Unity.
Is there an easy way to do this? 
Thanks for all the help!
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If you don’t have pro i believe the “easiest” way would be to create the main model as normal, use VertexLit textures for the beam part without the glow, and for the glow itself there’s multiple options.
Either those described in this topic:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/78093-Glow-effect-in-Free-version-Unity
or to use a “billboard” which sticks out the regular sabre’s shaft, facing the camera. that has the glow with alpha baked, using a VertexLit Alphablend shader. It will likely require some scripting then, as a regular billboard would likely show wrongly when the sword is facing directly at the camera.
So a regular billboard will likely not work.
Most importantly, don’t expect the sword to lighten up your scene in any way except for perhaps what dynamic point lights could achieve for you.
Annihlator gives good advice here, fake the glow using a billboard with scripting to make it face the camera in the right way. This is a little tricky, so you might find it easier rather than a billboard to have two or three rectangles with a transparent or additive glow texture each facing in a different direction.
Other options:
- Particles emitted from the main model - as a free extar, you might also get a nice glowing particle trail as the lightsaber moves.
- (advanced) Use a custom shader for the glow - search for examples of toon/rim shaders