Aether Pillars: 20 Animated Energy Beam Shaders

LarkLab in Sci Fi

Overview

What's in AetherPillars.blend

Data-block Name What it is
Node groups AP | 01 Healing Beacon … AP | 20 Corrupted Data Core The 20 effects. Each one outputs a Column Shader and a Base Shader.
Helper groups AP | Cylinder Coords, AP | Cell Grid … 7 shared building blocks used inside the effects (coordinates, bands, cells, motes, arcs, segments, emission).
Materials MAT_AP_01_Healing_Beacon_Column / _Base 40 ready materials with Time driven by the frame, set up for both EEVEE and Cycles.
Scene AP Showcase All 20 pillars on a 5 × 4 board with a board camera, a solo camera and the AP_Bloom compositor.
Script aether_pillars_pack.py Optional generator that rebuilds the whole pack. Useful if you want to remix effects in code.
Step by step

Quick start

1 Try it first. Open AetherPillars.blend and press play. Switch the viewport to Rendered to see all 20 effects animate.
2 Bring an effect into your project. The fastest way is File ▸ Append ▸ Object ▸ AP_09_Column + AP_09_Base: the pillar arrives with its mesh and materials.
3 Or use only the materials. File ▸ Append ▸ Material ▸ MAT_AP_09_Inferno_Pillar_Column and _Base, and assign them to your own tube and disc (see Your own meshes).
4 Add the glow. In the Compositor, pick AP_Bloom as the scene's compositing node group, or add a Glare node set to Bloom (threshold about 0.85).
Mesh setup

Using your own meshes

The shaders read object coordinates, so UVs don't matter and there is never a seam. They expect this layout in edit mode:

Mesh Shape Notes
Column Open cylinder, no caps. Radius 1, base at the origin, Z up, 4 units tall. Another height? Set Column Height to match. Use smooth shading.
Base Flat disc at the origin, radius 1.8. Ring Radius 1.0 lines up with the tube wall. The pattern fades out before r = 1.8.
Tip: scale and rotate the object, not the mesh. A tall thin beam is just the same pillar with object scale (0.5, 0.5, 3).
Reference

Shared inputs (on every pillar)

Panel Input What it does
Animation Time Seconds. Driven by frame / 24 in the included materials.
Speed Global animation speed multiplier.
Mapping Column Height Height of your tube mesh in edit mode (default 4).
Seed New random layout of fragments, motes and glitches.
Color Light Scene Cycles only. 0 = clean glow seen by the camera and in reflections (matches EEVEE). 1 = the beam also lights nearby surfaces (more realistic, slightly noisier).
Color Color A / Color B Primary and secondary colors. Each pattern blends between them.
Core Color · Core Boost The brightest areas burn toward Core Color. Core Boost controls how much.
Emission Strength Overall brightness.
Column Shape Pattern Gain Brightness of the effect's pattern.
Edge Glow Glow along the silhouette of the tube for a volumetric look.
Bottom Glow Hot band where the beam meets the ground.
Height Fade · Top Rim How fast the beam fades toward the top, and an optional bright line at the top edge.
Base Ring Ring Radius · Ring Width The main ground ring (1.0 = tube wall).
Halo Size · Halo Glow · Inner Gain Soft glow around the ring, and the brightness of the seal pattern inside it.

Outputs: Column Shader, Base Shader, plus Column Color / Intensity and Base Color / Intensity for driving particles, lights or your own shaders.

Per effect

Effect-specific controls

Each group has one extra panel named after the effect. These are its inputs:

Effect Controls
01 Healing Beacon Mote Density · Mote Size · Pulse Count · Pulse Speed · Streak Scale
02 Force-Field Barrier Hex Count · Hex Line Width · Scroll Speed · Ripple Rate · Rim Strength
03 Arcane Ward Rune Rings · Glyphs Per Ring · Rotation Speed · Distortion · Pulse Speed
04 Divine Blessing Core Tightness · Ray Scale · Ember Density · Halo Speed · Ray Count
05 Resurrection Cycle Length · Fragment Cells U / V · Flash Strength
06 Containment Prison Bar Count · Bar Width · Lock Speed · Pulse Rate
07 Void Rift Spiral Arms · Twist · Inflow Speed · Glitch Amount · Darkness
08 Lightning Conduit Arc Scale · Arc Width · Flicker Rate · Flash Chance · Spark Density
09 Inferno Pillar Flame Scale · Rise Speed · Turbulence · Ember Density · Flame Height
10 Frost Spire Crystal Scale · Shard Sharpness · Shimmer Speed · Snow Density
11 Toxic Corruption Fluid Scale · Flow Speed · Bubble Density · Bubble Size · Corruption
12 Arcane Overload Cells U / V · Surge Speed · Burst Rate · Chroma
13 Scanner Field Scanline Count · Scan Speed · Grid U / V · Lock Speed
14 Teleportation Gate Cycle Length · Pixel Cells U / V · Spin Max
15 Objective Beacon Shaft Tightness · Ring Segments · Ring Count · Rotation Speed · Particle Density
16 Hazard Warning Zone Blink Rate · Bar Count · Stripe Count · Sweep Speed
17 Hard-Light Fabricator Cycle Length · Grid U / V · Trace Speed · Snap Steps
18 Spirit Ascension Ribbon Count · Ribbon Waviness · Rise Speed · Wisp Softness · Mote Density
19 Time Distortion Field Fragment Cells U / V · Freeze Rhythm · Ring Speed Ratio · Distortion
20 Corrupted Data Core Cells U / V · Glitch Rate · Glitch Amount · Scanline Count
Sequences

Timed effects

Three effects play a sequence that repeats every Cycle Length seconds (default 5). Times below are fractions of the cycle:

Effect Timeline
05 Resurrection 0–0.6 fragments fall · 0.35–0.8 column fills top-down · 0.76 base ring switches on · 0.86 flash · 0.9–1 fade
14 Teleportation Gate 0–0.2 ring spins up · 0.2–0.5 column builds in 4 stages · hold · 0.78–1 pixels break up and fly away
17 Hard-Light Fabricator 0–0.75 wireframe snaps up in Snap Steps rows · hold · 0.9–1 fade

One-shot instead of a loop: delete the driver on the material's Time node and keyframe Time from 0 to your Cycle Length.

Look

Recommended render settings

The same materials work in EEVEE and Cycles. Switch the render engine and the look stays the same.

EEVEE
Material ▸ Settings: Render Method Blended, Backface Culling off, Transparency Overlap on (already set). Render samples 32 is plenty.
Cycles
Light Paths ▸ Max Bounces ▸ Transparent: 64 (already set in the showcase) so overlapping beams never turn black. 128 samples with denoising is plenty. Use Light Scene if you want the beams to light the set.
▸ Object: Visibility ▸ Ray Visibility ▸ Shadow off, so the beam doesn't cast a shadow.
▸ Color management: AgX with the Medium High Contrast look, as in the previews.
▸ Glow: Glare node, type Bloom, threshold about 0.85, strength about 0.45.
▸ Light on the ground: a point light in Color A just above the disc sells the glow. Each showcase pillar has one.
▸ Dark backgrounds show the additive glow best. Void Rift and Toxic Corruption also darken what's behind them (the Darkness / Corruption inputs).
Fixes

Troubleshooting

Problem Fix
Nothing moves Check the Time node still has its driver (purple field). Allow script execution if Blender blocked it.
Pattern is stretched or starts in the wrong place The mesh doesn't match the layout (radius 1, base at origin). Fix it in edit mode, or set Column Height.
Black or opaque tube (EEVEE) Render Method must be Blended. Check the material's Settings panel.
Black patches where beams overlap (Cycles) Raise Render ▸ Light Paths ▸ Max Bounces ▸ Transparent (64 or more).
Noisy floor in Cycles Set Light Scene back to 0, or turn on denoising. A point light under the beam gives a clean ground glow.
Back side of the tube is missing Turn Backface Culling off and Transparency Overlap on.
Too bright / washed out Lower Emission Strength or Core Boost, or raise the Bloom threshold.
Hard edge at the top of the beam Raise Height Fade, or set Top Rim to 0.
$13.90$9.73

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Details
Published 10 days ago
Blender Version 5.0 - 5.2
Render Engine Used Cycles, Eevee
Misc Data Animated
License Royalty Free

LarkLab

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