Star Trek Style FX
 

I have just started playing around with the Discovery Edition of Lightwave 7.5, and I am interested in creating a Star Trek style space battle. The only problem is, I don't have a clue how to go about creating the phaser and shield effects.
What is the best way to create them? Is using simple primitives the best way to go, or are particles a better (or easier) way?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

For the phasers, try using lights with the "lens flare" option selected and use the "star filter option". :)

For the shield type effects, I'd make a copy of your mesh, scaled up slightly (use smooth shift or smooth scale on all the polys). Then, apply a fractal colour map to this to get the actual shield colour. You can then make this 100% transparent to hide it (make sure it's parented to the ship in layout).

You can then apply the transparency via a gradient using a reference null to determine where the shield will show.

I've attached a (very) quick and dirty example to show what I mean (divx5.1)

... and here's the scene for you to dissect...

Thanks. I'll take a look at it.