In my image a shuriken is going to be slightly 'matrified'. It's the effect when an object turns into a bunch of matrix-numbers. I'm testing it out on a bullet first. I'm still fiddling with the trail the bullet (and eventually the shuriken) leave behind. Wich effect looks best? I like the left one and the middle one best. Maybe I'll combine them. What do you think?

The image...

I like the one on the right the best

Me too, and the transition on the bullet itself is very cool :-)

Left and middle combined. Awesome effect! AS

far left, circles, great, How?

Actually..... I like them all 3.... Very cool effect from each.

Hm... prefer the rigthmost one. Cool effect!

The bullet: I made a bullet with a full black 50% blend transparent object with refraction set to 100. Then I made a second slightly larger bullet with the number-texture 100% ambient and additive. Then I made a third bullet with gold texture and a gradient n the transparency channel. The trail: left: I made 2 2D-planes one with a 0 and one with a 1 on it. The textures where 100% ambient and additive. Then I replicated the planes to create a straight trail. I used different amounts of replication to let the number-density fade as the trail is further away from the bullet. Then I used 3d-disperse/rotate to mess the trail up. 1200 planes in total. Middle: A few stretched 2D-planes rotated differently along the length of the trail. The 2D-planes have the same number-texture as the bullet, but with a simple gradient for the transparency. 12 planes in total. right:Same as the left, but with a constant (higher) number-density and only ones, no zero's. The trail of this effect has 2700 numbers.

My feeble little cpu cringes in fear at the mention of 2700 planes.

I remember the original effect 'they called it 'bullet-time' was a semi-transparent spiral, reflecting the revolutions over time by the bullet. The middle one looks closest to me..the one on the left reminds me of blood cells for some crazy reason.

The left one! It's so cool!

i believe "bullet time" was where the scene froze and the camera swung around. in The Matrix, it look like they used highly transparent and reflective blue/purple spheres getting slightly larger as it got further away from the bullet. maybe AS know some good matrix screenshot sites

I've got a lot of reference, including the movie itself, but I was going for another effect as seen in the episode of the animatrix called 'program'. There objects or people can fall apart into numbers wich finally go up in smoke. I'm making a slightly differnt but still similar effect. It's a bit of artistic freedom :)