kewl effect. I'm curious about render times on this technique? I use a different technique entirely which is not render intensive at all (about 15 seconds per frame for the lazer alone at dvd size image (720 x 480)). Ive been working on this exact effect recently in response to a question I got in an email...specifically animating a lazer and the resulting explosion. This is just the lazer and its effect, I plan to make the wall smoke and then get the explosion with particles and fire later anyhow, Im using metaballs at the center which have a white material with white ambiance and then white spheres over this which have the same material with the difference being that they are set to "fuzzy" in the material lab and are bigger (to give the outer glow). :) BT