[Suicide Junkie]

Hard to describe properly, I suppose.

Take the picture I've attached, and imagine each arc as a mostly-transparent 3D dome. Place them all facing the impact point, and you should get a nice glow that fades out gradually.

Since the enemy ships are so far away, its hard to tell the difference between a shield-effect dome and a spherical bLast.
Would it be difficult to make an irregular, directed bLast?

EDIT:
I don't know if there is anything similar you can do with the program you're using, but in 3DStudio, I made a texture that only reflected non-diffuse light, and was transparent otherwise.
A sphere of that stuff around a ship, plus some spotlights made for some really quick and easy shield effects.

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 01 October 2001).]