25000st is starting a FlameWar!!

[vidboi]

okay. a more in depth guide of how i would make this effect using GIMP (which there is no excuse for not having) you will also have to know how to make an animated gif using GIMP

1. take a screenshot of your ship at default zoom with a completely black background

2. open this screenshot in GIMP and use the "fuzzy select" tool to select the background only. copy the background area to the clipboard. this will be a "stencil" of the shape of your ship

3. now make an animation of a shield line that will move across the ship in another GIMP file that is the same size as the screenshot file

4. paste the background "stencil" over each of the frames of the animation

5. you now have one animated doodad that will move over the shape of your ship :

EDIT: sorry for getting a bit off topic

[25000st]

Ok, just had to point this out.
I prefer not using a stencil because it can look choppy on the sides. I also needed to scale the screenshot larger so it would cover my whole ship (I mean if it's not larger, it doesn't exactly 'shield' your ship and that's what the deflector shield is there for). As for the shield line, you can make it go across your whole screenshot as long as you set it on dodge or overlay so that eliminates the need for a stencil.

[Altahir]

one word..

WoW!
very interesting... I LOVE that effect!