Perhaps someone can help me figure this out:

I started this (http://www.photosector.com/Sections+index-req-viewarticle-artid-15-page-1.html) tutorial, which in turn references this...

I think it looks really good. Did you do this in maya exclusively? I don't know if I'd have considered maya for this type of animation, but it turned out very nice. Good job.

Revolve is set to the Y axis, and you've created your curve in the 'top' view insead of 'front'. Change to the Modeling toolset. Go to Surfaces-->Revolve, but click the tool options box. Then change...

I'm no expert, and this is just using basic shapes, but how about the lightning effect? I'll attempt to attach an image. The glow could probably be turned down a bit on this.