Continued Game VFX learing

I have finished learning the basics of the Cascade interface through Eat3D's cascade tutorials. I learned a lot about using different nodes and node blending to make one texture do a variety of things in a single effect.

Now I am moving on to "Final Project" mode to create something to display for my time in APCG 445 this semester. For that I shall be following along and creating my own little iterations on 3dmotive's Advanced VFX and Cinematics in UDK. In this large three part series I will be using the mesh and texture assets provided by 3dmotive (since my focus is not modeling and texturing, but the effects and their pipeline themselves) to create my own version of the teleporter effect/cinematic.

Image of 3dmotive's tutorial on VFX and Cinematics that I will be following