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I'm trying to make a light paths like there:

enter image description here

To achieve this light threads (streaks) I used a particles emmiter with shining icospheres and motion blur shutter like Andrew.

I got this result:

enter image description here

First of all I wish to get full path of the light: from rising to falling. And the second I wish to see the half circle path, but not the angle like now.

Maybe I should use another way to achieve the reference?

Blender 2.75, Cycles

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An alternative method would be not to use particles, and do the light streaks with curves. It might a bit more tedious to set up, but will not require as much computing power from your machine as particles do.

Give the curve a slight bevel and, by animating the Bevel Factor start and end values, you can control how the curve is rendered through the screen . You also have control on the resolution, curvature, start and end points, and you can precisely determine the trajectory.

enter image description here

enter image description here

EDIT

To change the width at different parts of the curve you can change the radius of the control points:

enter image description here

Add an emissive material to it and some glow on the compositor and you can easily achieve something like this:

enter image description here

If you give the curve some extrusion and bevel and a wild texture

enter image description here

you can have a lot of fun:

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ In this case it's a great alternative, but actually light streaks don't have a homogeneous thickness, is there a way to control the thickness with this method? $\endgroup$
    – p2or
    Commented Aug 18, 2015 at 10:39
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    $\begingroup$ You can use another curve to provide the Taper object, then narrow the ends or even animate them. I recently achieved this effect by mapping a blend texture to the curve. $\endgroup$
    – 3pointedit
    Commented Aug 18, 2015 at 14:07
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    $\begingroup$ @poor by editing the radius of the curve you can change the thickness on different parts of the curve. See edited answer. $\endgroup$
    – user1853
    Commented Nov 28, 2015 at 20:35
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If it needs a texture that follows the shape, like in this question, you can create a cylinder, give it a Curve modifier, give it a material that is a mix between Emission and Transparent node with a Noise Texture as factor. You can keep the Texture Coordinate Generated output as it will stretch the noise along the cylinder shape. To give your object some real bumps you can give it a Displace modifier, in that case make sure that it has a topology that is dense enough.

enter image description here

enter image description here

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