History Main / SpecialEffectBranding

** Ships from every power look far different from each other, and even their propulsion systems and weapons are different, making the species owning them readily identifiable once they're introduced.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' gives each major player their own radically different ship design and weapon effects, ranging from Egyptian pyramids to Earth naval ships to bioships, though there is an exception: the minor races all use the same (Goa'uld) design of ship, having acquired them second hand. That said, the technology of both humans and aliens in the Pegasus Galaxy of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' looks quite different. Even the gates are of a different design. And despite their obvious usefulness, the Atlantis team does not appear to have brought any Zat guns or staff weapons with them, nor have they sent any Wraith stunners or (with one temporary exception) puddle jumpers back home.

*** In the EU, lightsabers come in a whole rainbow of colors, owing to the crystals that are used to focus the beam. You really don't know what color a lightsaber you made will turn out to be until you first switch it on. (At the time, only the original trilogy of films existed, and there was no reason to assume that just because the ''one'' bad Jedi we met had a red lightsaber and the ''two'' good ones whose sabers we saw had blue and green, it was a universal rule.) When by pure coincidence one of Luke's students activated his lightsaber for the first time and it turned out to be red, others worried what he'd think of the saber matching Vader's, but of course Luke didn't bat an eye.

* ''Film/StarTrek'': Phasers have red and blue emitters for Kill and Stun settings, respectively.

* Used in ''EveOnline''. The Amarr have sleek, symmetrical, shiny golden ships with beam weapons. The Gallente have smooth-shaped, almost organic-looking green ships with {{Attack Drone}}s and blasters. The Caldari have utilitarian, gunmetal grey/blue, angular ships with railguns and missiles. The Minmatar have rust-brown/red heaps'o'junk which fly at unsafe speeds and the larger ships fire car-sized artillery shells. Some of the minor factions also have their own designs. Angel Cartel fly ships that resemble the Shivans mentioned above, the Sansha ships look like they have been designed by a sadomasochist, the rogue drones are basically mechanical insects and the Jove fly Gigeresque biomechanical ships.
* In ''SinsOfASolarEmpire'', the three sides have different ship designs and different weapons. Even weapons that are supposed to be similar between the sides have different effects. Most of the TEC ships are hastily-converted cargo haulers and passenger liners, and it shows. The ''Kol''-class battleships are the only ones that were designed specifically for war, but their appearance is decidedly utilitarian. They primarily use pulsed lasers and kinetic weapons. The ''Kol'' is equipped with powerful red laser beams. The [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Advent]] are [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot psychic cyborg humans]] whose ships feature sleek, gleaming designs. Their staple weapons are bright blue beams that look nothing like the TEC lasers. The Vasari, being nonhuman, feature vastly different designs, although not different enough not to be recognizable. They're still sleek, but ''alien'' sleek. Their weapons are mostly of the green plasma variety.

** In modern-era, each race has its own set of special effects: red phasers and blue transporters for Star Fleet, red transporters and green phasers for Klingons, and so forth. ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' made a special point of this, as the titular station, though operated by Star Fleet, was of Cardassian origin and used Cardassian effects. (Why the Federation never re-modeled the station to use Federation technology, especially after its combat upgrade, is a bit of FridgeLogic.) In the original series, everyone used more or less the same visual effects, and the Romulans and Klingons even shared a ship design. (This was explained on screen as the result of their collaboration. Off screen, they had broken the original Romulan ship model, and wanted to get as much mileage out of their expensive new Klingon ship model.)
** However, the original series does have one example of this. In "Mirror, Mirror", the transporter chamber on the evil ''Enterprise'' uses a different beaming effect than the one on the good ''Enterprise''.
** Also, while most Aliens have their own ship designs, all the races inside the Federation use the same basic design for their ships. In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' (which takes place before the Federation was founded) all future Federation members (Vulcans, Andorians, humans,...) now have radically different ships, with human ships most closely resembling future Star Fleet design. Also of note is that the colors of lasers used by these three races reflect the respective color of their blood: red for humans, green for Vulcans, blue for Andorians.
** One glaring example may be the Ferengi phaser whips used in their original appearance. While most personal phasers and disruptors resemble pistols or rifles, the Ferengi built phasers in the shape of tubes that fire when uncoiled in the direction of the target.
** One interesting pattern observed by forum members on the sci-fi debating site [[Website/StarDestroyerDotNet StarDestroyer.net]] is that while every power builds its ships differently, they all follow a pattern of a primary hull and two (rarely four, virtually never three) warp nacelles astern and sticking out the sides. A theory developed that it had something to do with the physics of warp travel, however that works. This bit (along with no small amount of other Trek technobabble) has become AscendedFanon with the idea that a more stable warp field has multiple projection sources (the multiple nacelles), and [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]] even had adjustable nacelles to better optimize the ship's warp field for differing conditions.
** ''Sometimes'' this is avoided or modified for species that uses the same technology if Starfleet doesn't share it -- for instance, both Klingon and Romulan ship-mounted disruptors uses green effects.

It's also worth noting that characters in these series almost never ''notice'' this: there are plenty of episodes of the various ''Franchise/StarTrek'' series where characters are ambushed with weapons fire being distinctively e.g. Klingon, yet they won't figure out that it's the Klingons until they can see them themselves.

* In modern-era ''Franchise/StarTrek'', each race has its own set of special effects: red phasers and blue transporters for Star Fleet, red transporters and green phasers for Klingons, and so forth. ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' made a special point of this, as the titular station, though operated by Star Fleet, was of Cardassian origin and used Cardassian effects. (Why the Federation never re-modeled the station to use Federation technology, especially after its combat upgrade, is a bit of FridgeLogic.) In the original series, everyone used more or less the same visual effects, and the Romulans and Klingons even shared a ship design. (This was explained on screen as the result of their collaboration. Off screen, they had broken the original Romulan ship model, and wanted to get as much mileage out of their expensive new Klingon ship model.)

** Also, while most Aliens have their own ship designs, all the races inside the Federation use the same basic design for their ships. In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' (which takes place before the Federation was founded) all future Federation members (Vulcans, Andorians, humans,...) now have radically different ships, with human ships most closely resembling future Star Fleet design.

** That puddle jumper was already found in Milky Way. It was built by Janus after leaving Atlantis.
*** Unless it refers the the puddle jumper taken through the Intergalactic Bridge in ''The Return'' part 1.

* ''SwordOfTheStars'' averts this trope in that all factions have similar effects for their weapons, and weapons effects in fact represent the technology level and type of the weapon - green lasers for example, used by anyone, are stronger than red lasers used by anyone. While each faction's ''ships'' do, however, look drastically different from the other factions' ships, the game does provide varying degrees of [[AllThereInTheManual technological or cultural justification]] for this, including the fact that each faction has a different stardrive from the others around which they base their ships.

* In the ''MassEffect'' series, standard biotics (PsychicPowers) are blue for every species except Protheans, who are green. Prothean holograms are also green instead of the blue or orange that other species use.

* Taken to an extreme in most ''{{Transformers}}'' series, where everybody's weapons are theirs and theirs alone. This is a combination of the MerchandiseDriven idea of making sure everyone uses the weapon they come with and launches the appropriate missiles, and the fact that, as TransformingMecha, their weapons are more or less part of them.
** This doesn't explain why ships tend to have similar variety, though.
*** Actually averted in one of the G1 animated episodes. The Decepticons have captured the Autobots with the exception of Wheeljack. Wheeljack manages to infiltrate their holding cell, discovers his buddies are tied up, depowered, soaking wet (bad thing for robots), and with their carbine-shaped weapons piled sloppily in the corner. He then proceeds to go GunsAkimbo--pointing AT THE AUTOBOTS. "My friend's weapons! Hmm. Okay, Sideswipe's flare gun should dry off your circuits, and Bluestreak's bolts should give you all an instant recharge!" It's amazing the first thing Optimus didn't do was FacePalm: "It's a wonder the Decepticons didn't just kill us outright, but vector sigma, am I the only one that knows that guns are supposed to be for killing?"
*** Additionally, in some continuities, each faction has different colored beams from their energy weapons. The different factions also generally have different coloured eyes (blue for Autobots, red for Decepticons) although their optical sensors presumably all function the same way.

* Ships and weapons in the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' follow this. For example, Teladi love ballistic weapons and have yellow, junkyard-esque ships,while [[HumansAreSpecial Terrans]] fire brilliant white electromagnetic plasma bolts from their [[ShinyLookingSpaceShips blindingly white ships]]. Each race has their own set of ships, and as of ''Terran Conflict'', their own unique weapon set, which typically only usable by their own ships and their allies - [[HumansByAnyOtherName Argon]] and [[FishPeople Boron]], [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Paranid]] and [[ProudWarriorRace Split]]. [[ProudMerchantRace Teladi]] buy their stuff from everyone, so they can mount schizophrenic loadouts. [[PlanetTerra Terrans]] are independent, and cannot use any non-Terran weapons in their ships. However, there are generic weapons that can be used by any race, such as plasma throwers or [[WaveMotionGun photon pulse cannons]].

* ''VideoGame/{{X}}'': Every faction that builds ships does it differently.

* In ''Film/StarWars'', Red lightsabers are Evil, Blue and Green are Good. Purple ones are apparently reserved for [[Creator/SamuelLJackson bad motherfuckers]].
** Averted in at least one ExpandedUniverse story, in which Leia's lightsaber is red. Corran Horn also manages to create a lightsaber that can do two different colours depending whether it's set to its regular length or an AwesomeButImpractical setting that turns it into a {{BFS}}.
* A separate ''Film/StarWars'' example is the colour of blaster and turbolaser weapons. In the original trilogy, this trope was used in the ''space'' battle scenes (where the Empire used green and the Rebels used red, an interesting reverse of the usual lightsabre colour branding) but was not used in ground fights, where all bolts were red. The prequel trilogy on the other hand used it for ground battles as well, the Naboo using green, the Trade Federation using red and the Republic using blue (confusing some ExpandedUniverse fans who were used to the games [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience colouring ion-cannon fire blue]].
** A further example is in the Geonosis battle at the end of ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' with the rockets: good rockets leave white trails of smoke while evil rockets leave black ones.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* In the ''[[VideoGame/FreeSpace Descent: Freespace]]'' series, apart from the fact they all use engines, lasers and subspace drives, It's hard to tell that Terran, Vasudan and Shivan ships are even from the same universe.

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* In the MassEffect series, standard biotics (PsychicPowers) are blue for every species except Protheans, who are green. Prothean holograms are also green instead of the blue or orange that other species use.

* In ''StarWars'', Red lightsabers are Evil, Blue and Green are Good. Purple ones are apparently reserved for [[Creator/SamuelLJackson bad motherfuckers]].

* A separate ''StarWars'' example is the colour of blaster and turbolaser weapons. In the original trilogy, this trope was used in the ''space'' battle scenes (where the Empire used green and the Rebels used red, an interesting reverse of the usual lightsabre colour branding) but was not used in ground fights, where all bolts were red. The prequel trilogy on the other hand used it for ground battles as well, the Naboo using green, the Trade Federation using red and the Republic using blue (confusing some ExpandedUniverse fans who were used to the games [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience colouring ion-cannon fire blue]].
** A further example is in the Geonosis battle at the end of Episode II with the rockets: good rockets leave white trails of smoke while evil rockets leave black ones.

* Zigzagged in DawnOfWar: While most races have unique projectiles (the Tau have blue plasma, the Necrons have green lightning), the Imperial Guard and Sororitas have very similar building animations while the ork Flash Gits use the same projectile as Ogryn Rippers, but then it's possible their snazzguns were Rippers before falling in the hands of the local mekboy.

* Appears in a very specific variation in ''VideoGame/MechWarrior 4'', which features technology from both the Inner Sphere and the invading Clans. Inner Sphere lasers fire red energy beams, but in spite of using identical technology (albeit extended to longer ranges), Clan laser beams are bright green. This makes it very easy to tell what kind of loadout an opponent is using based on what color of laser you see flashing past your cockpit viewscreen. This extends into their [[BeamSpam pulse laser]] technology, where you can also find red Inner Sphere-origin pulse lasers, green Clan-made ones, and Inner Sphere-built experimental blue 'X-pulse' weapons. The advent of the Mektek Mekpaks includes the amber-orange Clan-designed heavy laser to the mix. This breaks down to the primary colors, red and blue, being Inner Sphere technology, while the secondary colors, green and orange, denote Clan technology.

* Appears in a very specific variation in ''VideoGame/MechWarrior 4'', which features technology from both the Inner Sphere and the invading Clans. Inner Sphere lasers fire red energy beams, but in spite of using identical technology (albeit extended to longer ranges), Clan laser beams are bright green. This makes it very easy to tell what kind of loadout an opponent is using based on what color of laser you see flashing past your cockpit viewscreen. This extends into their [[BeamSpam pulse laser]] technology, where you can also find red Inner Sphere-origin pulse lasers, green Clan-made ones, and Inner Sphere-built experimental blue 'X-pulse' weapons. The advent of the Mektek Mekpaks includes the dark purple Clan-designed heavy laser to the mix. This breaks down to the primary colors, red and blue, being Inner Sphere technology, while the secondary colors, green and purple, denote Clan technology.

* In the ''[[{{Freespace}} Descent: Freespace]]'' series, apart from the fact they all use engines, lasers and subspace drives, It's hard to tell that Terran, Vasudan and Shivan ships are even from the same universe.
** Terran vessels are [[ISOStandardHumanSpaceship boxy, grey and decidedly 'military']] in aspect to reflect their 'utilitarian' attitude. In ''Freespace 2'' they become more streamlined due to tech-sharing and Vasudan influence, although this process [[PunyEarthlings doesn't seem to work in reverse]].

** Terran vessels are [[ISOStandardHumanSpaceship boxy, grey and decidedly 'military']] in aspect to reflect their 'utilitarian' attitude (this is practically a trope in itself). In ''Freespace 2'' they become more streamlined due to tech-sharing and Vasudan influence, although this process [[PunyEarthlings doesn't seem to work in reverse]].

* In ''StarWars'', Red lightsabers are Evil, Blue and Green are Good. Purple ones are apparently reserved for [[Creator/SamuelLJackson badass motherfuckers]].

* In modern-era ''Franchise/StarTrek'', each race has its own set of special effects: red phasers and blue transporters for Star Fleet, red transporters and green phasers for Klingons, and so forth. ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' made a special point of this, as the titular station, though operated by Star Fleet, was of Cardassian origin and used Cardassian effects. (Why the Federation never re-modeled the station to use Federation technology, especially after its combat upgrade, is a bit of FridgeLogic.) In the original series, everyone used more or less the same visual effects, and the Romulans and Klingons even shared a ship design. (This was explained on screen as the result of their collaboration. Off screen, they had broken the original Romulan ship model.)

** Also, while most Aliens have their own ship designs, all the races inside the Federation use the same basic design for their ships. In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' (which takes place before the Federation was founded) all future Federation members (Vulcans, Andorians, humans,...) now have radically different ships, with human ships most closly resembling future Star Fleet design.

* In ''StarWars'', Red lightsabers are Evil, Blue and Green are Good. Purple ones are apparently reserved for [[SamuelLJackson badass motherfuckers]].

** Also, while most Aliens have their own ship designs, all the races inside the Federation use the same basic design for their ships. In Enterprise (which takes place before the Federation was founded) all future Federation members (Vulcans, Andorians, humans,...) now have radically different ships, with human ships most closly resembling future Star Fleet design.

** One interesting pattern observed by forum members on the sci-fi debating site [[Website/StarDestroyerDotNet StarDestroyer.net]] is that while every power builds its ships differently, they all follow a pattern of a primary hull and two (rarely four, virtually never three) warp nacelles astern and sticking out the sides. A theory developed that it had something to do with the physics of warp travel, however that works. This bit (along with no small amount of other Trek technobabble) has become AscendedFanon with the idea that a more stable warp field has multiple projection sources (the multiple nacelles), and Voyager even had adjustable nacelles to better optimize the ship's warp field for differing conditions.

** Rather cool being an understatement.
** Not to mention that the ([[AmbitionIsEvil Slytherin to a man]]) villains tend to use a lot of green Avada Kedavra spells, while the (almost entirely Gryffindor) heroes stick to red Expelliarmus and Stupefy spells.

** One interesting pattern observed by forum members on the sci-fi debating site [[Website/StarDestroyerDotNet StarDestroyer.net]] is that while every power builds its ships differently, they all follow a pattern of a primary hull and two (rarely four, virtually never three) warp nacelles astern and sticking out the sides. A theory developed that it had something to do with the physics of warp travel, however that works.

** Terran vessels are boxy, grey and decidedly 'military' in aspect to reflect their 'utilitarian' attitude (this is practically a trope in itself). In ''Freespace 2'' they become more streamlined due to tech-sharing and Vasudan influence, although this process [[PunyEarthlings doesn't seem to work in reverse]].

* ChampionsOnline uses this trope where it can - the ships of the alien enemy Qulaar are insectile and highly organic, while the ships of the froglike Gadroon are sleek, shiny, have no visible engine or thruster, and apparantly BiggerOnTheInside - a cruiser large enough for a full terraforming force with dozens of Gadroon is barely half again larger than an F-22. On the other hand, player characters have a huge variety of armor, weapon, and even jetpack styles to choose from, and many will mix and match.