How to create a UFO pickup light (ray)? So I'm creating a UFO, but I want to create that eerie transparent light when they're abducting someone. This is the best that I've come up with, but the light doesn't exactly go through all the way down when it's rendered. 
Does anyone know a better way to create this?
Another way to create  a volumetric light beam (without the need of volume container) is to connect the output of an emission shader to the volume input of the material.



Multiply node controls the strenght of the beam, gradient texture creates light falloff, mapping node for sizing and placing the effect.