Dear fabulous nerds of my heart,

Can you point me at any references of amazing visual effects for magic in any video games or movies?

In particular, I'm interested to know if any visualised magic exists that is based on 'waveforms', like audio/sound.

Yours truly,
chroma

I know it's not what you're looking for, but I liked the FX in The Sorceror's Apprentice.  That was mostly electrical I think.

Also in X-Men First Class, Banshee is a sound-based mutant.  The FX for his powers looked good.

"Tuning" from 'Dark City' was one of the earliest examples of a good transparent wave technique.

I thought it was Q'ning.  But yeah, great movie and great effects.  Fits psionics a bit more than magic, though.

I really enjoyed the effects in Doctor Strange. At least one of them involved sort of "striking" the magical effect and having it ripple outward. The effects they made tended to be rigid planes or taut wires, but it's not hard to imagine vibrating membranes or rods.

I thought the sound-based martial arts in Kung Fu Hustle were good.

For audio-inspired FX? Scott Pilgrim vs. The World comes to mind.

The later Saints Row games also have some music-inspired effects.

Good choice! I especially liked the scene with The Katayanagi Twins.

Aw - How could I have forgotten that one!?!  Yeah - I third the Scott Pilgrim nomination.