I think it is more important that the aspect of Instant Runes "appear from nowhere" is shown, than that they "appear quickly". A glowy rune field (or whatever) in a place or context or something that makes it clear they aren't normally there.
edited 26th Jan '12 9:24:12 PM by rodneyAnonymous
Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.
The ones in the first post show that...
Other ideas on those lines (I was going to take some screens of my World Of Warcraft druid's effervescence spell but they dont look like runes all that much.)
On a ceiling
Mid air instant Rune shield
Floating mid air
edited 27th Jan '12 3:39:03 AM by Raso
Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!Its a magic grappling hook when it creates those runes it means it stuck.
Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!We need to decide if the last panel of that Nanoha example is going to be used for this or Full-Contact Magic. I kinda like the ceiling pic.
EDIT: Also, there's the last two panels of this
.
edited 27th Jan '12 12:58:22 PM by Willbyr
I like the "mid air instant rune shield
◊". The GC art is totally awesome but to me those frames don't feel right for Instant Runes.
edited 15th Feb '12 7:49:09 PM by rodneyAnonymous
Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.Goodness, there's a lot of suggestions. My favourites are probably panels 1
◊ and 3
◊ from the OP (clearly rapid and the illuminating effect by the runes is good), the GC example
(the best for being instant 'cause of the sound effect and context, but low on the runes), and the mid-air rune shield
◊ (fast and big, but I don't like the art as much).
Crowner's here
Plussed the Rune Shield image a bit, colors were muddy.
I like the fact that being midair communicates that they're "instant" in a single frame.
edited 19th Mar '12 5:07:53 PM by rodneyAnonymous
Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.![]()
If ya want to mess with the quality some here is a 720p PNG screen. [1]
◊
Crown Description:
Nominations for replacement images:

The current image is just an image of some Glowing Runes not the fact that they are instant.
Something like this would work a lot better at showing the trope itself.
edited 26th Jan '12 8:57:20 PM by Raso
Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!