For my project I found an addon which claimed to do fast particle rendering and an addon to do post processing effects. I thought I might be able to make something look good with particles so I grabbed them. I was pleased with the simplicity ofxVboParticles addon by Atsushi Tadokoro. I was able to get the example to work easily and from there I followed the instructions on the github for ofxPostProcessing (by Neil Mendoza) which were very clear to add bloom and god rays. The god rays and bloom made it look like the viewer was looking into the sun, so I added a bright sphere to the center of the composition. I am pleased with the results, especially considering the fairly small amount of time I put into creating it. I actually spent more time browsing through the addons than writing this code.

https://github.com/kellogg92/IACD_Proj21