For many of the textures we wanted to add something a little extra, to help sell the idea that this was a world infused with magic.
The metal textures in particular felt a little flat and boring. We wanted to create the appearance of energy flowing through the machines and consoles.
Stacking simple panners on top of one another can often have a cumulative effect, adding the illusion of complexity to something which is otherwise quite simple.
The crystals presented a different challenge.
I didn't want the crystals and gems to feel flat and opaque but at the same time I didn't want to deal with the performance cost and complications of having lots of translucency layers in a scene.
The depth offset node is a great way to add that sense of an inner world your materials without having to rely on translucency.
Stacking layers at different depths can really help sell the illusion.
Finally you can combine effects like this together.
In the material to the left I've used multiple depth offset layers to mask out alternating panning rainbow patterns.
Again stacking simple functions and nodes on top of each other to create complexity.