easy way to program led cubes?

i know depending on the size of the led cube theres different ways to code it.

i just made a 2x2x2 cube. iam only using 6 pins right now. so i cant do things like bottom layer fully on and the top layer only 1 led on. i know there ways of doing it but iam just starting out you know.

this is just part of my code. but kinda shows how iam doing it.

digitalWrite(l1, LOW);
digitalWrite(l2, LOW);
digitalWrite(l3, LOW);
digitalWrite(l4, LOW);

digitalWrite(level_pin_1, HIGH);
digitalWrite(level_pin_2, LOW);

ive seen code for some that are like b00000000b000000b00000b00000b0000 etc etc. i under stand how it works etc.

my real question is this. is there like a easier way to code a led cube like using a visual program?
or do i just get some pain killers, a pot of coffee, and 5 packs of smokes lol.