LED Effects Recommendations

Might you have an opinion which LED strip chip set is the best for complex effects with an Arduino? The type of effects I'd like to achieve I haven't seen in any demo yet, as having a comet effect travel to LED 125, of a strip of 320, and stop there and begin shimmering out in both directions.

Probably a steep learning curve for a newbie like me but it would be good to know what is possible before I dive in with possibly a strip that can't be completely controlled
for most any effect. The LPD8806 seems promising if I knew it was capable of the type of effect above.

Many thanks!

Carl