Cartoon Explosion: A cartoon explosion for platformers and brawlers: a jagged comic burst snaps open, cel-shaded fire lobes blow out and cool to plum smoke, a smoke ring and bead shockwave roll out and stars pop.

Cartoon Explosion

A cartoon explosion for platformers and brawlers: a jagged comic burst snaps open, cel-shaded fire lobes blow out and cool to plum smoke, a smoke ring and bead shockwave roll out and stars pop.

Cartoon Explosion is an HD effect that loops seamlessly every 1.3 seconds, drawn on a 320 by 320 canvas. It is built from 18 particle emitters.

Colour

Recolours the preview and the free downloads.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 39 frames at 30 fps. Use it in commercial games, no credit needed.

Licence: use it in any project, including paid commercial games such as a game sold on Steam. There is no per-project licence to buy and no credit needed. Terms.

Roblox: the download is a flipbook for a ParticleEmitter. Set FlipbookLayout to Grid8x8, FlipbookMode to OneShot and Lifetime to 1.3, then emit one particle per cycle. Roblox setup.

REMIX WITH AI

Try:

Left empty, it just opens in the agent, free. Each change is one AI build, and you start with free builds.

Engine data for Unity, Godot, GameMaker and Aseprite comes with a plan: open it in the studio.

OPEN IN THE STUDIO

Change the colours, timing or size, or export for Unity, Godot 4, GameMaker, Phaser, PixiJS and Aseprite.

Try variations: new colours, motion and shapes of this effect, free in the studio.

FRAME BY FRAME

8 evenly spaced moments across the 1.3 s loop.

Cartoon Explosion at 8 moments, from 0 s to 1.14 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Cartoon Explosion stacks 17 particle emitters, each with its own job. Techniques worth a look: sub-emitters set off by other particles, particles stretched along their motion and post filters (outline).

It loops seamlessly every 1.3 s, and 10 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 0.06 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To change its colour, select "Burst Star" in the studio and edit the Colour over Life gradient. Size on the same layer sets how big its particles are. The colour swatches by the downloads recolour every layer at once.

Layers, in draw order

  1. Burst StarparticlesA single particle at the start. It swells and then shrinks away. It spins. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  2. Burst Star CoreparticlesA single particle at the start. It swells and then shrinks away. It spins. Colour runs from white to pale gold over each life.
  3. Bead RingparticlesOne burst of 44 dots from a ring at the start. They shrink as they age and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  4. Smoke DonutparticlesOne burst of 18 dots from a ring at 0.04 s. They spawn "Smoke Donut Body" as they appear, spawn "Smoke Donut Light" as they appear, swell and then shrink away and slow down with drag. Colour: white.
  5. Smoke Donut Body, Smoke Donut LightparticlesDots set off by "Smoke Donut". They swell and then shrink away and slow down with drag. Colour: white.
  6. FireballparticlesOne burst of 20 dots from a disc at the start. They spawn "Fireball Body" as they appear, spawn "Fireball Light" as they appear, float upward and swell and then shrink away. Colour runs from gold to violet over each life.
  7. Fireball Body, Fireball LightparticlesDots set off by "Fireball". They float upward, swell and then shrink away and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to violet over each life.
  8. Fire CoreparticlesOne burst of 6 dots from a disc at the start. They spawn "Fire Core Body" as they appear, spawn "Fire Core Light" as they appear, float upward and swell and then shrink away. Colour runs from gold to violet over each life.
  9. Fire Core Body, Fire Core LightparticlesDots set off by "Fire Core". They float upward, swell and then shrink away and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to violet over each life.
  10. Flash DiscparticlesA single particle at the start. It swells and then shrinks away. Colour: white.

4 more layers are in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
1.3 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
320 x 320, HD
Layers
18 emitters
Blend
Mostly normal
Colours
whitevioletgoldorange
Sprites
ParticleFX Originals by ParticleFX Studio (CC0)
Tags
cartoon explosion, explosion, cartoon, boom, toon, fireball, blast, comic

USING IT IN YOUR GAME

Phaser, PixiJS
The PNG sheet is a plain grid of frames that both can slice. A TexturePacker JSON atlas comes with a plan, from the studio.
Unity
Import the PNG sheet as a Sprite with Mode set to Multiple and slice it, or open the effect in the studio for a ready-made grid.
Godot 4, GameMaker, Aseprite
Open it in the studio and pick your engine in Export: with a plan, it writes the files that engine imports.
Web and chat
The GIF plays anywhere; the APNG keeps soft edges on any background.

Step by step: Unity, Godot 4, Roblox, GameMaker, Phaser and PixiJS, Aseprite, Web games (live runtime).

More free cartoon and anime effects, and how to make your own: 2D cartoon FX.

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