Character On Fire: Burning effect for a 2D character sprite: flames lick up from its own outline and pixels, it glows hot from the edges in and shimmers in the heat, trembling under embers and black smoke.

Character On Fire

Burning effect for a 2D character sprite: flames lick up from its own outline and pixels, it glows hot from the edges in and shimmers in the heat, trembling under embers and black smoke. Loops. Swap in your own sprite. Sprite made with SpriteLab.

Character On Fire is an HD effect that loops seamlessly every 2 seconds, drawn on a 320 by 320 canvas. It is built from 4 particle emitters. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds.

Colour

Recolours the preview and the free downloads.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 60 frames at 30 fps. Use it in commercial games, no credit needed.

Roblox: the download is a flipbook for a ParticleEmitter. Set FlipbookLayout to Grid8x8, FlipbookMode to OneShot and Lifetime to 2, 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 STUDIOUSE MY SPRITE

Drop in your own character with Use my sprite: it takes the hero's place at the same height and the whole effect follows it. Change the colours, timing or size, or export for Unity, Godot 4, GameMaker, Phaser, PixiJS and Aseprite.

FRAME BY FRAME

8 evenly spaced moments across the 2 s loop.

Character On Fire at 8 moments, from 0 s to 1.75 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Character On Fire plays on a character sprite, with 4 particle emitters around it. The hero itself gets colour flash, glow, wave distortion and shake. Techniques worth a look: sprite modules, an emitter shaped like an image, turbulence, particles stretched along their motion and post filters (bloom).

Every layer emits continuously and the 2 s loop closes seamlessly, so it can run for as long as you need. To change its colour, select "Back Flames" in the studio and edit the Colour over Life gradient. Size on the same layer sets how big its particles are. To see it on your own character, press Use my sprite in the studio: every layer follows the new sprite. The colour swatches by the downloads recolour every layer at once.

Layers, in draw order

  1. SmokeparticlesA steady stream of smoke puffs across a box. They wander on turbulence and grow as they age. Colours range between deep red and black.
  2. Back Flamesparticles / additiveA steady stream of soft glows in the shape of an image. They float upward, sway from side to side and shrink as they age. Colour runs from pale gold to red over each life.
  3. HerospriteThe character sprite. Extras: colour flash, glow, wave distortion and shake.
  4. Licking Flamesparticles / additiveA steady stream of soft glows in the shape of an image. They float upward and shrink as they age. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  5. Embersparticles / additiveA steady stream of streaks across a box. They float upward and wander on turbulence. Colours range between gold and orange.

DETAILS

Length
2 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
320 x 320, HD
Layers
4 emitters
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
orangepale goldgolddeep red
Sprites
Kenney Smoke Particles by Kenney (CC0), Heroes by SpriteLab micro mode (Free to use)
Tags
burning, on fire, burn, fire, debuff, damage over time, dot, status, flames, skeleton, sprite, character

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.
Blend mode
This effect is made of light. For the same glow in your game, draw the sprite with additive blending, or export it on black from the studio for additive shaders.

Step by step: Unity, Godot 4, Roblox, GameMaker, Phaser and PixiJS, Aseprite, Web games (live runtime). Drawn with additive blending: see glow effects without a black box.

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