Mana Drain: A mana drain: mana is pulled out of the enemy in a vortex and flows to the caster in a braided stream over a pale beam, gathering in the hand as an orb that is absorbed.

Mana Drain

A mana drain: mana is pulled out of the enemy in a vortex and flows to the caster in a braided stream over a pale beam, gathering in the hand as an orb that is absorbed. Plays once per loop.

Mana Drain is an HD effect that loops seamlessly every 2.2 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 384 canvas. It is built from 11 particle emitters and 1 laser beam. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds. Some particles draw ribbon trails.

Colour

Recolours the preview and the free downloads.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 66 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 2.2, 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 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 2.2 s loop.

Mana Drain at 8 moments, from 0 s to 1.93 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Mana Drain centres on 1 laser beam drawn as glowing strips, with 11 particle emitters around them. Techniques worth a look: a vortex, magnets, ribbon trails, sub-emitters set off by other particles and post filters (bloom and vignette).

It loops seamlessly every 2.2 s, and 7 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 1.6 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To change its colour, select "Enemy Glow" in the studio and edit Colour A and Colour B. 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. Enemy Glowparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.08 s. Colour: blue.
  2. Mana Vortexparticles / additiveA stream of streaks from a ring, its rate keyframed over the loop. They spiral into a vortex, are swallowed by a magnet at its centre and slow down with drag. Colours range between pale blue and pale violet.
  3. Drain Beamlaser / additiveA laser beam firing sideways. It pulses 3 times a second.
  4. Mana Stream A, Mana Stream Bparticles / additiveA stream of ribbon trails, its rate keyframed over the loop. They set off "Hand Pops" when they die and travel along a path. Colour runs from blue to pale blue over each life.
  5. Hand Popsparticles / additiveSoft glows set off by "Mana Stream A" and "Mana Stream B". Colours range between pale blue and white.
  6. Hand Glowparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.12 s. It grows as it ages. Colour: blue.
  7. Hand Orbparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.12 s. It grows as it ages. Colour: white.
  8. Hand Flareparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.12 s. It grows as it ages. It spins. Colour: pale blue.
  9. Absorb Flashparticles / additiveA single particle at 1.6 s. It grows as it ages. Colour: pale blue.
  10. Absorb Ringparticles / additiveA single particle at 1.6 s. It grows as it ages. Colour runs from white to pale blue over each life.

One more layer is in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
2.2 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, HD
Layers
11 emitters and 1 laser
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
pale bluewhitebluepale violet
Sprites
Kenney Particle Pack by Kenney (CC0)
Tags
mana drain, drain, siphon, mana, channel, blue, spell

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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