Mana Shield: An arcane mana shield round a caster: a violet sphere with a bright rim, flickering hex cells and a turning sigil inside while sparks of light circle it on two tilted orbits.

Mana Shield

An arcane mana shield round a caster: a violet sphere with a bright rim, flickering hex cells and a turning sigil inside while sparks of light circle it on two tilted orbits. Loops seamlessly.

Mana Shield is an HD effect that loops seamlessly every 3 seconds, drawn on a 320 by 320 canvas. It is built from 16 particle emitters and 2 glowing strokes. 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, 90 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 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 3 s loop.

Mana Shield at 8 moments, from 0 s to 2.63 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Mana Shield stacks 16 particle emitters, each with its own job. Techniques worth a look: glowing strokes traced along shapes, sub-emitters set off by other particles, paths and post filters (bloom and vignette).

It loops seamlessly every 3 s, and one layer fires in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. To change its colour, select "Fresnel" 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. Floor Glow, Shield Fill, Fresnel +2particles / additiveA single long-lived particle that stays for the whole loop.
  2. Breath Pulseparticles / additiveA single particle every 1.5 s. Colour: pale violet.
  3. Hex Cellsparticles / additiveA steady stream of magic glyphs from a disc. Colour: pale violet.
  4. Orbit Line 1, Orbit Line 2stroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a path.
  5. Arcane Sigilparticles / additiveA single long-lived particle that stays for the whole loop. It spins.
  6. Orbit Spark 11, Orbit Spark 12, Orbit Spark 13 +3particles / additiveA single long-lived particle that stays for the whole loop. It travels along a path.
  7. Rune Trailsparticles / additiveSoft glows set off by "Orbit Spark 11", "Orbit Spark 12" and "Orbit Spark 13". They shrink as they age. Colours range between blue and pale violet.
  8. Arcane Motesparticles / additiveA steady stream of soft glows from a disc. They sway from side to side. Colours range between white and pale violet.

DETAILS

Length
3 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
320 x 320, HD
Layers
16 emitters and 2 glowing strokes
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
whitebluepale violetviolet
Sprites
ParticleFX Originals by ParticleFX Studio (CC0), Kenney Particle Pack by Kenney (CC0), ParticleFX Status by ParticleFX Studio (CC0)
Tags
mana shield, shield, arcane, barrier, sigil, buff, loop

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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