Pixel Art Black Hole: A pixel art black hole: a dark core with a white-hot rim sits in a tilted accretion disk, pulling streaks and debris into spirals that speed up, heat and vanish at its edge.

Pixel Art Black Hole

A pixel art black hole: a dark core with a white-hot rim sits in a tilted accretion disk, pulling streaks and debris into spirals that speed up, heat and vanish at its edge. Use it for void spells, gravity-well hazards, boss attacks and space backgrounds; it loops seamlessly.

Pixel Art Black Hole is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 3 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 288 canvas at 3x pixels. It is built from 13 particle emitters and 8 glowing strokes. 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, 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.

Pixel Art Black Hole at 8 moments, from 0 s to 2.63 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Black Hole is drawn with 8 glowing strokes, lines with a hot core and a soft glow traced along their shapes, plus 13 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: a vortex, magnets, ribbon trails, paths and post filters (bloom).

Every layer emits continuously and the 3 s loop closes seamlessly, so it can run for as long as you need. To recolour the line, select "Disk outer (far)" and change Core and Glow; Start and End set how much of it is drawn. Pixel size in the Pixel art panel sets how chunky it looks. The colour swatches by the downloads recolour every layer at once.

Layers, in draw order

  1. Far starsparticles / additiveA steady stream of pixels across a box. They are swallowed by a magnet at its centre. Colour: pale violet.
  2. Outer haze, Rim glowparticles / additiveA single long-lived particle that stays for the whole loop.
  3. Infalling streaksparticles / additiveA steady stream of streaks from a ring. They swirl around a vortex and are swallowed by a magnet at its centre. Colour runs from deep violet to white over each life.
  4. Disk outer (far), Lensed arc, Disk outer (near)stroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle.
  5. Disk middle (far), Disk inner (far), Disk inner (near) +1stroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle. It is drawn as dashes.
  6. Disk streaks 1, Disk streaks 2, Disk streaks 3 +1particles / additiveA steady stream of ribbon trails. They travel along a path. Colour runs from deep violet to white over each life.
  7. Debris 1, Debris 2, Debris 3 +1particlesA steady stream of debris. They travel along a path, swell and then shrink away and spin. Colours range between deep violet and violet.
  8. Event horizonspriteA placed shape.
  9. Photon rimstroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle. It wobbles like unstable energy.
  10. Rim glintsparticles / additiveA steady stream of streaks from a ring. They spiral into a vortex. Colour runs from white to pale violet over each life.

DETAILS

Length
3 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 288, pixel art at 3x
Layers
13 emitters and 8 glowing strokes
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
pale violetvioletdeep violetwhite
Sprites
Built-in shapes only
Tags
pixel art, pixel, vfx, black hole, singularity, gravity well, void, shadow, space, vortex, 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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