Pixel Art Boomerang: Pixel art boomerang: a spinning boomerang flies out on a wide loop with afterimages and whoosh lines, clips the target on the way with a flash and sparks, and curls back to the thrower's hand.

Pixel Art Boomerang

Pixel art boomerang: a spinning boomerang flies out on a wide loop with afterimages and whoosh lines, clips the target on the way with a flash and sparks, and curls back to the thrower's hand. Use it for boomerangs, chakrams and returning throws in adventure games and platformers; it plays once, then loops.

Pixel Art Boomerang is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 1.6 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 384 canvas at 3x pixels. It is built from 8 particle emitters and 1 glowing stroke. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 48 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 1.6, 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 1.6 s loop.

Pixel Art Boomerang at 8 moments, from 0 s to 1.4 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Boomerang is pixel art, drawn at 3x pixels so it sits on the same grid as your sprites, and built from 8 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: glowing strokes traced along shapes, sub-emitters set off by other particles, paths, collisions and post filters (bloom). 4 scene layers (ground and props) show in the studio for context and stay out of every export.

It loops seamlessly every 1.6 s, and 6 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 1.36 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To change its colour, select "Flash glow" in the studio and edit Colour A and Colour B. Size on the same layer sets how big its particles are. Pixel size in the Pixel art panel sets how chunky it looks.

Layers, in draw order

  1. AfterimagesparticlesRings set off by "Boomerang". Colours range between pale orange and orange.
  2. Whoosh linesparticles / additiveStreaks set off by "Boomerang". Colours range between white and pale blue.
  3. Boomerangparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.16 s. It travels along a path. It spins. Colour: white.
  4. Hit ringstroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle.
  5. Hit sparksparticles / additiveOne burst of 14 streaks at 0.86 s. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  6. Straw bitsparticlesOne burst of 8 pixels at 0.86 s. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something and spin. Colour: gold.
  7. Flash glowparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.86 s. It grows as it ages. Colour: orange.
  8. Flashparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.86 s. Colour: white.
  9. Catch glintparticles / additiveA single particle at 1.36 s. It shrinks as it ages. Colour: white.

DETAILS

Length
1.6 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, pixel art at 3x
Layers
8 emitters and 1 glowing stroke
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
whiteorangegoldpale orange
Sprites
Heroes by SpriteLab micro mode (Free to use)
Tags
pixel art, boomerang, throw, projectile, returning, thrown weapon, adventure

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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