Pixel Art EMP Blast: Pixel art EMP blast: a device hums and charges, fires with a white flash and an electric ring that races across the floor with leaping arcs and falling sparks, then the ground flickers with static.

Pixel Art EMP Blast

Pixel art EMP blast: a device hums and charges, fires with a white flash and an electric ring that races across the floor with leaping arcs and falling sparks, then the ground flickers with static. Use it for EMP grenades, shock mines, stun abilities and tech ultimates in shooters, tower defence and cyberpunk RPGs.

Pixel Art EMP Blast is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 3.2 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 372 canvas at 3x pixels. It is built from 14 particle emitters, 25 lightning bolts and 16 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, 96 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 3.2, 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 3.2 s loop.

Pixel Art EMP Blast at 8 moments, from 0 s to 2.8 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art EMP Blast is drawn with 16 glowing strokes, lines with a hot core and a soft glow traced along their shapes, plus 14 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: procedural lightning, magnets, paths, collisions and post filters (bloom and colour grade). 11 scene layers (ground and props) show in the studio for context and stay out of every export.

It loops seamlessly every 3.2 s, and 6 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 1.32 s, so the layers arrive one after another. The bolts strike on their own timers, every 0.11 to 3.2 s. To recolour the line, select "Charge ring 1 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. Floor lightsprite / additiveA placed glow.
  2. Charge ring 1 far, Charge ring 2 far, Charge ring 3 far +3stroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle. It is drawn as dashes.
  3. EMP inner ring far, EMP ring wake far, EMP ring far +4stroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle.
  4. EMP echo ring far, EMP echo ring nearstroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle. It is drawn as dashes. It wobbles like unstable energy.
  5. Ring arc, Ring arc, Ring arc +4lightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking sideways every 3.2 s. It forks into branches.
  6. Crawling arc, Crawling arc, Crawling arc +2lightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking sideways every 3.2 s.
  7. Crawling arclightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking downward every 3.2 s.
  8. Crawling arc, Crawling arclightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking upward every 3.2 s.
  9. Sparks backparticles / additiveOne burst of 22 streaks at 0.74 s. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to blue over each life.
  10. Charge glints far, Charge glints nearparticles / additiveA stream of sparks along a path, its rate keyframed over the loop. They swell and then shrink away. Colours range between white and pale cyan.

26 more layers are in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
3.2 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 372, pixel art at 3x
Layers
14 emitters, 25 lightning bolts and 16 glowing strokes
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
pale cyanwhitecyanblue
Sprites
Built-in shapes only
Tags
pixel art, pixel, vfx, emp, emp blast, electric, shockwave, grenade, sci-fi, tech, static, stun

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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