Pixel Art Force Field Dome: Pixel art force field dome: a teal hex shield shimmers over the character with rising scan rings, and once per loop a plasma bolt hits it so the cells flare in a ripple that runs right round the dome.

Pixel Art Force Field Dome

Pixel art force field dome: a teal hex shield shimmers over the character with rising scan rings, and once per loop a plasma bolt hits it so the cells flare in a ripple that runs right round the dome. Use it as a seamless shield, barrier or bubble ability in shooters, MOBAs and tower defence games.

Pixel Art Force Field Dome is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 3 seconds, drawn on a 480 by 432 canvas at 3x pixels. It is built from 7 particle emitters, 3 lightning bolts and 13 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.

Pixel Art Force Field Dome at 8 moments, from 0 s to 2.63 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Force Field Dome is drawn with 13 glowing strokes, lines with a hot core and a soft glow traced along their shapes, plus 7 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: procedural lightning, an emitter shaped like an image, collisions, particles stretched along their motion and post filters (bloom and colour grade). 3 scene layers (ground and props) show in the studio for context and stay out of every export.

It loops seamlessly every 3 s, and 5 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 1.31 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To recolour the line, select "Dome base inner 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 light, Field volumesprite / additiveA placed glow.
  2. Dome base inner far, Scan ring 1 far, Scan ring 2 far +6stroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle.
  3. Dome base far, Dome base nearstroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle. It is drawn as dashes.
  4. Back cells 2, Back cells 3, Back cells 4 +11sprite / additiveA placed image.
  5. Rim sheenstroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a path. A lit stretch of it travels round the shape.
  6. Field motesparticles / additiveA steady stream of pixels from a disc. They sway from side to side. Colour runs from white to teal over each life.
  7. Lattice glintsparticles / additiveA stream of sparks in the shape of an image, its rate keyframed over the loop. They swell and then shrink away. Colours range between white and pale teal.
  8. Enemy boltstroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a path. Its start and end are keyframed, so it writes itself on and off.
  9. Hit crawl, Hit crawllightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking sideways every 3 s. It forks into branches.
  10. Hit crawllightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking downward every 3 s. It forks into branches.

5 more layers are in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
3 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
480 x 432, pixel art at 3x
Layers
7 emitters, 3 lightning bolts and 13 glowing strokes
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
tealwhitepale tealorange
Sprites
Heroes by SpriteLab micro mode (Free to use)
Tags
pixel art, pixel, vfx, force field, shield, dome, barrier, hex, bubble shield, sci-fi, 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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