Pixel Art Lightning Strike

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Lightning Strike gets its crackle from 6 lightning bolts (a new jagged path on every strike), backed by 15 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: glowing strokes traced along shapes, collisions, particles stretched along their motion, keyframed parameters and post filters (bloom). 2 scene layers (ground and props) show in the studio for context and stay out of every export.

It loops seamlessly every 1.4 s, and 12 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 0.14 s, so the layers arrive one after another. The bolts strike on their own timers, every 0.14 to 1.4 s. It carries little colour of its own, so it takes a tint well: select "Sky flash" and set 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. The colour swatches by the downloads recolour every layer at once.

Layers, in draw order

1. Cloud glowparticles / additive2 single particles at set times. Colour: pale violet.
2. Scorch markparticlesA single particle at 0.11 s. It grows as it ages. Colour: black.
3. Scorch glowparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.11 s. It shrinks as it ages. Colour runs from white to deep red over each life.
4. Scorch coreparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.11 s. It shrinks as it ages. Colour runs from white to red over each life.
5. SmokeparticlesA stream of smoke puffs along a line, its rate keyframed over the loop. Extra bursts of 12 every 1.4 s. They float upward, sway from side to side, grow as they age and spin. Colour runs from orange to deep violet over each life.
6. Smoke lightparticles / additiveA stream of smoke puffs along a line, its rate keyframed over the loop. They grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colours range between orange and magenta.
7. Embersparticles / additiveA stream of pixels along a line, its rate keyframed over the loop. They sway from side to side and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to red over each life.
8. Ground staticparticles / additiveA stream of streaks along a line, its rate keyframed over the loop. Colours range between white and pale violet.
9. Stepped leader, Fork, Main boltlightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking downward every 1.4 s. It forks into branches.
10. Ground arc L, Ground arc Rlightning / additiveA lightning bolt striking sideways every 1.4 s. It forks into branches.

9 more layers are in the studio.