Pixel Art Shield Break: Pixel art shield break: an energy bubble around the character takes a hit, cracks race across it and it bursts into spinning glass wedges with a ring, a cold flash and chips that bounce on the floor.

Pixel Art Shield Break

Pixel art shield break: an energy bubble around the character takes a hit, cracks race across it and it bursts into spinning glass wedges with a ring, a cold flash and chips that bounce on the floor. Use it for guard breaks, broken barriers and shield depletion in action games; it plays once, then loops.

Pixel Art Shield Break 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 9 particle emitters and 2 glowing strokes. 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 Shield Break at 8 moments, from 0 s to 1.4 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Shield Break is pixel art, drawn at 3x pixels so it sits on the same grid as your sprites, and built from 9 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: glowing strokes traced along shapes, collisions, particles stretched along their motion, keyframed parameters 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 1.6 s, and 9 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 0.67 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. Floor lightparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.02 s. Colour: cyan.
  2. Shieldparticles / additiveOne burst of 46 shards at 0.64 s. They are flung outward, fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something and slow down with drag.
  3. Enemy strikestroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a path. Its start and end are keyframed, so it writes itself on and off.
  4. Strike sparksparticles / additiveOne burst of 18 streaks at 0.44 s. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  5. Flash glowparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.44 s. It grows as it ages. Colour: orange.
  6. Flashparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.44 s. Colour: white.
  7. Break ringstroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle.
  8. Glass chipsparticles / additiveOne burst of 26 streaks from a ring at 0.64 s. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to blue over each life.
  9. Glass glintsparticles / additiveOne burst of 8 small shapes at 0.67 s. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something, swell and then shrink away and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to cyan over each life.
  10. Flash glowparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.64 s. It grows as it ages. Colour: cyan.

One more layer is in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
1.6 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, pixel art at 3x
Layers
9 emitters and 2 glowing strokes
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
whitecyanorangered
Sprites
Heroes by SpriteLab micro mode (Free to use)
Tags
pixel art, shield break, barrier, bubble shield, shatter, guard break, defense

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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