Pixel Art Spirit Lantern Loop: A pixel art spirit lantern loop: a glowing paper lantern floats and bobs while blue-white spirit flames circle it and fireflies blink in the dark.

Pixel Art Spirit Lantern Loop

A pixel art spirit lantern loop: a glowing paper lantern floats and bobs while blue-white spirit flames circle it and fireflies blink in the dark. Use it as a seamless ambient prop for night levels, shrines, festival maps, haunted gardens and cozy village scenes.

Pixel Art Spirit Lantern Loop is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 6 seconds, drawn on a 288 by 384 canvas at 3x pixels. It is built from 14 particle emitters. 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, 180 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 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 6 s loop.

Pixel Art Spirit Lantern Loop at 8 moments, from 0 s to 5.25 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Spirit Lantern Loop is pixel art, drawn at 3x pixels so it sits on the same grid as your sprites, and built from 14 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: sub-emitters set off by other particles, paths, turbulence, particles stretched along their motion and post filters (bloom).

It loops seamlessly every 6 s, and 4 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. To change its colour, select "Spirit flames (far)" 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. The colour swatches by the downloads recolour every layer at once.

Layers, in draw order

  1. Fireflies (back), Fireflies (front)particles / additiveA steady stream of soft glows across a box. They wander on turbulence, sway from side to side and slow down with drag. Colours range between pale lime and lime.
  2. Lantern halo, Lantern glow, Paper light +1sprite / additiveA placed glow. Extras: keyframed motion.
  3. Spirit flames (far)particles / additive3 single particles at set times. They leave "Spirit tails (far)" behind them, leave "Spirit licks (far)" behind them, leave "Spirit glints (far)" behind them and travel along a path. Colour: blue.
  4. Spirit tails (far)particles / additiveSoft glows set off by "Spirit flames (far)". They float upward, sway from side to side and shrink as they age. Colour runs from pale cyan to blue over each life.
  5. Spirit licks (far)particles / additiveStreaks set off by "Spirit flames (far)". They float upward and sway from side to side. Colour runs from white to blue over each life.
  6. Spirit glints (far)particles / additivePixels set off by "Spirit flames (far)". They slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to blue over each life.
  7. Spirit cores (far), Spirit cores (near)particles / additive3 single particles at set times. They travel along a path. Colour: pale cyan.
  8. Paper lanternspriteA placed image. Extras: keyframed motion.
  9. Mouth sparksparticles / additiveA steady stream of pixels along a line. They sway from side to side. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  10. Rising lightparticles / additiveA steady stream of soft glows along a line. They sway from side to side and grow as they age. Colour: orange.

4 more layers are in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
6 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
288 x 384, pixel art at 3x
Layers
14 emitters
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
pale cyanwhitebluecyan
Sprites
Built-in shapes only
Tags
pixel art, pixel, vfx, lantern, paper lantern, spirit, will-o-wisp, fireflies, night, shrine, festival, ambient, 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.

MORE Pixel Art VFX

Pixel Art Fireflies Night Loop particle effectPixel Art Fireflies Night LoopPixel Art Aurora Sky Loop particle effectPixel Art Aurora Sky LoopPixel Art Arcane Missiles particle effectPixel Art Arcane MissilesPixel Art Autumn Leaves Loop particle effectPixel Art Autumn Leaves LoopPixel Art Black Hole particle effectPixel Art Black HolePixel Art Brazier Loop particle effectPixel Art Brazier LoopPixel Art Burning Status particle effectPixel Art Burning StatusPixel Art Crystal Ball Vision particle effectPixel Art Crystal Ball Vision

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Fireflies particle effectFirefliesFireflies Night Loop particle effectFireflies Night LoopAurora Ribbons particle effectAurora RibbonsCave drips particle effectCave dripsDusk Fireflies particle effectDusk FirefliesHearth Glow particle effectHearth Glow

All Pixel Art VFX effects or the full library.