Pixel Art Uppercut: Pixel art uppercut: a rising crescent of hot light sweeps up through the enemy with flame licks, embers and upward speed streaks, launching it into the air before it lands in a dust puff.

Pixel Art Uppercut

Pixel art uppercut: a rising crescent of hot light sweeps up through the enemy with flame licks, embers and upward speed streaks, launching it into the air before it lands in a dust puff. Use it for launcher moves and rising attacks in brawlers and fighting games; it plays once, then loops.

Pixel Art Uppercut is a pixel art effect that loops seamlessly every 1.2 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 384 canvas at 3x pixels. It is built from 10 particle emitters and 6 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, 36 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 1.2, 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 1.2 s loop.

Pixel Art Uppercut at 8 moments, from 0 s to 1.05 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Pixel Art Uppercut is drawn with 6 glowing strokes, lines with a hot core and a soft glow traced along their shapes, plus 10 particle emitters. Techniques worth a look: paths, collisions, particles stretched along their motion, keyframed parameters and post filters (bloom and colour grade). 4 scene layers (ground and props) show in the studio for context and stay out of every export.

It loops seamlessly every 1.2 s, and 9 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 0.9 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To recolour the line, select "Slash u glow" 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 lightparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.17 s. Colour: orange.
  2. Slash u glow, Slash u line 1, Slash u line 2 +2stroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a path. Its start and end are keyframed, so it writes itself on and off.
  3. Flame licksparticles / additive2 timed bursts of soft glows along a path, 42 in all. They float upward, swell and then shrink away and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to red over each life.
  4. Embersparticles / additiveOne burst of 18 pixels along a path at 0.17 s. They float upward, sway from side to side and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to red over each life.
  5. Lift streaksparticles / additiveA stream of streaks across a box, its rate keyframed over the loop. Colours range between pale gold and gold.
  6. Uppercut ringstroke / additiveA glowing line traced along a circle.
  7. Sparksparticles / additiveOne burst of 18 streaks at 0.17 s. They fall under gravity, bounce when they hit something and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to red over each life.
  8. Contact glintparticles / additiveA single particle at 0.17 s. It shrinks as it ages. Colour: white.
  9. Launch dustparticlesOne burst of 8 smoke puffs across a box at 0.17 s. They grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.
  10. Landing dustparticlesOne burst of 12 smoke puffs across a box at 0.9 s. They grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to orange over each life.

2 more layers are in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
1.2 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, pixel art at 3x
Layers
10 emitters and 6 glowing strokes
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
orangewhitegoldpale gold
Sprites
Kenney Smoke Particles by Kenney (CC0), Heroes by SpriteLab micro mode (Free to use)
Tags
pixel art, uppercut, punch, launcher, fire, fighting game, melee

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 Combat

Pixel Art Punch Hit particle effectPixel Art Punch HitPixel Art Bite Attack particle effectPixel Art Bite AttackPixel Art Claw Slash particle effectPixel Art Claw SlashPixel Art Dash Strike particle effectPixel Art Dash StrikePixel Art Fire Hit particle effectPixel Art Fire HitPixel Art Hammer Smash particle effectPixel Art Hammer SmashPixel Art Hit Effect particle effectPixel Art Hit EffectPixel Art Lightning Slash particle effectPixel Art Lightning Slash

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Anime Rising Uppercut particle effectAnime Rising UppercutRising Uppercut particle effectRising UppercutAnime Fire Fist Blast particle effectAnime Fire Fist BlastAnime Heavy Punch Impact particle effectAnime Heavy Punch ImpactAnime Hit Sparks particle effectAnime Hit SparksAnime One Inch Punch particle effectAnime One Inch Punch

All Pixel Art Combat effects or the full library.