Quicksand: Top-down quicksand pit: streams of sand spiral in from the rim, speed up and darken as they sink into the centre, dragging pebbles and twigs under.

Quicksand

Top-down quicksand pit: streams of sand spiral in from the rim, speed up and darken as they sink into the centre, dragging pebbles and twigs under. Loops perfectly.

Quicksand is an HD effect that loops seamlessly every 3 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 384 canvas. It is built from 7 particle emitters.

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.

Quicksand at 8 moments, from 0 s to 2.63 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Quicksand stacks 7 particle emitters, each with its own job. Techniques worth a look: a vortex and magnets.

Every layer emits continuously and the 3 s loop closes seamlessly, so it can run for as long as you need. It carries little colour of its own, so it takes a tint well: select "Pit Shadow" and set Colour A and Colour B. Size on the same layer sets how big its particles are. The colour swatches by the downloads recolour every layer at once.

Layers, in draw order

  1. Pit Shadow, Sinking CoreparticlesA single long-lived particle that stays for the whole loop.
  2. Sand StreamsparticlesA steady stream of streaks from a ring. They spiral into a vortex, are swallowed by a magnet at its centre, swell and then shrink away and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to deep orange over each life.
  3. Sand GrainsparticlesA steady stream of dots from a ring. They spiral into a vortex, are swallowed by a magnet at its centre, shrink as they age and slow down with drag. Colour runs from white to deep orange over each life.
  4. Swallowed DebrisparticlesA steady stream of debris from a ring. They spiral into a vortex, are swallowed by a magnet at its centre, shrink as they age and spin. Colour runs from white to deep orange over each life.
  5. Swallowed TwigsparticlesA steady stream of leaves and petals from a ring. They spiral into a vortex, are swallowed by a magnet at its centre, shrink as they age and spin. Colour runs from white to deep orange over each life.
  6. Rim DustparticlesA steady stream of smoke puffs from a ring. They spiral into a vortex, are swallowed by a magnet at its centre, grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colour: orange.

DETAILS

Length
3 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, HD
Layers
7 emitters
Blend
Mostly normal
Colours
orangedeep orangegoldwhite
Sprites
Kenney Smoke Particles by Kenney (CC0)
Tags
quicksand, sand trap, sinkhole, desert, hazard, top-down, vortex, 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.

Step by step: Unity, Godot 4, Roblox, GameMaker, Phaser and PixiJS, Aseprite, Web games (live runtime).

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