Shadow Hands Reaching Up: A black pool spreads on the floor and clawed shadow hands claw up out of it one after another with a violet rim light, sway and grasp, then burn away from the fingertips into violet wisps.

Shadow Hands Reaching Up

A black pool spreads on the floor and clawed shadow hands claw up out of it one after another with a violet rim light, sway and grasp, then burn away from the fingertips into violet wisps. A seamless 2D curse or grab effect.

Shadow Hands Reaching Up is an HD effect that loops seamlessly every 3.2 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 384 canvas. It is built from 7 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, 96 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 3.2, 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 3.2 s loop.

Shadow Hands Reaching Up at 8 moments, from 0 s to 2.8 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Shadow Hands Reaching Up stacks 7 particle emitters, each with its own job. Techniques worth a look: sprite modules, a sprite dissolve, keyframed parameters and post filters (bloom and vignette). A scene layer (ground or a prop) shows in the studio for context and stays out of every export.

Every layer emits continuously and the 3.2 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 "Pool smoke" 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. Pool glowsprite / additiveA placed glow. Extras: keyframed motion.
  2. Shadow pool, Pool lipspriteA placed shape. Extras: keyframed motion.
  3. Shadow hand, Shadow hand, Shadow hand +2spriteA placed image. Extras: squash and stretch, glow, dissolve and keyframed motion.
  4. Pool smokeparticlesA stream of smoke puffs from a disc, its rate keyframed over the loop. They grow as they age. Colour: black.
  5. Burning wisps, Burning wisps, Burning wisps +2particles / additiveA steady stream of soft glows from the sprite's dissolving edge. They float upward, sway from side to side and shrink as they age. Colours range between pale violet and violet.
  6. Violet motesparticles / additiveA stream of soft glows across a box, its rate keyframed over the loop. They sway from side to side. Colours range between pale violet and violet.

DETAILS

Length
3.2 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, HD
Layers
7 emitters
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
pale violetviolet
Sprites
Kenney Smoke Particles by Kenney (CC0)
Tags
shadow hands, hands, curse, grab, dark magic, pit, horror, spooky

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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