Snowflake Swirl: Snow motes swirl in and form a giant glowing snowflake that shimmers, then bursts into a flurry of tumbling flakes.

Snowflake Swirl

Snow motes swirl in and form a giant glowing snowflake that shimmers, then bursts into a flurry of tumbling flakes. Plays once per loop, for winter events, ice casts and holiday rewards.

Snowflake Swirl is an HD effect that loops seamlessly every 3.2 seconds, drawn on a 384 by 384 canvas. It is built from 6 particle emitters. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds.

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.

Snowflake Swirl at 8 moments, from 0 s to 2.8 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Snowflake Swirl stacks 6 particle emitters, each with its own job. Techniques worth a look: a vortex, keyframed parameters and post filters (bloom and vignette).

It loops seamlessly every 3.2 s, and 5 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 2.25 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To change its colour, select "Flake Glow" in the studio and edit Colour A and Colour B. Size on the same layer sets how big its particles are.

Layers, in draw order

  1. Flake Glowparticles / additiveA single particle at 1 s. Colour: blue.
  2. Snow Motesparticles / additiveOne burst of 1400 soft glows from a ring at the start. They fly in and form a shape and swirl around a vortex. Colours range between white and pale blue.
  3. Flake Edgeparticles / additiveOne burst of 500 soft glows from a ring at the start. They fly in and form a shape and swirl around a vortex. Colour: white.
  4. FlurryparticlesOne burst of 26 snowflakes from a disc at 2.25 s. They fall under gravity, grow as they age, spin and slow down with drag. Colours range between white and pale blue.
  5. Burst Flashparticles / additiveA single particle at 2.25 s. Colour: pale blue.
  6. Glintsparticles / additiveA stream of stars from a disc, its rate keyframed over the loop. They swell and then shrink away. Colours range between white and pale cyan.

DETAILS

Length
3.2 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
384 x 384, HD
Layers
6 emitters
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
whitepale bluebluepale cyan
Sprites
Kenney Particle Pack by Kenney (CC0)
Tags
snowflake, snow, winter, swirl, christmas, ice, spell

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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