Water Nova: A water nova around the caster in 3/4 view: a crown erupts at the centre and a ring wave races out and slows, throwing a sheet of drops up at its front and leaving foam on wet ground.

Water Nova

A water nova around the caster in 3/4 view: a crown erupts at the centre and a ring wave races out and slows, throwing a sheet of drops up at its front and leaving foam on wet ground. Plays once per loop.

Water Nova is an HD effect that loops seamlessly every 1.3 seconds, drawn on a 448 by 448 canvas. It is built from 15 particle emitters.

Colour

Recolours the preview and the free downloads.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 39 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 1.3, 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 1.3 s loop.

Water Nova at 8 moments, from 0 s to 1.14 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Water Nova stacks 15 particle emitters, each with its own job. Techniques worth a look: sub-emitters set off by other particles, flipbook sprites, collisions, particles stretched along their motion 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.

It loops seamlessly every 1.3 s, and 6 of its layers fire in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. Start times are staggered from 0 s to 0.26 s, so the layers arrive one after another. To change its colour, select "Cast Flash" in the studio and edit 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. Wet GroundparticlesA single particle at 0.1 s. It grows as it ages. Colour: deep blue.
  2. Ring WaveparticlesA single particle at 0.1 s. It grows as it ages. Colour: white.
  3. Inner WaveparticlesA single particle at 0.26 s. It grows as it ages. Colour: pale blue.
  4. Foam TrailparticlesA stream of smoke puffs from a ring, its rate keyframed over the loop. They grow as they age. Colour: white.
  5. CrestparticlesA stream of streaks from a ring, its rate keyframed over the loop. They fall under gravity. Colours range between pale cyan and pale blue.
  6. Front Drops Sourceparticles / additiveA stream of pixels from a ring, its rate keyframed over the loop. They spawn "Front Drops Rim" as they appear, spawn "Front Drops Body" as they appear and spawn "Front Drops Highlight" as they appear. Colours range between orange and gold.
  7. Front Drops Rim, Front Drops BodyparticlesStreaks set off by "Front Drops Source". They fall under gravity. Colour: blue.
  8. Front Drops HighlightparticlesStreaks set off by "Front Drops Source". They fall under gravity. Colour: white.
  9. Centre CrownparticlesA single particle at 0.1 s. Colour: pale blue.
  10. Centre Jet Sourceparticles / additiveOne burst of 30 pixels along a line at 0.14 s. They spawn "Centre Jet Rim" as they appear, spawn "Centre Jet Body" as they appear and spawn "Centre Jet Highlight" as they appear. Colours range between orange and gold.

4 more layers are in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
1.3 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
448 x 448, HD
Layers
15 emitters
Blend
Mostly normal
Colours
whitepale bluebluepale cyan
Sprites
ParticleFX Realism by ParticleFX Studio (CC0), Kenney Smoke Particles by Kenney (CC0)
Tags
water, nova, aoe, wave, spell, knockback, mage

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).

MORE Water & Ice

Blizzard Spell particle effectBlizzard SpellFrost Bolt particle effectFrost BoltWater Bubble Shield particle effectWater Bubble ShieldWater Bullet particle effectWater BulletWater Tornado particle effectWater TornadoWater Wipe Transition particle effectWater Wipe TransitionBig Water Splash particle effectBig Water SplashBurst Water Pipe particle effectBurst Water Pipe

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Frost Nova particle effectFrost NovaPixel Art Frost Nova particle effectPixel Art Frost NovaAqua orb particle effectAqua orbArcane Detonation particle effectArcane DetonationHoly Nova particle effectHoly NovaMana Bolt Spell particle effectMana Bolt Spell

All Water & Ice effects or the full library.