Water Shield Buff: A wobbling sphere of water shields a character: a bright rim and highlights, a current of water orbiting it, ripples on the surface and drips splashing on the floor.

Water Shield Buff

A wobbling sphere of water shields a character: a bright rim and highlights, a current of water orbiting it, ripples on the surface and drips splashing on the floor. Loops seamlessly.

Water Shield Buff is an HD effect that loops seamlessly every 2.4 seconds, drawn on a 320 by 320 canvas. It is built from 12 particle emitters. Most layers blend additively, so it glows on dark backgrounds. Some particles draw ribbon trails.

Colour

Recolours the preview and the free downloads.

Free download with a transparent background, cropped to the effect, 72 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 2.4, 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 2.4 s loop.

Water Shield Buff at 8 moments, from 0 s to 2.1 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Water Shield Buff stacks 12 particle emitters, each with its own job. Techniques worth a look: ribbon trails, sub-emitters set off by other particles, paths, collisions and post filters (bloom and vignette).

It loops seamlessly every 2.4 s, and one layer fires in bursts, so it pulses instead of flowing evenly. To change its colour, select "Rim Light" 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. Floor Light, Water Fill, Rim Light +2particles / additiveA single long-lived particle that stays for the whole loop.
  2. Water SphereparticlesA single long-lived particle that stays for the whole loop.
  3. Causticsparticles / additiveA steady stream of soft glows from a disc. They sway from side to side. Colours range between blue and pale cyan.
  4. Inner Bubblesparticles / additiveA steady stream of bubbles across a box. They sway from side to side. Colours range between white and pale cyan.
  5. Surface Ripplesparticles / additiveA steady stream of rings from a ring. They grow as they age. Colours range between pale cyan and white.
  6. Orbiting Currentparticles / additiveA single particle every 0.6 s. It travels along a path. Colour runs from blue to white over each life.
  7. DripsparticlesA steady stream of image sprites along a line. They set off "Splash" on impact, fall under gravity and vanish when they hit something. Colour: pale cyan.
  8. Splashparticles / additiveSoft glows set off by "Drips". They fall under gravity. Colours range between white and pale cyan.

DETAILS

Length
2.4 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
320 x 320, HD
Layers
12 emitters
Blend
Mostly additive (glows)
Colours
pale cyanwhiteblue
Sprites
ParticleFX Realism by ParticleFX Studio (CC0), Kenney Particle Pack by Kenney (CC0)
Tags
shield, bubble shield, water, barrier, hydro, buff, 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.
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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