Water Tornado: A spinning water tornado: ribbons of water climb a funnel that widens toward the top around a translucent core, spray is flung off the top and a foam skirt churns at the base.

Water Tornado

A spinning water tornado: ribbons of water climb a funnel that widens toward the top around a translucent core, spray is flung off the top and a foam skirt churns at the base. Seamless loop for water spells and sea hazards.

Water Tornado is an HD effect that loops seamlessly every 2.4 seconds, drawn on a 448 by 448 canvas. It is built from 16 particle emitters. Some particles draw ribbon trails.

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 Tornado at 8 moments, from 0 s to 2.1 s

HOW IT'S MADE

Water Tornado draws its motion with ribbons: 6 of its 16 particle emitters leave a trail through their recent positions. Techniques worth a look: sub-emitters set off by other particles, paths, collisions, particles stretched along their motion and post filters (bloom and vignette). 2 scene layers (ground and props) show in the studio for context and stay out of every export.

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 "Mist" 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. Core ColumnparticlesA steady stream of streaks along a line. They grow as they age. Colour: blue.
  2. MistparticlesA steady stream of smoke puffs across a box. They orbit the emitter and grow as they age. Colour: blue.
  3. Back 1, Back 2, Back 3particlesA steady stream of ribbon trails. They travel along a path. Colour: blue.
  4. Front 1, Front 2, Front 3particlesA steady stream of ribbon trails. They travel along a path. Colours range between white and pale blue.
  5. Foam SkirtparticlesA steady stream of smoke puffs from a ring. They orbit the emitter, grow as they age and slow down with drag. Colours range between white and pale blue.
  6. Ripplesparticles4 single particles at set times. They grow as they age. Colour: white.
  7. Flung Drops Sourceparticles / additiveA steady stream of pixels along a line. They spawn "Flung Drops Rim" as they appear, spawn "Flung Drops Body" as they appear and spawn "Flung Drops Highlight" as they appear. Colours range between orange and gold.
  8. Flung Drops RimparticlesStreaks set off by "Flung Drops Source". They set off "Drop Ripples" on impact, fall under gravity and vanish when they hit something. Colour: blue.
  9. Flung Drops BodyparticlesStreaks set off by "Flung Drops Source". They fall under gravity and vanish when they hit something. Colour: blue.
  10. Flung Drops HighlightparticlesStreaks set off by "Flung Drops Source". They fall under gravity and vanish when they hit something. Colour: white.

2 more layers are in the studio.

DETAILS

Length
2.4 seconds, seamless loop
Canvas
448 x 448, HD
Layers
16 emitters
Blend
Mostly normal
Colours
bluewhitepale blueorange
Sprites
ParticleFX Realism by ParticleFX Studio (CC0), Kenney Smoke Particles by Kenney (CC0)
Tags
water, tornado, waterspout, whirlwind, vortex, spell, storm

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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