Explosion VFX for Roblox

Roblox's built-in Explosion has one look, the same size whatever its blast radius. Its documentation suggests the fix: keep the Explosion for the physics, set its Visible property to false, and draw your own effect. A flipbook explosion is that effect: fire, smoke and debris in one particle that plays once and is gone.

Explosions to choose from

Rolling Fireball ExplosionFuel Drum BlastPlasma DetonationNuke Mushroom CloudSplash Damage RingComic KaboomBig ExplosionCryo Grenade

Keep the physics, draw your own blast

local Debris = game:GetService("Debris")
local template = game.ReplicatedStorage.Effects:WaitForChild("Big Explosion")

local function explode(position: Vector3)
	local blast = Instance.new("Explosion")
	blast.Position = position
	blast.BlastRadius = 12
	blast.Visible = false -- the physics stay, Roblox's own visual does not
	blast.Parent = workspace

	local size = template.Attachment.Flipbook.Size.Keypoints[1].Value
	local fx = template:Clone()
	fx:PivotTo(CFrame.new(position + Vector3.new(0, size / 2, 0)))
	fx.Parent = workspace
	Debris:AddItem(fx, 3) -- Lifetime + 1, rounded up
end

The effect part is lifted by half its Size, so the bottom of the frame sits on the ground: explosions with a ground ring or a mushroom stem start near the bottom of the frame. The model does the same when you insert it. Running this on the server shows the blast to everyone; for many explosions at once, fire a RemoteEvent and clone on each client instead, as on anime VFX.

Glow or smoke

Fire and smoke explosions are drawn with normal blending (LightEmission 0), because dark smoke cannot be added as light. Pure energy blasts glow (LightEmission 1). The export decides this for you: Glow is on only when every layer of the effect adds light. For example, Plasma Detonation exports with glow on, while Big Explosion and Nuke Mushroom Cloud export with it off.

Settings for explosions

• Plays once: an explosion that fades out early is detected as a one-shot, and the model gets the PlayOnce script (Big Explosion and Nuke Mushroom Cloud do). Plasma Detonation charges up again at the end, so it loops by default; set Plays to Once in the export for single blasts.
• Size: grenades 8 to 12 studs, vehicles and barrels 15 to 20, set pieces 30 and up.
• Camera from above: with the default FacingCamera orientation an explosion leans back when the camera looks down at it. FacingCameraWorldUp keeps it upright and turns it only around the vertical axis, which suits tall blasts such as mushroom clouds.
• Frames: a 1.6 s explosion gets 64 frames at 40 a second. Near the camera at a large Size, 128 px frames can look soft; a 4x4 grid in the studio export gives 256 px frames at a lower frame rate.
• Night maps: the emitter is unlit (LightInfluence 0), so fire stays bright in the dark. Raise LightInfluence toward 1 for smoke that should darken with the scene.

The flipbook PNG is free: the ROBLOX button on every effect page needs no account, and a free account can also export it from the studio (3 effects a day) with the grid and texture size of your choice. The ready model, a .rbxmx with the emitter set up and a script that plays it, plus UIFlipbook.luau for UI, comes with any plan, from $7.99 a month.