How to make Particles and Visual Effects in Godot ( and grab the FREE Textures!)

As a "Thank you!" for 1k followers on my Twitter, I decided to share a small collection of textures. I created the pack to use in Godot, but it can be used in any engine or project.
In this video I will walk you through the creation of some example effects inside the Godot Engine.
00:00 Introduction and examples
00:32 Particles with animated textures
03:50 Offset textures for turbulence effect
06:24 Random texture from sprite sheet
07:55 Vortex effect with HDR colors
09:36 Using code to enhance sprites
15:55 Outro
Download all the textures (much more than the ones I show in the video) and the example project:
github.com/RPicster/Godot-par...
Follow me on Twitter:
/ mv_raffa
Join the Bottomless Discord (the game I am working on in Godot):
/ discord

[@KrystofKlestil1337]

This is hands down the best tutorial on particle effects I've watched for Godot. Keep'em coming friend.

[@picster]

Thanks a lot! The particle system is not the most advanced or feature-packed compared to Unity or UE. But with a little creativity, there is still a lot of potential ✌️

[@KrystofKlestil1337]

@@picster Yeah I do miss the intuitive unity aprticle system from time to time.

[@picster]

@@KrystofKlestil1337 Yes, the System of Unity is really, really solid!

[@marcosadrian65]

Agreed!! is by far the best tuto on particles 2d ever seen, really hope to see more coming!!!.

[@picster]

@max steel the first question would be what you want to create.

[@judelingan5863]

This is a really solid tutorial. Keep making things like this.

[@RebelliousX]

Really cool, I love this. Thanks for the tutorial 👍🏼

[@thetiphon]

Great tutorial! Much thanks

[@itzzsadji2287]

Imo that's the best tutorial i saw. Tysm

[@infinitenex8165]

This video is a gold mine! Thank you very much for the demonstration and repo.

[@cheza_cheza]

Thank you! That sparkle effect has saved me a lot of time and effort!

[@skepsys_d]

Very cool and great work making a video on this subject, this is going to help the Godot community a ton. Thank you and stay safe out there.

[@rtfranco]

Awesome! Nice tutorial format.

[@meowyih1]

Many thanks for this short and clear tutorial, and also the CC0 license sample project.

[@zoggerdev3201]

Finally some examples that are simple and effective. I will adapt some of your ideas and integrate them into my own mobile game. Great video thanks :)

[@jwr26games]

This is an excellent demonstration of the Godot Particle2D node! Your artwork is also top-notch too!! Hats off to you sir!!

[@fran12659]

i was having a hard time doing effects for spells on my game, your video saved me thanks!

[@FerreusDeus]

I've been needing this tutorial for 2 years! Thank you! No other tutorial mentions animated sprites! I would never have figured out that the Offset property changes the frame.

[@picster]

It is really in an unexpected place... well hidden gem 🙄😃

[@marcelor1235]

Wow! This intro is impressive!

[@kunai9809]

thanks for that. Looks awesome in my game :D

[@travisnielsen9975]

Wow! Very cool!! Thank you! This was very easy to understand.

[@picster]

Thanks for the motivation!

[@connorhillen]

It always feels like there's a big gap in resources for VFX, and this was fantastic! Lots of great little insights along the way. Great stuff!

[@picster]

Thanks!

[@obadiahluna4215]

Your Godot videos are really informative and helpful. Thank you friend, for clearing up some particle questions I had! You're awesome!

[@picster]

Thanks!

[@jugibur2117]

Really great info here, thanks a lot! (Also the function wrapf() I did not know yet)

[@benzenatizineeddine7816]

Duuuuude i'm watching this and shaking how is this engine so underrated!

[@selgesel]

This is much much better than any other VFX video that I've seen so far, paid or otherwise. It's incredible that you tackle multiple kinds of effects, but you also play around with each of them to show variations, and you do it in an incredible 16 minutes. Great job, and thanks a lot!

[@picster]

Thank you very much! 🙏

[@lucasviana237]

Very nice tutorial. Thanks.

[@desoft8b]

This is special chocolat for devs.

[@jasonplays4332]

I just found your channel from a 4 game developers on one art kit video. I'm in love with your new content. You have so much knowledge to share and you share it well. Keep up the hard work!

[@picster]

Thanks a lot! Very motivating words!

[@WarrenMarshallBiz]

Late to the party, but FANTASTIC video, thank you! Really helped me understand what can be done with particles in Godot ...

[@pai64]

Good job I will rewatch this when I need particles Edit: Oh you are the dev of Bottomless that game is so good I'm gonna commit subscribe

[@3booodpro]

THIS IS VERY PERFECT MAN You are the best man!

[@picster]

Thank you!

[@leodarcangela]

Thanks for your advices, it's very interesting !!

[@FullCitris]

Nice! This is the first actually helpful tutorial I've watched for more "advanced" particles. I just need to know how you made the particles.

[@cryptoperumal5590]

thanks for explaining in detail manner..

[@InsightfulCaveman]

Thank you! This is very useful.

[@rossc5140]

Found this incredibly useful, thanks!

[@picster]

You're welcome!

[@pawemichaowski3491]

Thank you, awesome narration

[@iulianhagea5815]

Nice! This will help a lot with my game.Thank you !!!

[@picster]

Cool! You're welcome! 🥳

[@mangojuic3e]

i just got into vfx for my first game project and this video has been very helpful thank you so much for making these

[@mangojuic3e]

its still not done oof yikes :D

[@saulnores3477]

12:58 I'll give you an advice for future videos. Please zoom in (I can't see well those small coding). The rest of your video is awesome. You are great at teaching particles.

[@pablogri4667]

Wow man I love this tutorial, thanks for your work! Regards from Argentina

[@picster]

Cheers back from Germany!

[@ZachA-T]

Nice! Bottomless was the reason I tried out Godot, so it’s awesome seeing some behind the scenes! Especially with the particle system! Enjoying watching the development of such a cool game!

[@picster]

Oh wow, that's so great to hear! I hope you like it so far!

[@ZachA-T]

@@picster Yes! It’s been a fantastic and inspiring experience so far and I can’t wait to learn more!

[@picster]

@@ZachA-T looking forward to see a game from you!

[@astwyr2856]

you are awesome thank you so much!!

[@ultimaxkom8728]

This tutorial is very interesting and very alive. Nice.

[@picster]

Thank you!

[@eboatwright_]

Thanks for this!

[@devsimples]

You had me when you said "Bottomless". I saw your game and I had no idea you had a youtube channel!! Keep on it bro!

[@picster]

Thanks for the nice motivation!

[@gibbdev]

Absolete legend, thank you verry much! Keep em comming)

[@picster]

Thanks! I'll try!

[@LaurentSOUDRON]

Impressive how well you know how to use Godot and particles 😲👍

[@kidando]

I just watched the first 20 seconds and I have subscribed

[@picster]

Thanks ☺️

[@mightymochigames]

This is such a good video

[@thomasrodriguez3107]

Look amazing

[@kusog3]

Godot content... instant sub!

[@formal_club]

thank you so much!

[@mightymochigames]

Thanks for making this!

[@picster]

My pleasure!

[@MrMushroom5]

Thanks bro I needed it for my weapons

[@teucay7374]

You have a new sub!

[@Chevifier]

Talk about thinking outside the box. I would've never thought to give a particle texture an offset to get that effect!!!

[@khusravkholmatov3667]

Super 👌

[@LordOnexgol]

Nice!

[@luh2829]

Wow so pretty. I love the effects. first time I've really done any was in a game jam a few days ago. Thought they looked fine, now I'm kinda embarrased about them😅

[@picster]

Thanks! Don't be embarrassed, it's just one page in a diary ☺️

[@bugseater1]

Useful! I hope you make more of these Godot tutorials after Bottomless comes out instead of going silent for 9 years lol

[@picster]

Haha, 9 years fly by so fast 🤣 I have a list of things I want to explain more in depth. At the moment my number one goal ist to get the trailer ready so I can get the Steam page up and running.

[@bugseater1]

@@picster Overall I've been really excited for Bottomless. It's one of the first Godot games that looks like it has massive potential to be something incredible. Keep going on!

[@picster]

@@bugseater1 thank you for the motivation!

[@bugseater1]

@SirLollipop ye.

[@Lulink013]

I've already had a lot of fun fiddling with all the options and a basic particle shape but your results are on anothe level! Why is that? Pretty simple: I wasn't using the power of curves, didn't know about the >1 luminosity trick and stuck to basic particle shapes. Next time I use that node I'll have a lot more ideas, thanks!

[@picster]

Cool! Glad you find it useful!

[@cratrgames3487]

Surprisesurprise, great tutorial!

[@LordDarkfinst]

Hehe wonderful! 👍

[@picster]

Thank you! 🎉

[@FrozenWell]

great video thanks

[@picster]

Hey thanks!

[@DestusG]

Thanks for the tutorial helped alot

[@picster]

Glad to hear that! ✌️

[@118andrey]

"Please if it's not perfect forgive me" Zero dislikes

[@picster]

That's the forgiveness bonus 🤠

[@Hyrain]

someone disliked.. let's start a crusade

[@picster]

@@Hyrain haha, hey, if someone dislikes it... It's ok ☺️

[@mizuki6048]

You jinxed it lmao

[@masaratech]

@@Hyrain the only one since your comment!

[@Kio_Kurashi]

That circle 'mistake' looked like it would be a good energy orb particle that's moving. Would just have to change the direction based on the volocity required.

[@notanenglishperson9865]

I really liked this tutorial, even though I don't actually making games :D

[@notanenglishperson9865]

Well, now I actually want to start

[@akam9919]

When you're coffee's so hot, it creates a tornado...

[@arthank1263]

Lovely! I'm off to try and make some of these 3d :))

[@picster]

It's more or less the same. In Godot, 3D and 2D particle systems use the same resource.

[@NycroLP]

God I love thise engine. It's so much more fun and easier to use than lets say UE4.

[@teorianapraticacompedro2716]

I agree. Godot > All

[@cmds.learning7426]

cool！

[@moofymoo]

Good tutorial, thnx! Suggestion - for getting first particle effect to show something (Hello World), you could go slower and explain something about properties that are required for particle system to work. If someone (me :p) has never used particle system, he needs to pause after every couple seconds.

[@luh2829]

Wow such pretty. Just watched it like 2 More times to kinda copy the particles for a little project im working on. Its really kinda amazing, how much difference nice Particles can do for a game. How do you make those nice Sprites btw?

[@no-trick-pony]

:D

[@derianhyperioon7830]

hello picster !

[@picster]

Hello back! 👋

[@javierbarron2122]

Awesome. I would suggest to zoom in on the code and properties because I cannot see them on a cellphone.

[@Muphet]

I thought I found godot tutorial but it was ASMR video

[@picster]

Lol 😂 what? 😁

[@Mohamed88Hassan]

wow thats rly helpful ty can u tell me how to creat dropping like heavy boxes get on the player when he get close from it ?

[@picster]

Hmmm I'm not sure if I understood your question correctly... 😔

[@jacksontriffon5064]

Next time please zoom in ~ especially in the code sections ~ so we can read everything, even when watching on mobile. Thanks for the awesome video! :)

[@OmeedNOuhadi]

👏👏👏

[@wadg]

Wuao great job! Thank you so much! Btw in the 3rd example, you cut your video and we cannot see the setting that changes the display from three to only one (in minute 6:47)

[@picster]

Thanks! I will take more care in the future!

[@agrogers1]

Very good effects. Thanks heaps for sharing. I'll pray for a special blessing from Jesus for you tonight!

[@JamesRobertOsborne]

Awesome! Is it possible to output (export or screen-capture) these rendering particles into a PNG image sequence (with its alpha channel intact) inside Godot?

[@picster]

I think you should be able to do this. But it's definitely not a menu-option or something like that. It should be possible using the Particle Systems inside a viewport and render that to a png "sequence". Check out this post: godotengine.org/qa/12979/how-to-merge-two-png-files-during-runtime-and-save-to-disk But to be honest, you could recreate those particle systems with relative ease in blender and just render it there 😉

[@ahmadtakhimi6839]

Thank you for the awesome textures. Can you show us how did you make them ? Using blender ? What addon did you use ? Thanks again

[@picster]

I used Blender for the animated spritesheet (the file is in the repository). Inside Blender I used no add-ons. The other textures were made in Photoshop.

[@BojanDam]

Great vid. Small sugestion, make code bigger, I am watching it on TV and I don't see anything. 😉

[@picster]

Good idea! Thanks

[@gibmadaf]

por alguna extraña razón al ingresar la textura las partículas (min 1:18) parpadean como si faltara un fotograma, es decir no se manifiesta fluida la vida de la partícula

[@dumpsta-divrr365]

In the third example, how are you making it so only one of the three "glows" in random_selection.png is shown? Mine acts like yours does but all three parts of that image are shown. I thought changing the Visibility Rect under Particles2D would help but no luck

[@picster]

Ah, that was a bad editing from my side. I said it, but the video does not show it: You need to check "Particles Animation" and set "H Frames" to 3 (in this case). I show how to set it up at kzbin.info/www/bejne/eoGngXxrr6mYpa8 - 0:47

[@dumpsta-divrr365]

@@picster Ah yeah that did it, thanks so much!

[@Silver-nm2if]

that one person missed the like button

[@picster]

😊

[@OmeedNOuhadi]

👏👏👏

[@SantoLucasST]

zero dislikes

[@picster]

❤️🔥

[@akienK]

That's a really nice video! I learned a few tricks and consolidated some of what I had learned while porting github.com/KOBUGE-Games/jetpaca particles (which I didn't author initially) from Godot 2 to Godot 3. Your explanations are very clear and the pace is just fine, looking forward to more videos :) One thing though, you seem to have a fairly high DPI screen and Godot UI elements are thus quite tiny. Might work well if you have a big screen but for KZbin I would suggest to either change your screen resolution to 1080p, or use Godot's editor DPI scaling setting to make the UI bigger.

[@devgilmore]

I know this is a lot to ask for, but I am so curious how you made the grapple hook for your game. Even if it isn't an in depth tutorial, just a quick explanation or article would be appreciated!

[@picster]

I plan a tutorial for that, so please be patient. 😌

[@devgilmore]

@@picster Thanks so much! I will wait as long as I have too to see that :)

[@ForeverNils]

Nice. And all this without global environment?

[@picster]

In this video there is no WorldEnvironment setup tough it can greatly help using a little glow 😀

[@DogeisCut]

Any tips on an Explode effect?

[@picster]

I will try to find a little time to make a video about that topic. Basically: fast, powerful, bright

[@matheusnico1as]

please, could you do it for Godot 4?

[@thesocialistmind9880]

Can we do this in 3D too?

[@sosasees]

I watched this video just to see if there will be a stupid Godot Particle System joke. I was not disappointed.

[@picster]

Oh which one? I am ALWAYS SERIOUS!

[@sosasees]

@@picster There was actually no Godot Particle System joke in this video. I said that I was not disappointed because you showed me unseen possibilities with the Godot Particle System.

[@picster]

@@sosasees ahh ok, now I got it! Glad you were not disappointed

[@peatral]

This video is great! But when stitching the single pngs of the animated one together into a sprite sheet, harsh edges become visible (The glare overlaps with the edge). Did you change something in the video? Maybe reduced the glare or something?

[@picster]

Hey, I already supplied the stitched version in the folder: "textures\particle_examples" If you talk about stitching the files that are inside the "materials endered_particles" folder, that is a good example why textures like this are a bit more work than normal textures. It's important to take good care about the levels of the image. Even the slightest variation inside the "black" parts of an image can lead to a unwanted result. For textures like these, I always double check inside Photoshop, if the levels are correct. If you are interested, I can make a very short Tutorial about that :)

[@peatral]

@@picster Oh, I somehow missed that folder... But a short tutorial could be helpful for making your own particles 👍

[@picster]

@@peatral I will try to put it up tomorrow ✌️

[@peatral]

@@picster Thanks, that's nice!

[@ryanscott5317]

Thanks man have a like and a sub. Build a pack of effects and sell it. :)

[@Judas_Is_Fish]

This is really cool tutorial, but can you make actions not so fast in future videos? It's hard to understand, when everything is happening so fast. Otherwise everything is perfect :)

[@picster]

It was without a script and when I was editing the video, I noticed that in the future I think I will do everything twice... one time to test and one time to actually show what i want to without much information-noise.

[@BrainAirways]

When you mentioned that particle spritesheet was made in blender I instantly though... Are your sprites also made with blender?

[@picster]

No, the sprites are hand painted in Aseprite... But sometimes I wish I was using a more flexible approach 😜

[@BrainAirways]

@@picster well it is double edge sword :P Do you want save some time on animations (and have as many as you like) or do you want your sprites to look exactly how you want (setting of correct material for models to be rendered as pixelart in fidly :( ).

[@picster]

@@BrainAirways absolutely 😁

[@MrMr-oj7hl]

6:30 having trouble replicating this in godot 4.2 3d

[@picster]

In 3D it works a bit different. Create a new StandardMaterial3D in the material override slot. In the Material, under Billboard, set Mode to Particle Billboard. A new section will then appear in the Material called "Particle Anim". There you can setup h and v frames.

[@MrMr-oj7hl]

@@picster Actually I meant the whole example, I don't know how to make smooth transitions in 4.2 3D godot