Projectiles, beams, trails and sustained effects

A projectile has three parts

• A head: one sprite, such as a VelocityParallel diamond pointing along travel.
• Ribbons: two or three textured Trails spread across about 5 studs.
• Shed particles: droplets or specks at 15 to 60 per second, with gravity or drag, left behind as it flies.

For arcing shots, move along a Bezier curve with two or three random control points 10 to 25 studs up. For volleys, fire 10 to 15 sources one every 0.1 s, fanned behind the caster.

Beams

• The body: two or three camera-facing Beams, width 5 to 12.
• Fill: VelocityParallel flame streaks at a high rate along the beam.
• The muzzle: a crown of short curved beams and a flat shockwave ring at the source.
• Duration: hold the beam 3.5 to 5 s, then collapse the widths to 0 rather than fading it out.

A slash without a mesh

Sweep a Trail through an arc. The two attachments define the ribbon's width; rotating them through the swing draws the crescent. Add a short white copy for the leading edge.

Particles need a direction

A flat sprite has to be told which way to face:

• VelocityPerpendicular lays a sprite flat against its travel, for rings and ground shockwaves.
• VelocityParallel with Squash stretches a sprite along its travel, for streaks.
• Two copies at rotation -90 and +90 make a symmetric pair.

Sustained effects: auras, charges, sigils

• The stack: stationary billboards on one attachment with speed near zero, LockedToPart on, so they follow the character.
• The cross-fade: Rate x Lifetime of about 2 to 4, and transparency fading in and out over each particle's life, so overlapping particles hide the seams. That's what makes a held aura shimmer instead of blink.
• Size ladder: core 1, rings about 2, halo about 3.5, black backdrop about 4.5.
• Ground sigils: 5 to 7 studs wide, spinning slowly (0.5 to 5 degrees a second), in two counter-rotating layers.
• Anticipation for a charge: a sphere emitter with ShapeInOut set to inward gathers particles toward the centre.

Parts of this guide are adapted from the VFX half of Roqer's roblox-animation-vfx skill (github.com/S4US/Roqer, MIT licence, TabooHarmony), measured and extended in Studio.