Hi everyone. I am trying to make a DBZ-like Auras that the Player can activate during combat. I’m only concerned with the visuals. I was able to find a lot of resources on how to use the overlay shader to create an aura-like effect but even with vertex displacement, it doesn’t emulate the DBZ-style auras.
this was an excellent tutorial and really got me close to the desired effect but I want to try and go all the way.
In this image, I have placed the Overlay material on the character mesh, that’s the purple aura which I made through the Pitchfork Academy tutorial.
The outer effect, the yellow/orange aura, is a separate mesh with a masked-type material on it and uses some of the logic from the aura overlay material.
I am also using a particle system to create the lighting arc effect.
These are images but both auras are animating.
The only thing I need to still add is the inner glow.
Again, this is getting close to the desired effect and I’m still working on the shader for the outer aura but I’m struggling to figure out how to get it all the way.
From some research I have done, I found that most games that had auras in them used 2D cards to simulate the effect. The reason I don’t like this approach is that the aura rotates and faces the camera at all times. DBZ Kakorot and Sparking Zero have some amazing auras. I think Kakorot used the 2D card method and I’m not sure about Sparking Zero.
I want to get from where I am to this. I feel like these are hand-drawn and then animated but I’m not entirely sure.
Since I am working on a game Solo, I thought creating a dynamic aura would save me a lot of time since Art is a secondary skillset with my primary skillset is code and design.
Sorry for the long explanation. To summarize, I am looking for help to create an Aura VFX that emulates the Auras in DBZ and that I can customize dynamically, the image above is a great reference.
Thank you, any help will be appreciated.