Crecent Sword Slash Effect

Over time, a lot of people have been asking about specifics for this effect so here’s an explanation on it! :smiley:
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Before I get started, I should note that this is how I do it, there could always be a better way but it seems that time hasn’t done its job and this topic is still lacking resources.

What you need

  • A software that allows you to view and edit the UV map of a mesh (suggested software: blender)
  • A digital art software that provides polarization (suggested software: gimp)

Mesh

You want to make a squashed sphere, this mesh is what the texture will wrap around.


https://gyazo.com/4ce0f0ed5b61ad19ffaf7bd6c2125d7b

Texture

…the texure :flushed:
Looking back, I understood how I could’ve made this effect, but there weren’t any resources on how to actually make the texture for it. However, one day, when I consulted a friend, they were able to help me out!

Surprisingly, it’s really nothing complex or hard! (using gimp in examples)

  1. Start off with drawing a few lines; try varying line thickness, opacity/transparency, and maybe even color. I like to go around the edges with an eraser. (make sure that the lines are on a separate layer)
    image


  2. Now go to your polarize filter, in gimp, it’s called “Polar Coordinates” (Filters > Distorts > Polar Coordinates)

  3. That’s all! Simple right!?


    If you don’t get a result you like, that’s fine. Just start over, try something different. Experiment with the lines or even the filter itself.
    https://gyazo.com/c68bf442a44be21777ee828095675501

UV Mapping

Woo! UV mapping…this isn’t my favorite thing to do but it’s the most important step, unfortunately, this isn’t something that I know about enough to explain it in English or any language for the matter.

The idea is to create a face for each side of the squashed sphere, then match the texture with that.

If you need to learn how to unwrap or work with UV maps. I’d recommend Blender Guru, he has great tutorials on UV unwrapping.

Product

Those 3 things are all there really is to it. Now you just need to export and import the mesh into roblox, then upload the decal to roblox. From there you want to create 2 new texture objects and put them in the mesh, this is because you need to make the mesh transparent so you don’t want to apply the texture to the meshes TextureId itself.
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Apologies if I missed anything or if the quality isn’t satisfactory, I rushed this since I’m currently busy with other things but wanted to get this out before I forgot. I hope this can at least be used to point people in the right direction or to bring awareness to it, perhaps someone will make a better tutorial.

152 Likes

Why not just use beams and curve them + set it to face the camera? Amazing tutorial, but beams can provide an effect similar to this just fine. Trails could work too but they don’t look as good.

7 Likes

When it comes to “why” it’s more or less a personal preference. I want 3D depth and curvature cause I feel like it. That and cause, it feels less like paper. Maybe I’m imagining it, but idk, if you know/find any good examples of beams being used to mimic this, I’m open to my mind being changed. x)

8 Likes

i been loking on how to make this for a week now thank you so much
this really helps :smiley:

5 Likes

beams lose their curvature on lower graphic levels. it is not a good substitute to begin with.

8 Likes

wait its on Toolbox on Roblox Studio just search VFX u can see bunch of meshes effects

2 Likes

are you able to make this a free model?

1 Like

Sure but keep in mind its decal

rbxassetid://5700002424

i hope you like it

4 Likes

When i try to double side it, the decal rotates, making it hard to align it, is it possible for you to put a png file I can rotate in photoshop?

1 Like

try to paste it
top Decal onto the Left : rbxassetid://5700002681
bottom Decal onto the Left : rbxassetid://5700002681

you can change color one of those so you can stylized it to what ever you wanted

2 Likes

here is something that you can add to the tutorial. since it is possible to make advanced texture animations, It’s possible to make a spritesheet, and animate it using offset, creating a much better slash effect

Beams aren’t good for sword slashes

I actually spent 10 hours on a slash effect spritesheet, and turned out EXTREMELY high quality

1 Like

its better if you use mesh like if the slash to the right just clone add debris item to what direction the animation is

image

do you know how to fix these?

1 Like

thank you for this tutorial! i’ve just been looking for something just like this

8 Likes

Turned out pretty well after a while. Thanks for the tutorial.

image

image

7 Likes

Mind explaining how you did the thing in gimp on the second image? im completely lost on how to do that.

4 Likes

seam the middle of the sphere and unwrap it

I really don’t understand the UV Wrapping at all, I watched the blender guru’s videos but I still cant figure out anything. Please help!

1 Like