Hazel Stagner | Portfolio

Tornado Spell

An effect created in Unity3D as part of a project to create one particle effect per day.
The goal of the effect was to design an effect for a swirling tornado spell where a vortex appears and sort of slams into the ground, staying for a short while before naturally dissipating.

The main body of the tornado is a custom model created in Blender. Vertex painting was used to mask off the top and bottom of the tornado. A simple two-layer custom shader scrolls a texture across the tornado to create the appearance of the vortex.

Another model at the bottom of the vortex creates a swirling skirt, using the same techniques as the tornado.

A very simple dust effect emanates from the point where the vortex touches the ground

Swirls of dust augment the tornado mesh.

Additional swirls appear at the very beginning as part of the ramp-in for the effect.

A hand-painted rock texture is applied to a particle spray effect to create the appearance of bouncing debris