For his take on Eldritch Blast from Dungeons & Dragons, Ryan Gee wanted the spell to feel heavy through its own shapes and movement. He created it within a week in Unity, using HLSL and Shader Graph, with all animation made inside the engine.
With the spell’s force damage in mind, Ryan concentrates sharp, aggressive shapes around the impact, then lets them dissipate into softer, rounded forms.
He also kept the design modular so it could work as a series of blasts, reflecting how the spell scales with player level.
Color follows the energy’s intensity. Reds and oranges break into a rainbow at the strongest moments, then fade into purples and ultraviolet blues.
Dark shapes behind the bright elements, including opaque forms that dissolve away, add contrast and help the spell stay readable in both bright and dark environments.
To test ideas quickly, Ryan reused a master shader he had developed across several projects. Written in HLSL, it provides options for combining and animating multiple textures and accounts for about 95% of the effect.
To emphasize the impact at key moments, Ryan also applies a custom directional chromatic blur locally. It adds slight color separation and a soft trailing edge that follows the same intensity gradient, reinforcing the motion while keeping the shapes readable.
He avoided full-screen effects, camera shake and caster or target animations throughout the study.
For extra movement, Ryan built the eyes entirely within the shader, with controls for pupil size and shape, colors and animation.
- ArtStation: Ryan Gee
- X: @CephalopodSalad
- Original project: Eldritch Blast VFX
- Art direction: Nullstar Solus
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