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(RELEASED) Cartoon FX: Cartoon/Comic Book styled Particles Effects Pack

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by Jean-Moreno, Aug 1, 2012.

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  1. sirius_002

    sirius_002

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    A must have, incredible work; will buy this as soon as I get home!
     
  2. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    Thanks for the comment!

    I've just submitted "Cartoon FX Pack 2" to the Asset Store; it should be on the store soon if everything goes well!
     
  3. p6r

    p6r

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    Pack 2 already used in a project !!! :)

    Great work !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    6R
     
  4. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    Yes, the pack is up on the store! Thanks for your purchase! :)

    I've made a dedicated thread if you have questions or suggestions about the new particles!
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2012
  5. crafTDev

    crafTDev

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    OMG!

    If I buy these, would you be able to make some modifications for me? Like my apps style is filled with cartoony outlines on everything, and effects that follow this would be awesome!!
     
  6. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    Sorry, I can't address such a specific request seeing the amount of work needed to do this for each effect; however the textures are all available at high resolution so you can alter them to get the effect you want!


    I've submitted a new version with 2 new effects (+3 variants): Gas Leak and Magic Poof!



    You can see then in action in the updated demo! (last effects)
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2013
  7. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    The update is now up on the store!
     
  8. crafTDev

    crafTDev

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    That's actually all I needed to know, since I can just modify in photoshop...I know nothing about the shuriken particle system. Also can we get more mobile optimized particles please?! :)
    Pack 2 doesn't seem to have them.

    Thanks!
     
  9. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    There should be a folder named "CFX2 Prefabs (Mobile)" with the mobile optimized effects. Each mobile effect starts with CFXM2 too. Are you sure that the folder isn't there? I've verified with my local package sent to the Asset Store and they're there, so try to reimport them maybe.
    Tell me if the problem persist and I'll check with the Asset Store team.
     
  10. crafTDev

    crafTDev

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    It's there, wasn't paying attention. One question I wanted to ask, do these fx batch well, or is it going to be draw call heavy?
     
  11. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    Not sure about that; the mobile versions are optimized memory and shader-wise (avoiding alpha blending as much as possible), so it actually depends on the built-in optimizations of the Shuriken particle system.
    It also depends on which effect you want to use intensely; for example the alternate smoke explosion effect (CFX_SmokeExplosionAlt) contains 251 particles, whereas the red hit effect (CFX_Hit_A Red) contains only 20 particles (and it stays less time on screen).
    You can try to test the limits with a testing scene where you increase the number of particles slowly and see when the frame rate starts to drop!
     
  12. gameboy

    gameboy

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    Jean,

    Your effects packs are awesome! :D

    I was wondering if it was possible for you to develop an editor or have a way that would allow modification of the text displayed in some of the effects, all the while keeping the same "font" as the original effect had (for example, change "poof" to something else like "puff", or whatever, if we want).

    In addition, I have a suggestion for your third Cartoon FX pack: Liquid Effects! :cool:

    Here are some possible ideas to get started with (I'm sure you can think of more if you want to do this type of pack):
    • All sorts of splashing effects: splashes that occur from an object not only falling straight down, but splashes that occur from an object moving in a more horizontal direction.
    • Other type of effects: foaming, squirting, stirring, whirlpool like effects.
    • Variations for different types of materials - water, lava, goo, foam, etc.
    • All sorts of ocean wave type of effects. Variation in the types of wave (for example, tight pipe type curl on waves vs. breaks on waves that seem to break all at once (the wave curl occurs across the entire length of the wave all at once). The ability to specify whether the break moves from the left or right. Randomize the period that the breaks will occur on waves, also the ability to somewhat randomize the speed of the falling wavebreak, so every wave doesn't curl at exactly the same speed everywhere on the same wave.
    • Bow wave effects: The type of leading "wave" or splash that is produced the bow of a boat or other object moving through a liquid. The bow wave changes depending on the shape of the front of the object moving through the liquid (pointed bow vs flat bow - as found on a barge for example).
    • Wake effects: As a boat or other objects moves through a liquid, it leaves a wake. All variation in the ripple effects left by the wake, as well as the "interior" foamy look of the part of the wake inbetween the outer "ripples" of the wake.
     
  13. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    Thanks for the feedback! :)

    It would be kinda complicated because I made them using multiple effects from Inkscape, so creating a in-Unity editor for this wouldn't be very practical.
    However if you tell me which words in which colors you want, I can create new textures for you (I'll post them here), since I have the source files so it would be quick to do.

    Thanks for the suggestions, they are duly noted!
    However if I do a new pack it won't be for the near future: I'm currently working on other special effects stuff (more news in the coming week if everything goes well!)
     
  14. p6r

    p6r

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    I would like the same words in french !!! Is it possible ???

    6R
     
  15. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    Sure! Just give me the exact translations you need (for example I'm not sure how 'wham' could be translated, maybe 'pom', 'paf',...?) and I'll do that tomorrow!
     
  16. p6r

    p6r

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    Words :

    BANG
    PAF
    BOUM
    PLOUF
    PAN
    BING
    WHIZZ
    BIP
    VLAN
    PLOC
    TOC
    CLIC

    Thanks,
    6R
     
  17. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    Here you go! :)
     

    Attached Files:

  18. gameboy

    gameboy

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    Would it be possible to isolate out just the process of creating a word (in the way that matches what you currently have to do to create these wonderful word effects) and them "import" it into an editor of some sort which then merges it into the final Cartoon FX?

    Perhaps a tutorial showing us the process of creating a word for an effect. It could be bundled with the tool as part of the documentation.

    It doesn't necessarily have to be an in-Unity editor, just something that produces a Cartoon FX that we can then USE in Unity. Or produces just a file or series of files that can be imported into an in-Unity editor that can be used by Cartoon FX.

    I'm just trying to save YOU from having to manually create all the possible word/language requests that might come in. A separate tool that allows others to create words (or pictographs) in whatever language they like could be another way for you to make money! :D
     
  19. cpasjuste

    cpasjuste

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    Arg, well, i'm not used to buy twice the "same" package. I mean i'm really disapointed to see a new fx pack while i did already buy one a few days ago. New effects should be included in the first pack. I'm sorry if nobody cares but i really hate this sort of merchandising, i feel bad about that since i was very happy with it. For me it's the same as if i release a game tomorow then sell an update a week after.

    Sorry,
    David.
     
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2012
  20. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    I'll make a tutorial using Inkscape and Gimp (both are free open source softwares) to do the same effect when I have time (probably next week), then you will be able to manually create your texts and alter the textures in Unity. I don't intend to do a commercial tool for this feature anyway!

    Well, the second pack is not the 'same' pack, it has completely new and unique effects; as I said before, I prefer to have two packs with different effects with a low price and let the users choose whichever pack they want, rather than one big pack with a higher price.
    It is not a marketing move of some sort, I just prefer to let the users have flexibility. So of course you are free not to buy the second pack! :)

    It actually took me quite more than a week of work, and contains more than twice the content of the previous pack. So, continuing your analogy, I'd consider that a sequel rather than an update!



    Just a heads-up: the first pack is part of the current Asset Store Madness sale, with 50% off the price!
     
  21. Dreeka

    Dreeka

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    Hey,

    I am considering to buy the Toon FX Packs for my 2d game.
    However, I need a few fx elements for my spell list.

    Here is what I need:
    - Fire Aura
    - Frost Breath
    - Frost Nova
    - Heal
    - Drain Life

    Is it possible to add these in an update (or modify the available fx elements)?
     
  22. crafTDev

    crafTDev

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    Guess I'll be buying pack 1 this week!! What I love about these effects is that they give me a starting point to make my own stuff and modifications.
     
  23. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    I can't promise anything but I can take these as suggestions and give it a shot! However I'm currently finishing up an upcoming asset for the store, so I won't work on them immediately (likely in 1 or 2 weeks).

    Great! :) Yes, it is a good starting point to learn more about Unity's particle system and with a little practice and patience you can derive a lot of effects from these base effects!
     
  24. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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  25. DevionGames

    DevionGames

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    I just saw your packs instantly purchased both packs!

    Thank you very much!
     
  26. gameboy

    gameboy

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    Jean,

    Thanks so much for the tutorial! :cool:

    Fantastic work! I can't wait to see what you come up with on your next project! :eek:
     
  27. p6r

    p6r

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    Very good and useful tutorial...
    Thanks a lot Jean.

    6R
     
  28. yuewahchan

    yuewahchan

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    @Jean Moreno, for the CFX_WaterWiggle.shader, can you add Transparent support ?
     
  29. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    Here is a transparent version! :)
     

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  30. yuewahchan

    yuewahchan

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    thank, you are so helpful.
     
  31. yuewahchan

    yuewahchan

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    @Jean Moreno, I suggest that you can make some cartoon weapon, magic effect similar to pc game "Torchlight 2".
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2012
  32. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    I'll note that suggestion, however I already have a lot to do and haven't done more research on other suggestions yet (I'm still working on my next asset store project), so it will take time before I can work and try things on this!
     
  33. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    New update with new features!

    * Added CFX Spawn System, to easily create preloaded pools of effects and avoid calling Instantiate() and Destroy() constantly!
    This should help a lot performance-wise for mobile platforms!


    * Updated Cartoon FX Easy Editor with the ability to tint the effects, preserving their saturation and alpha!


    The update (v 2.0) has been submitted to the Asset Store and should be released soon!
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2013
  34. p6r

    p6r

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    Thanks a lot Jean...
    Very clever !

    6R
     
  35. trialforce

    trialforce

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    You work is really cool! I bought it weeks a go.

    Thanks a lot man!
     
  36. Gokhan Dogramaci

    Gokhan Dogramaci

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    Hi, I have two questions.

    1) When I want to change the texture of the animation, it changes the other animations' textures, too. For example, I've instantiated one of your prefabs in your plugin twice. When I change the texture of the one of them, the other one changes, too. Is it because of I instantiated the same prefab, or not?

    2) How can I add new textures to the animations same as your textures, like 64x64 Alpha 8?

    Thanks in advance...
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2012
  37. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    I just tested and it works for me. Try with the following method:
    Code (csharp):
    1.  
    2. GameObject obj = (GameObject)Instantiate(prefab);
    3. obj.GetComponent<ParticleSystemRenderer>().material.mainTexture = newTexture;
    4.  
    Make sure to get material and not sharedMaterial to change the settings individually (I believe that Unity creates a new material instance when modifying a property from it).

    You can change the import settings in the Texture Inspector:
    - select the texture
    - set the Texture Type to Advanced
    - check Alpha from Grayscale to get an Alpha8 texture (if the source texture doesn't have an alpha channel already), this can prevent you the hassle to create the alpha channel manually in your image editor software
    - change the Max Size of the texture if you need to (you can select different options for different targets)
    - change the Format to Alpha8 (or any other format you need)
     
  38. Gokhan Dogramaci

    Gokhan Dogramaci

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    İt worked . Thanks for your help :) Thanks a lot .
     
  39. Beep2Bleep

    Beep2Bleep

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    Anyone having any difficulty with version 2.2? Since I got 2.2 I can't import the asset at all it crashes with a error:

    Fatal Error!

    type == kMetaAssetType pathName.find ("library/metadata") != 0

    I'm on Mac OSX on rMBP 15 using the latest Unity 3.5 (3.5.6f4). I have to quit from the bug reporter and then force close the main program.

    I reproduced the issue by making an empty project and attempting to import Cartoon FX Pack v2.2 only and it crashed in the same manner.

    Apparently this is an issue with 3.5 once a package has been updated to 4.0. Ragespline and several other packages is also broken in a similar manner. I guess 3.5 is now unusable with assets that 4 is out.
     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2012
  40. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    I'm really sorry for this issue; Unity 3.5 shouldn't have let you update to 2.2 in the first place!
    I've submitted an update with 3.5 that also fixes the bugs that appeared in Unity 4.0, so it should be compatible with both versions. We'll have to wait for the Asset Store team to approve the update, probably tomorrow.
     
  41. outtoplay

    outtoplay

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    Please support 3.5 a bit longer. I think this is a great product, far greater than my interest in upgrading to Unity 4.0 I have little interest in 4.0, at least till they deliver the new GUI system, . Mecanim is a toy set that offers little interest to me
     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2012
  42. BryceK

    BryceK

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    Hey jean,

    Bought Both your packages a while ago, now i'm using them in a project of mine. but I use like 175 flame of your mobile particles hehe and even when there mobile there still like 450 draw calls and since i'm building it for mobile platforms it would be nice to get it all down to atleast below 10. Is there a way within the package or in combination with another package to combine them all to 1 particle?
     
  43. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    Sure thing, it wasn't my intention to not support Unity 3.5 anymore. I should have verified that the Asset Store could handle several versions of Unity.
    I'll let you know when the update is up.


    175 flames looks like a lot even with optimization! Anyway, I'm not sure how Unity optimizes the particles internally, so you can try to either set them all as children of the same particle system GameObject, or to tweak the effect so that you only have one system (check the Emission and Shape modules of the Particle System). Also, prefer the Flame rather than DoubleFlame effects, they'll be cheaper on the GPU.
    Lastly, you have to avoid overdraw on mobile, so having a smaller flame (relative to the screen) will impact performance less than having a big one (with equal draw call amount), I believe. I'd be glad if someone could confirm that, since that's what I read but didn't test.
    You can also replace the default quads from the particle systems with a planar mesh that looks like a cut-out of the texture used, so that there will be less totally transparent pixels computed (and thus reduce overdraw), as you can see in this picture:

    In mobile sometimes it's better to have more vertex than pixels with transparent/additive textures.
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2013
  44. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    The new update has been accepted!

    Both Cartoon FX Packs 1 2 are now compatible with Unity 3.5 and Unity 4.0
     
  45. BryceK

    BryceK

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    Hey Jean,

    the whole problem at this point was that the distance of my camera was set to a 1000 and not to a 10 it should be, now I only have 20 draw calls. per frame but still the flames are still performance killer in the whole scene but thats always the case with particles hehe. anyway, love your product and keep up the good work ;)

    PS. it were small flames on torches btw.
     
  46. alexsan75

    alexsan75

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    Thanks for amazing Packs! Really great work, bought FX1 and trying to use in my project/game.
    I want to use your Spawn system for a few effects when collision occurs, via CFX_SpawnSystem.GetNextObject(object).. but how do I use correctly 'transform.position' where to spawn needed Prefab? It didn't worked for me, all effects are spawning/activating at positon of SpawnSystem (empty GameObject with script). What am I doing wrong?

    It did worked however if I use regular Instantiate, but my game is for mobile, so I really like to use Spawn/activation instead. Any tips or examples are appreciated!
     
  47. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    You must set the position of the effect to the collision point, so it depends on how you're managing your collisions. If you're still having trouble, please post the relevant parts of your code so that I can take a look at it myself!
     
  48. alexsan75

    alexsan75

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    Ok, thanks for such a quick reply!

    Here is a short code I'm trying to implement for Spawning system:

    Code (csharp):
    1.  
    2. public GameObject fx01;
    3.  
    4. ...
    5.  
    6. void OnCollisionEnter(Collision collision) {
    7. ...
    8.  
    9.      foreach(ContactPoint contact in collision.contacts) {
    10.           CFX_SpawnSystem.GetNextObject(fx01);
    11.           fx01.transform.position = contact.point;
    12.      }
    13.  
    14. ...
    15. }
    'fx01' - here goes FX prefab from your Pack in Inspector, or is it overkill?

    The Script above is attached to an object which collides with other things.. It reacts when Collision occurs, e.g. showing the effect but always at the same position - SpawnSystem gameObject position..
    What am I doing wrong?
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2012
  49. Jean-Moreno

    Jean-Moreno

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    Ok, I think I see what is the problem. You are changing the position of the prefab object, not the instantiated object, so it will always have its default position.
    When using the Spawn System, it will instantiates a number of copies of the prefab object at the start of the Scene and place them in an array to be reused later; so you have to take the reference of the object that you get from the array and change its position:
    Code (csharp):
    1.  
    2. GameObject effect = CFX_SpawnSystem.GetNextObject(fx01);
    3. effect.transform.position = contact.point;
    4.  
    Let me know if it works!
     
  50. alexsan75

    alexsan75

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    Thanks a lot! You sir are a genius :) It worked like a charm. Hope it will help others as well..
    I will definitely consider buying FX pack 2!
     
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