4.5
I could already do projectiles travelling around in Godot and I would like to make them more beautiful.
For example, see 1:14, 1:29 and 1:57 in https://youtu.be/cTu0NVdPpPM
See those trails of energy curve projectiles? What Nodes must I use in order to do that?
Not sure if its the best way, but it could be done with particles
A plugin exists for trails as well (I’ve not used, so can’t comment on how easy/good it is)
This YouTube channel has some wonderful VFX tutorials
Everything happens so fast in that trailer that those curves might actually just be plain 3d sprites.
If you need “slower” trails, particles are not really a good way to make them appear super smooth. The best way I know of is drawing a (procedurally) textured quad strip from trajectory positions, expanded to some thickness in camera space via a vertex shader. This always looks great as it ensures the same perceptual thickness from any viewpoint and complete continuity and smoothness without gaps you’ll typically get with particles, but it’s a bit involved to implement. I don’t know if there’s a system like that available in a form of plugin.
I was thinking the same thing, those could be animated sprites for all we know.
Another way to achieve these kinds of effects is by using an animated sprite (whether Sprite2D with AnimationPlayer or AnimatedSprite), and adding a shader to it to enhance the visual effect.
The sprite will be a kind of static effect, while the shader can add motion and dynamism to it. Shaders (they’re added as materials) can be added to most nodes, so you can use whichever suits your task.
You can experiment with shaders from godotshaders.com if you’ve never used them before. Lots of great art there that can help you get started with it.
I did missile trails in Stahldrache with 3d particle systems set to trails; in my case I just used translucent rectangular prism particles.