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How would I go about creating magic orb that looks like from magic menu in Skyrim in Unity3D?

Here is what I have in mind: Orb Image

And a video of that effect from 0:09-0:13: Orb Video

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  • \$\begingroup\$ That looks like a just 3d renderd texture that gets renderd to the 2d hud. \$\endgroup\$
    – Tordin
    Commented Sep 17, 2013 at 11:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ The tags indicate you are using unity, unity has a powerful particle editor allowing for mesh variations and all kinds of physical simulation. This is most likely a simulated particle effect that was produced as a part of the content pipeline internal to Bethesda. \$\endgroup\$
    – Evan
    Commented Sep 17, 2013 at 13:46

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It is likely a combination of different particle effects.

A particle effect is a graphic effect which consists of many tiny objects which move according to specific rules. In this case it looks like they combined some particles which orbit around the center with some which are created at the center and move out of it while becomming more transparent and others which ares spawned outside and move towards the center while becomming less transparent.

For the rendering of the particles themself they likely used lots of shader effects like blur, bloom and different transformations.

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My guess is it was a pre-rendered. But I could be mistaking.

If it wasn't pre-rendered (and still likely if it was), I would guess that it's done with a series of steps:

  • A basic, white, particle billboard for the glow in the center.
  • A billboard, with animated texture, for the beams coming off of the core.
  • An Irregular sphere, with a texture that is spotted with bright lights for the small white lights circling the sphere (possibly deformed in real-time)
  • Triangle strips, with a few different possible textures, moving and twisting around the surface of a larger, likely irregular, sphere for the beams circling the form.
  • A "Bloom" effect, to give it a bit of a glow.
  • Maybe a slight motion blur, as the beam's seem to leave a slight trail.
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    \$\begingroup\$ Very unlikely it was pre-rendered. It looks like a particle effect like any of a bazillion others you'd see in any such game. I've seen almost the exact same kind of thing done by one of our effects artists before in-engine (couldn't tell you how, other than that there are textures and the particle engine involved). \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 17, 2013 at 16:37

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