An explosion is a sudden release of energy following combustion. The fire appears from a given point and expands outwards in a bursting fashion. Parts of the exploding object fly around, and soon the gusts of fire leave place to thick, dark smoke.
For reference, watch this video by Slowmo Guys on YouTube, there is a massive high detailed explosion.
We can breakdown the explosion into 4 individual parts:
We have gameplay and art constraints in games. Visual effects should support the action and not get in the way of the player.
The explosion shouldn’t be too big so it doesn’t take all the player’s attention, and shouldn’t take a long time to fade away, so the player can quickly focus on the game again.
In our tutorials, we use a stylized art style. For consistency, our explosion follows the same direction, but the techniques we show in this series can apply to more realistic effects.
A lot of the difference between stylized and realistic looks lies in the textures. We use sharp textures that emphasize the shape of each particle. With more transparency and photo-based textures, you can get more realistic smoke and fire.