[Edited recent here ]
[silly broken links]
Starting this off with some ideas about how I want it to feel; inspiration is plasma… and r-type
inspiration was this gif that makes me think about gravitational distortion
flares
more plasma and rings
Editor mode WIP
here it is with lighting
grabbed my simple scrollx2 enum shader from my interference sample materials for orbs and flare depth
okay here is my submitted superfinal version
Cool stuff, lots of interesting shapes and actions going on. I especially like how those subtle electrical arcs look.
If I had to make a suggestion I’d say it could do with a bit more feeling of propulsion. I’m not getting a strong sense of speed from the swirling shapes that make up the core jet. It makes the speedy vapor cloud around it feel a little disconnected.
If everything else fails, add more camera shake 
In all seriousnes, it looks super cool.
Keep being awesome
[quote=“TheVman, post:4, topic:2688”]
disconnected.
[/quote]i agree, I felt the contrast was appealing, I’ll see how speeding up the flaring plasma feels; thanks for the feedback
[quote=“wyvery, post:5, topic:2688”]
In all seriousnes, it looks super cool
[/quote]thanks Wyvery! 
worked some more on plasma speed, ok “super_final 04”
i’m re-sketching a little, not sure which I like more
For me - blue 
It tells me it’s a higher temperature level and it has nicer value range.
I like blue as well but wanted to keep some warmth in some wispy gas
Lookin real nice! Starting to feel good and powerful!
some subtleties emphasized and some emphasis on contrast to fix what’s lost in compression; Now with added start-up sequencing
Try looking up some videos of NASA rocket engines or military jet engines starting up. There’s a bunch of variation between different engines, but a lot of them have this beautiful pop pop that happens just before ignition where a bright flash / flame shows up mid-way down the eventual “cone” of the flame. There’s also a “narrowing” that occurs where the flame starts out slightly wider than the eventual constant flame. They’re all things that could give a little extra life to the ignition.
that’s totally what I was going for, I must need a ton more contrast of action with exaggeration — ill have to rethink animator input, it’s touchy using particles since the editor gives poor realtime feedback (talk about technically challenging oneself lol)
You have the popping in terms of the timing, but not the mid-flame flare.
I’m thinking something like this (exaggerated some from what I would probably do), just ~one frame flashes of this on each “pop”:
You are also scaling the glow of the flame during the pops, but I don’t see anything when the flame comes on full. I’d make the glow about 50% wider and narrow to where it is now over 1-2 seconds, and the flame itself be slightly narrower and grow over the same period. Similarly the “lines” on the outer edge should have a slightly wider angle at the start and narrow at the same time, perhaps even add some randomness to the direction.
And yes, combining Unity a Particle System and an Animator is a pain to preview since there’s no clean way to keep them in sync. You can kind of hack it by having the animator toggle the particle system component on and off so you can at least loop in play mode.
added sparks to ignition
fireball
width variation over time
I couldn’t find direct reference to a midair flash so added something to try to make it work.
thanks for all the feedback
[i wanted to update the thumb with a better GIF and fix the broken links to the final]
Dude this is incredible! great work
