EQ Painterly Fog FX

EQ Painterly Fog FX stylizes smoke, fog, fire, steam, dust, and magic VFX image sequences into deterministic painterly flipbooks. It supports imported image sequences and sprite sheets, previews the source and stylized results in the editor, and exports Unity-ready generated assets without modifying source textures.

Open

Tools/EQLabs/Creation/VFX/Painterly Fog FX

Workflow

1. Add source frames from the Project selection or a folder, or assign a sprite sheet with columns and rows.
2. Choose a built-in style preset or assign a saved PainterlyFogStyleProfile.
3. Build the source preview to verify frame order and timing.
4. Apply the style preview to generate deterministic CPU-stylized frames.
5. Export the flipbook package to create the color sheet, optional alpha mask, contact sheet, manifest, material, and Shader Graph recipe.

Generated Outputs

Generated outputs are written under:

Assets/EQLabs/Generated/Create_ArtVFX/PainterlyFogFX/

The tool creates per-source and per-style subfolders. Typical generated files include:

• *_Color.png
• *_Alpha.png
• *_Contact.png
• *_Manifest.json
• M_*.mat
• *_ShaderGraphRecipe.md

Style Profiles

The starter presets include:

• Ink Smoke
• Watercolor Cloud
• Gouache Fire
• Manga Speed Fog
• Charcoal Smoke
• Magic Mist
• Anime Steam
• Impact Puff
• Frost Breath
• Paper Dust
• Soft Poison Fog
• Stylized Ember Smoke

Each preset has its own palette, density response, stroke behavior, grain, alpha cleanup, temporal smoothing, and deterministic seed.

Export Presets

The export controls include performance presets:

• Mobile: smaller frame budget, tight padding, no Shader Graph recipe by default.
• Balanced: general production iteration target with QA artifacts and material setup.
• Desktop: larger authoring budget with recipe output.
• Cinematic: high-resolution authoring target, intended for review before runtime use.

QA

Exports include a manifest QA summary with pass/warn/fail status for alpha coverage, temporal flicker, readability, silhouette fragmentation, and estimated texture memory. Warnings and recommendations are written to the manifest so generated packages carry their production review notes with them. The QA uses the same Art & VFX analysis utilities as VFX Readability Meter and Silhouette Noise Analyzer.

Shader Graph

The generated material uses the best compatible transparent unlit shader found in the project. The optional recipe file documents a URP/HDRP Shader Graph setup for flipbook UV remapping, tinting, alpha boost, and particle or VFX Graph frame driving.

Safety Notes

Source textures are only read. Generated assets are created under the EQLabs Generated folder so iteration remains non-destructive and safe for Unity 2022.3 LTS and Unity 6+ projects.