I spent about 5 days working on this 3 second sequence...
1. The Build Up
The build up consists of 5 frames of a small "ball of energy" pulsating. I could've done this with code, but I felt it would look to smooth and perfect. Using frames gets you that nice, rough, "can't-be-contained" energy feel.
2. The First Blast
After looping the build up, next comes the blast. This part is probably the most important part to get right. This is where you want your player to really feel that blast of energy coming out.
Ideally, you want these sprites to be as big as possible. Since my scene is viewing the blast from a far distance, it looks relatively small. However, I aided the effect by adding a flash of light that completely covers the screen for a couple of frames.
3. The Beam
This one is similar to the build up (#1), in that it's just some similar frames with slight varying sizes for a rough feel.
Lastly, I added some after effect with:
Sonic Boom Rings
Camera zooming out
Impact lines
Complimentary impact lines
