Buffs & Debuffs – Stylized Status Effect Shaders

LarkLab in Miscellaneous

Overview

What's included

Data-block Name What it is
Material assets 12 materials, one per effect Ready to use from the Asset Browser: Principled BSDF → effect → output, with Progress keyed 0 → 1 over 48 frames.
Node groups SE | Acid … SE | Stealth The effects themselves, inside each material. Reuse them to add an effect to your own materials.
Step by step

Quick start

1 Get the effect. Add the pack's folder to Preferences ▸ File Paths ▸ Asset Libraries, then drag a material (for example Burn) from the Asset Browser onto any object. This brings in its SE | Burn node group. To use the material as-is, skip to step 4.
2 Add it to your material. In the Shader Editor press Shift + A ▸ Group ▸ SE | Burn.
3 Wrap your shader. Connect your existing shader (for example Principled BSDF) to Base Shader, and the group's Shader output to Material Output ▸ Surface.
4 Set the sweep range. Enter your mesh's lowest and highest local Z in Bottom and Top (see Sweep range).
5 Animate Progress from 0 to 1 (see Animating). For Stealth and Disintegrate in EEVEE, set Material ▸ Settings ▸ Render Method to Dithered.
Your node setup should look like this:
Principled BSDF
BSDF ●
→
SE | Burn
● Base Shader Shader ●
Progress · Bottom · Top …Mask ●
 
 →
Material Output
● Surface
Setup

Setting the sweep range (Bottom / Top)

The effect travels along the object's local Z axis, from Bottom (Progress 0) to Top (Progress 1). Because it works in object space, it moves and rotates with your object and needs no UVs.

Where is your object's origin? Bottom Top
At the feet / base (typical characters) 0 height
In the center of the mesh (default primitives) −height / 2 +height / 2
Tip: read the height from N-panel ▸ Item ▸ Dimensions ▸ Z. If the object is scaled, apply the scale first (Ctrl + A ▸ Scale) so local units match what you see.
Pro tip: extend the range slightly past the mesh (for example Bottom −0.02, Top height + 0.02). That way Progress 0 is completely clean and Progress 1 fully covers the mesh.
Motion

Animating the effect

  1. Go to your start frame, set Progress to 0, hover the field and press I to insert a keyframe.
  2. Move ahead (the included materials use 48 frames), set Progress to 1 and press I again.
  3. To remove the status later, key Progress back down to 0.
  • Top Down makes the effect start at the top, which is good for curses falling onto a target.
  • The surface patterns move on their own while the timeline plays. Control them with Speed and Frame Step.
  • Use Linear interpolation for a mechanical sweep, or the default Bezier for an ease-in/ease-out feel.
 Progress animating from 0 to 1
Reference

Input reference

All 12 groups share these inputs, organized in three panels. Defaults vary per effect to match its look. The values below are typical.

Input Typical What it does
SPREAD
Base Shader shader Your original material. It shows wherever the effect hasn't reached yet.
Progress 0 – 1 How far the effect has spread. 0 = none, 1 = fully covered. Animate this.
Top Down off Flips the sweep so it travels from Top to Bottom.
Bottom / Top −1 / 1 Local-Z range the sweep travels across. Match it to your mesh.
Edge Width 0.01 – 0.015 Thickness of the glowing leading edge.
Edge Noise 0.35 Breaks up the edge so it isn't a straight line. 0 = clean, higher = more organic.
LOOK
Dark / Main / Light Color per effect Three-tone palette for shadows, body and highlights. Recolor any effect, for example a blue fire or a green curse.
Tint Amount 0 – 0.4 How much the effect color tints the underlying material.
Intensity 0.85 Overall strength of the effect layer.
Rim Width 0.15 – 0.3 Width of the glowing silhouette rim on affected areas.
Glow Strength 0.3 – 3 Emission strength of the bright parts. Pairs well with compositor Bloom.
Pattern Scale 1.2 – 2 Size of the procedural pattern. Raise it for small props, lower it for large creatures.
Fade Base 0.6 – 0.9 Acid, Disintegrate, Hologram, Stealth only. How much of the original material fades away under the effect.
ANIMATION
Speed 1.0 How fast the surface patterns move over time.
Frame Step 0.083 Time step of the pattern motion in seconds. The default (~1/12 s) gives a stylized, hand-animated "on twos" feel. Lower it for smoother motion.
Outputs
Shader Your material with the effect applied. Connect it to Material Output, or to the next effect.
Mask Black/white mask of the area the effect has reached. See Advanced for uses.
Per effect

Effect notes

Effect Type Notes
Acid Debuff Uses Fade Base to dissolve the original surface.
Barrier Buff Grid-style shield. Pattern Scale sets the cell size.
Blood Debuff Low glow by default (0.3), so it reads as liquid rather than light.
Burn Debuff Strongest with compositor Bloom. Try Top Down for meteor hits.
Curse Debuff Dark base with bright veins. Recolor to green for a poison variant.
Disintegrate Debuff Transparent: in EEVEE use Render Method = Dithered. At Progress 1 the object is gone.
Hologram Utility Semi-transparent scanlines, good for summons, previews and sci-fi.
Ice Debuff Highest default tint (0.4) for a fully frozen read.
Rune Buff Two-tone (blue base, gold glyphs). Great for empower and enchant moments.
Shock Debuff Brightest glow (3.0) and a smaller pattern (1.2) for tight arcs.
Slime Debuff Thick, low-glow ooze. Raise Tint Amount for a fully covered look.
Stealth Buff Transparent: in EEVEE use Render Method = Dithered. Glassy, almost invisible at Progress 1.
Going further

Advanced

Stacking effects
Chain groups: shader → SE | Curse → SE | Burn → output. Give each its own Progress keys to layer statuses.
Several materials, one object
Add the group to every material with identical settings. Tip: drive Progress in each material from one custom property so a single slider controls them all.
Using the Mask output
Mask is 1 where the effect has reached. Use it as a factor to blend extra shaders (frost roughness, wet specular), or send it to the compositor with an AOV Output node.
Custom variants
Duplicate a material, change the three colors, and save it as your own preset, for example Holy Fire from Burn or Poison from Curse.
Fixes

Troubleshooting

Problem Solution
Effect covers everything even at Progress 0 Bottom is above your mesh. Lower it to the mesh's lowest local Z.
Effect never reaches the top Top is too high, or the object has unapplied scale. Check Dimensions and apply scale.
Stealth / Disintegrate render black (EEVEE) Material ▸ Settings ▸ Render Method ▸ Dithered, plus Transparent Shadows.
Patterns are frozen during playback Drivers are blocked. Click Allow Execution or enable Auto Run Python Scripts, then reload.
Glow looks flat Add a Glare (Bloom) node in the compositor, or raise Glow Strength.
Short freeze when adding an effect In EEVEE, the shader is compiling. This happens once per material.
Changelog  ·  v1.0: initial release, 12 effects Need help? Message me on Superhive.
$7.90$5.53

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Details
Published 8 days ago
Blender Version 5.0 - 5.2
Render Engine Used Cycles, Eevee
Misc Data Animated
License Royalty Free

LarkLab

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