OK to use animated sprites for 2D UI in mobile apps?

Unity Engine
1

Hi all -

I generally see a lot of references to particle systems but rarely hear about animated sprites as means of animating mobile UIs in a more controlled manner. Are they commonly used?

For example, consider the green cross explosion that occurs at 18:08 in this case - surely it was achieved through a sprite animation, rather than particle systems?

As I finish the development part of my project and focus on polishing things and making everything look pretty, I find it difficult to tell whether certain visual effects can be achieved with Unity’s particle systems (and I’m simply not good enough to make them work the way they can) or if I’m just wasting my time and should, in certain cases, stick to sprite animations instead.

2

Its probably safe to say that one is an amimated sprite since its doesn’t look very dynamic (its probably just moved to be over the position in question but its size probably doesn’t change)

It really depends on your project. There is nothing wrong with UI animations since its usually the only feasable way to get some effects, in the past we had a particle effect with literally millions of particle playing and it looked gorgeous but the only way to have it look right in game was to export it as a sprite sheet and animate it.

You just have to be careful with how many images you are having in your project. Use particles wherever you can of course but I wouldn’t worry about these until they are a problem