SPIRIT ORB SHADER
Inspired by the Spirit Orb item from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I set out to recreate the mystical item in Unity's Shader Graph.
HOW IT WORKS
The Spirit Orb was developed in three distinct parts - the orb surface, the inner icon, and the outer blob.
ORB SURFACE
Full Graph
Above is the full shader graph for the orb's surface. It generates the whispy blobs that pan over the orb; adds a base color, gradient color, and outer glow; and creates central transparency to view the spinning icon in the center of the orb. The orb itself also has a script that always faces the camera, so the transparent center is always perfectly aligned to the view to display the icon.​
Dim Whisps Generation
Here, I generated the dim whisps for the orb's surface. Gradient noise is panned and used to distort the UV's that will sample a secondary gradient noise texture. This created the desired wavy forms I was looking to use for the orb.
After distorting and sampling the gradient noise texture, I increased the contrast with a power node, and used a smoothstep node to create the toon-like harsh edges for the whisps.
The Magical Details
To make the effect feel magical and otherworldly, I defined a gradient and continuously rotated it to dynamically change the orb's color. Additionally, I used a fresnel node on the outer edges of the orb to give a glowing appearance, and tweaked the surface values to look glossy and bubble-like.
OUTER BLOB
Full Graph
The outer blob was adapted from a similar effect by Andy Touch. Here, simple noise is continuously offset and multiplied to form an amorphous shape. The blob is applied to a quad that sits in the center of the orb and always faces the camera, so I generated a cutout to allow the orb to always poke through the center and be enveloped by the blob.