Phoenix Tornado: Ryan's super

Ryan’s super, the Phoenix Tornado, is the move that ends the longest combos. It comes in three beats:

1. The burst: the screen goes dark, Ryan gathers himself and the energy explodes around him. The flames are born off the outline of his body, pose after pose, and spread outwards.
2. The blast: a ribbon of fire rolls forward towards the nearest enemy.
3. The column: a spiral of fire rises under the enemy, lifts them and drops them on the ground, burning.

Simulated fire, not drawn

The flames aren’t looping drawings: they come out of a small fluid simulation (heat rising, vortices curling it into tongues of fire), worked out frame by frame and then run through a colour ramp from white to deep red. So every effect has its own shape: the column, the blast, the fire hugging a character’s outline.