Welcome! In this tutorial I will explain my process to animate a soft-looking magic wave effect, using Clip Studio Paint.

 

I am going to skip the explanation of the basics of animation in Clip Studio, so if you're not comfortable with it, I recommend you to check these official tutorials:

Types of Magic

When we think of types of magic, we often imagine elements, but what if the way they appear and move are different?

Not only the Light/Shadow modes but also shape. We have some examples like the usual coming-from-the-palm, electric fingers, drawing finger, spider webs digits, pressure-activated, and aura/heat mode.

To draw these, I simply used an airbrush and a soft brush.

The first layer (airbrush) is the overall aura;

The second one (airbrush) is the more concentrated drag line, but still soft;

And the third one (soft brush) is whatever detailed effect you want.

 

These should use Glow Dodge, or Multiply, depending on the effect you want.

Shape of Magic

Even when not using elemental magic, you can still use different shapes and textures. Be sure to keep that in mind when creating new magic users!

 

I personally thought of a few:

You can also make it even more special by adding different colors:

Animation Tutorial! (Video)

I will explain the process by writing here, but if you want, you can watch my YouTube video on it, while turning on CC (subtitles):

Animation Tutorial! (Image Guide)

Here we go, animation time!

 

First, since I am using light to show magic, I need to create a shadow first.

Create a new animation folder and animation cel.

After, draw the first frame, and copy-paste the layer to start the second frame.

This creates easy dragging, and the animation doesn't shake.

After a few frames, start deleting the "tail" of the light, separating it from the hand.

At the end, you can made it disappear back into the hand, so that you can create a loop.

 

It is also important to erase where the shadows should be.

Repeat the same process again in another layer, but with a thinner trail.

Now, the 3rd layer :)

 

With a "normal" soft brush, or any of your liking, you can start detailing, while following with the same process as the first 2 layers..

 

Here, I decided to make it "root shaped", and flowy.

 

Time for the light on the rest of the canvas.

Since the only thing here being animated is the magic effect itself, I created a sphere of light, inside a folder which contains a mask. This allows us to animate the sphere without moving the "allowed place" for light.

Now change all the light layers to "Color Dodge", and add more shadows around the body, to emphasize the light.

 

And we're done! :)