Manta Ray System Built With Unity's Shader Graph & VFX Graph

The goal of Jawad Srour's project was to create a fully procedural manta ray animation system without relying on baked animations or skeletal rigs, while putting his technical art skills into practice.

The animation is generated entirely on the GPU using Unity's VFX Graph and Shader Graph. Each manta ray's swimming motion is driven by an accumulated phase value synchronized with the VFX simulation. Procedural texturing and randomized attributes are used to create variation to give a more natural and dynamic feel. A strong focus was placed on optimization to ensure the system remains efficient and scalable.

The artist also noted that good topology was essential to achieve smooth mesh deformation. The system uses LOD swapping, displaying the high-poly manta ray mesh only when it is close to the camera.

For a closer look at the development process and technical implementation, check out the project breakdown on ArtStation.

This isn't the first time Jawad Srour has explored underwater-themed projects in Unity:

For more aquatic-tech inspiration, take a look at how Life Below handles the simulation of large numbers of swimming fish. And if you're looking for a Unity water system, Eugatnom Studios' Tidal provides a robust solution with waves, refraction, foam, and underwater effects:

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