Leaf Trail

For this effect, I placed a camera facing downward. This camera renders a sprite on the player character into a low-resolution render target. This render target is read by the ground shader, which interpolates between a leaf and bare ground texture. The leaf texture has a density map which makes it look like individual leaves are being removed.

I created a handful of 3D leaf particles that match the ground texture. Adding a few particle effects (one facing backward, one radiating out) to the player character gives the impression that the leaves are being thrown from the ground into the air.

As a little bonus, I created a post effect that reads from the depth map to highlight edges. This is an inexpensive effect that helps visually separate the player character and flying leaves from the background.

The effect could easily be extended so other entities could influence leaves, and other environment pieces like grass or water could be affected.