1 Tutorials LightWave 3D Break a box from the sky! Qua Jan 26, 2011 4:03 am
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by Demian Kurejwowski |
Download source files here. |
I saw this animation in the Lost Pencil Animation Studios homepage, they also are giving the scene, I made it using other plug-in, I want to participle and help other that started like me. In this tutorial I will show you how to use the SG_Explosion2, Crack It!, and Jolt! plug-ins, so you can have more tools in the future for your projects. Theory: SG_Explosion2 takes all the adjacent polygons of a piece, and understand that this is a fragment of geometry. [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link] The Crack it! plug-in will cut the mesh that you have into breakable pieces so SG_Explosion2 can explode them. [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link] The Jolt! plug-in will make our camera (or any other object) shake when some thing happens. Comes with lightwave. (Example: Shake the camera as if some horrible huge creature jumps on the ground.) Create a box with the default settings, and save it as cracktutorial.lwo In the second layer, create a box. This one will be our floor. Excellent!!! Now, we are going to cut into pieces the box so it can break, for this we are using the Crack It! plug-in. Run it (look for it under Construct Tab | Additional). Set Iterations to 6, Randomness in Direction to 60, and Randomness in Proportion ot 40. Feel free to play with the settings. No matter which settings you use, they won't affect the tutorial. Don't check the option for Distribute Pieces to Empty Layers One by One. This is what happened after I set my settings (6,100,100). Now my cube has been broken into many chunky pieces. The SG_Explosion2 plug-in, works on polys that are connected and takes them as an object to send it away (this is why we use the Crack It! plug-in, it cuts it for us). Save your object (with the 3 layer the box, the floor, and the cracked box from layer 1), and send it to Layout. You can delete layer one from Layout. We are not going to be using it. Open the object properties for layer 3, and add the SG_Explosion2 displacement. Now, be patient. It is now computing all the information of the polygons so it can explode them with the default settings. If the mesh is too high, you can go back to Modeler and select less polys (less blocks). I made this tutorial on a P4 1.4Ghz with 128Mb of RAM and a Ge-Force2 MX, and it worked fine. The problem with this plug-in is that every time you move something in Modeler, or sometimes in the same object in Layout, it makes funny stuff with the explosion. Don't worry. Just copy the SG_Explosion2 displacement, remove, and paste!!! It will recalculate the polys. The plug-in has no bouncing option, so the polys stay in place once they touch the ground. As you can see, we have an explosion for everywhere. We have to fix this. So, for now, we are going to set the parameters to break the box like its coming from the sky. These are the settings I used:
Done? Ok. That's how it looks like when it breaks. No. We have to animate the box falling from the sky. <table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td>1 key frame</td> <td>2 key frame</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Frame=0 Y=8 meters</td> <td>Frame=20 (when SG_Explosion2 takes action, right?) Y= 0 meter</td> </tr> </table> Let's add a little bit more action. Add a null to the scene. Call it smoke, and make it particle emitter. Now, you have a different way to animate the smoke, add the null to layer 3, and generate particles by Collision Event, and set the floor as a Collision Object, or by my way (I like to do it this way because you have more control over the particles). Ok, in this step, you will be adding the settings for the smoke. The only tab we are going to be modifying is the Motion tab. Under this, set the Vector Y to 10mm, Explosion to 1, and Vibration to .1 Now, we have to animate the generation of particles by hand. So, open the Graph Editor with the small E next to Birth Rate under the Generation tab, and set to more keyframes. <table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td>1 key</td> <td>2 key</td> <td>3 key</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Frame: 0 Value: 0 Incoming Curve: TCB Spline</td> <td>Frame: 20 Value: 120 Incoming Curve: Stepped</td> <td>Frame: 35 Value: 0 Incoming Curve: TCB Spline</td> </tr> </table> For final detail add Hypervoxels, you can use the Smoke preset. Easy! Right? Now, select the camera at frame 0, and use these settings:
Now, press the m key, so the Motion option comes up. Now, under the IK tab, add Modifier. Look for Jolt!. It's very simple to use, don't be afraid. In the Keyframe tab, take the Jolt! key bar to frame 20 (remember? The entire explosion and all the mambo jambo is going on!!!). Create the key. Now, you have a key, but you have to tell Jolt! what you want to happen. You can set the settings as you want, but the people who made this plug-in gave us a fast option, under the keyframe you press the Heavy button. Leave the check for Falloff, you don't want to be jumping all the time. Setting the camera Motion Blur to 50% well be fine, check the Particle Blur too. The tutorial is over but you will find my scene different, because I added some other stuff. SG_Explosion2 doesn't have a Bounce option. I added some particles and set the floor as a collision plane, and made Hypervoxels to look like other parts of the box. I also added another layer with another cracked box, to create more parts (with the same settings). |