Hi my name is Laurent Renaud, you may visit me also at my website at: http://laurent.renaud.free.fr

In this 3D Studio Max FX tutorial we will use particle flow and some max script tools to animate a planet explosion, or fragmentation.

No max script knowledge is required and I will try to walk through most of the basic commands in Particle Flow. We will be using 3D Studio Max 2010.

Step 01 – Creating out planet

First we will create the base model to work with. Create a GeoSphere. Set segments to 9. The actual size of this sphere does not matter since what we are doing is not physically based.

Step 03 – Get the script

We need a max script tool to fragment the model. It s free and very easy to use. Go to www.scriptspot.com and search for “fracture voronoi” or Click on the following link to download the script : - fracture voronoi maxscript -. This is a free tool done by Garp. Download the script in your 3dsmax script folder.

Step 04 – Back to Max

Go to the menu MAXScript/Run script and choose Fracture voronoi. A new window appear in the viewport representing the script. Click on Pick Object button and pick the Geosphere. Set the Nb Parts to 30, the iterations to 2 and check Uniform for the fragments color. Nb is the amount of fragements you can expect from the selected mesh, and we are setting the color to uniform to keep the wire color the same in the viewport.

This tutorial is suggesting a fragment setting of 900, but if you have a old or slower PC adjust the Nb parts and iterations to give your computer a break.

Click on the Break button. Your base model has been hidden by the script. You can see the 900 fragments of the planet in the viewport.

The script also created a new layer for you with all of your fragmented objects already added to good file management.

Step 05 – Renaming the objects

Select all the fragments and go to the menu Tools/Rename objects … Set the base name to “Fragment” and hit the Numbered checkbox. This will auto-rename all of your objects with the base name followed by the incrementing number.

Click Rename, and then select all fragments and hide them. You may also go to your layer manager and hide this newly created layer.

Step 6 – Lets dive into this particle flow

Hit 6 to open the Particle View. Here we will work to create the planet explosion. There is quite a bit in Particle View so it is easy to get overwhelmed, and it is just as easy to have a bit of fun with it. For the first time though please follow along, but if you are bold you can play with your own settings to see what you can come up with.

Right-Click in the view and create a New/ Particle system /Standard flow.

Delete every operators but the Display 01.

Pick a Birth Script operator in the depot and drag it in the Event 01 floater. Drag the Display 01 operator in the PF Source 01 floater and set Type to Geometry.

Step 07 – Copy in the custom script

Select the Birth Script 01 operator and click on the Edit Script button. Select all existing script and delete it. Copy and paste the following one. *Note if you happen to click the green icon on the Birth Script, and it goes gray, don’t fret. This is turning on and off the event. Simple click it again and the event will then be active in the viewport.

Close the Script window. You have now a particle system version of your fragmented planet. Your 3ds Max scene contain :
- the base Geosphere model (hidden)

- the 900 fragments geometries (hidden on a new layer)
- the Particle Flow source replica of the fragments

Step 08 – Lets chuck some asteroids at it.

We will now create some 3 deflectors to hit the planet. Go to Create tab/Space Warps/Deflectors/SDeflector. Click and drag in the viewport to create 3 spherical deflectors.

Step 09 – Animating the Deflectors

Animate the deflectors so they hit the planet one by one. Make the last one bigger to break the whole planet. You will be able to adjust the deflectors animation later. Below I have turned on Trajectory by right-clicking the deflectors and checking the trajectory box.

To animate these the quick and easy way is to drag your frame slider over to frame 100, turn on auto-key. Then make sure you have the move tool selected and move the deflectors to their desired location. Then to offset their timing on hitting the planet, you can drag the deflector 2 keyframe to start on frame 20, and then the third deflector to start on frame 40, etc.. This part of the tutorial is not meant to be followed exactly, so have some freedom here.

Step 10 – Lets make objects know they are there to hit each other.

Hit 6 to show the Particle View. Pick a Collision operator in the depot and drag it in the Event 01 floater.

Select the Collision operator and click on the By list button to add the 3 deflectors.

Now, if you play the animation, the fragments are pushed forward when hit by the deflectors. The
particles animation is directed by the deflectors settings. The particles bounce on it. We will correct this weird effect by using a
new Event in the Particle View.

Step 11 – Adding speed and variation to the fragments

Pick a Speed operator in the depot and drag it beside the Event 01 floater.

A new Event 02 floater is created. delete the Event 02 Display operator and add a Spin operator from the depot.

To connect the 2 Events, Drag from the event output on the Collision operator in Event 01 to the Event 02 input,
and then release the mouse button.

Set the Speed settings to Speed=20; Variation=19,Direction=Icon Center Out; Divergence=90., and the Spin settings to Spin rate=80;Variation=75.

Now, the deflectors settings don’t affect the particle animation. They just enable a new event with its own animation operators. You can
adjust the Deflectors animation and watch the result in real time.

Step 12 – Tweaking the animation and adding secondary fragments.

The animation is fine now. But we can do better by adding more details. We will spawn little particles from the existing ones.

Pick a Spawn operator in the depot and drag it at the top of the Event 02 operators.

Pick a Shape Instance operator in the depot and drag it beside the Event 02 floater.

A new Event 03 floater is created.

Delete the Event 03 Display operator and add a Spin operator and a Speed operator from the depot. Unhide a fragment geometry.

Select the Shape Instance operator in the Event 03, Click on the Particle Geometry Object and hit H to pick the fragment.

In the Shape Instance operator, set the Scale settings to Sale=25;Variation=100.

Set the Speed operator settings to Speed=35; Variation=30,Direction=Icon Center Out; Divergence=90., and the Spin settings to Spin rate=120;Variation=100.

Connect the Spawn operator to the Event 03. Adjust the Spawn 01 operator offspring setting to 10. Beware to adjust the setting depending on your PC power range.

The animation is much better now. You can play with your own settings, add more deflectors etc. Feel free to post your planet destruction links below and see if you could blow up a planet, “How would you have it happen?”

I hope you have find this tutorial helpful.

Laurent Renaud
http://laurent.renaud.free.fr