Exploding meshes

stegoman05

Hi, i have question about something. Im trying to explode a 3d mesh of the galactica.


What im trying to use is the PArray thing. It works good with basic object like the teapot, but when i use is on a mesh it just selects one piece of the ship. Not the ship as a whole. So can anyone tell me what im doing wrong.

Here is an example of the teapot.



What im trying to explode



Any help will be appreciated.

fluxfire

If i remember correctly there is a setting in max called bomb works quite nicely from what i have seen to blow up meshes.

stegoman05

Sorry about not saying what program i use. I use 3ds max. Anyways i tried the bomb and it didnt turn out right.



See it looks like glass is breaking or something. Im trying to get the more chunky effect.

fluxfire

Hum i think i can find a link to a max tut page that has just what your looking for. I will take a look and update this post with the link.

EDIT:Here is a link to an exploding planet with shockwave tut that should be what you need to achive your effect also on that web site if you look to the left and click on autodesk 3ds file there are like 40 pages of tuts for max if you should need any other effects look there.

Hope that helps

stegoman05

Thanks for the tut, but i still have a problem. When i pick an object(the mesh) for the PArray it just picks a part of the mesh but not the ship as a whole. So when explode its just the part that explode. How do i get it to select the whole mesh?

fluxfire

Um at this point it would have to be a max user that can answer that i don't use that program so i couldn't tell ya. Sorry

-MerlyN-

I havent tried that yet and I havent exploded anything for a long time. But if I remember Wil's galactica mesh correctly, it consists of several independet parts. The bomb modifier requires a single mesh to work. So you will have to collapse all galactica parts into a single mesh and apply the bomb to that mesh.
Just grouping all parts together probably will make all parts explode but move the exploding pieces all to the center point of the group which probably is, what u showed in the second posting.

I'd suggest you apply an edit poly modifier to the main body of the galactica mesh and attach all other parts. Then apply the bomb modifier to that edit poly part.

Of course I might be totally wrong though. Hope it helps anyway.

stegoman05

Ok i tried that but it still looks like the above post with the bomb. The only good thing is that i tried the parray and it was able to select the whole mesh when i use the edit poly. But i cant get it to look like chunks instead of the glass look. Im trying to make it explode a little more realistic. Like the teapot in the first post. So any help would be awsome. Oh by the way i tried the edit poloy and it lag like crazy so i had to use a mesh less complicated. Becasue with the galactica it kept closing. Good thing it works. Just need the chunky effect.

HESHION

Have you tried blowing up the ship in sections instead of a one big whole? For a ship like that, different parts blow up at different times. The engines will go first then the rest. Remember when Pegasus was destroyed. The head was destroyed, then the engines went. Use the bomb effect on two or three sections. Maybe that will work.

count23

stego, it's easier ot just clone out parts of the ship yourself and make keyframes for individual sections. You dont need the "entire" ships worth of debris to spiral away, most of it would be destroyed in the explosion, even a few large shards or a particle emitter of random small plates/pipes would give you the illusion you desire without the hassel.

stegoman05

Ok i will try that. Thanks for all of you who helped.

[Deleted User]

I haven't done this in a while, mind, but one of the particle arrays or bomb modifiers does have a thickness modifier that can be applied... I used to use it when blowing planets up in animation tests, and it's been in there since max 1 or 2. *checks* it's under particle array, in the particle type rollout for the array. In addition, the thickness modifier is in that same rollout. You can also set the maximum number of chunks and the like... if you're wanting irregular sections to be exploded, though, I'd recommend cutting some irregular lines, so the chunks aren't limited to edge likes and other straight lines. Then, play with the rotation, velocity, angles, etc to your liking, and if it's a still image, include some internal structure or systems (don't need to make sense) spilling out with everything else to suggest an internal volume.