Blowing up a door...

[Deleted User]

Hi,
I've got a movie I'm working on and I need some Delta guys to blow open a door. Unfortunately, I don't have the money for pyro so I'm exploring some other options for it, one of which is CGI.

I don't often blow things up so I was wondering if someone might be able to give me some pointers for how to approach this.

The scene takes place in a darkened building so I figure it should be easy-ish to hide the CGI bits of door.

My plan is to lock the camera down on the tripod and shoot the live action door closed and then the door removed and the guys entering from a few different angles.

Then, I'll take measurements of the door/frame for motion matching in 3ds Max.

Create a door and blow it up.

Now, the blowing it up is the bit I'm not certain how to do realistically. I know I'll explode it probably using the modifier(I'll model the door in pieces so that I can control exactly what blows apart and how it looks when blown apart), but I'm just... I'm kind of flying blind. I could hand animate it but there's gotta be an easier way that I'm probably just not aware of.

Can anyone help me?

L2K

you could simply put your cam on the other side of the door while falls down on the ground.
then later, put some explosion sound.

Ramiel

Nah... We want to see the big boom...:D

This site could be helpful for you;) : DETONATION FILMS FREE STUFF

And you could use a particle bomb to blow the door, or copy the scene in the first (and only) Matrix movie when Neo and Trinity are "using" the elevator at the end of the lobby scene... (a metal door deformed by the explosion and thrown away by the blast...)

[Deleted User]

Yeah, I wanna see stuff go boom! lol

I've already got some pyro stock footage, but I'm kind of going for this thing I saw in a Black Hawk Down documentary(they use det-cord which, in and of itself is easy to find, but to find someone to blow the door up cheaply, not to mention the 3 doors I'd wanna blow up for coverage of the shot is quite expensive and laden with paperwork, more so here in NYC!).

Man, I wish I could find that BHD documentary online... I'll try and get some stills off my DVD of it(I don't think they ever showed it in the movie, basically, the door splinters along the edge where the hinge is in a nice straight line for the full length of the door).

Thanks for your tips, I'm gonna try some stuff(Hell, maybe it'd be easier to rig some sort of pneumatic aircannon inside a balsawood door! lol).

[Deleted User]

Ok, I captured the pertinent stuff from the documentary and condensed it down to show what I want to achieve in my movie(but instead of outside, inside and generally in the dark(also, from the opposite side of the door as the charge)).

It doesn't look too terribly difficult to do, does it?

Andrew Boulton

[ame=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dUf_C_EGlbU]YouTube - the italian job-blow the bloody doors off[/ame]

Couldn't resist any longer...

[Deleted User]

well you would first have to describe the kind of door you wish to blow up. A solid dimber? a timber frame? a timber slat? a solida metal? a vault door? etc etc. Each have different types of effects, levels of deformation and debris etc. Also the extent of the charge used. Do you want to blow the door to bits or blow open a tiny lock? The more specific you are the more help we can give.

To achieve a similar effect as shown in that vid id model the door into a few big chunks and a smaller one around where the charge is. Use Parray to explode the smaller chunk into heaps of tiny splintery fragments and animate the other chunks shaking a bit and swinging open of falling down or whatever.