Create a Photorealistic 3D Explosion

[Aikiman]

Maya fluids make it easier to achieve the effect you are after or getting your hands on Overburn (google 'Overburn Maya') will give you some cool explosion presets but again you have to have fluids. If you dont have fluids then you could use a combination of Maya's particle effects but it wouldn't be an easy task and would take a lot of experimentation.

There's a product out there called ParticleIllusion which you can download a limited version for free that uses sprite animations for its effects. There are a couple of really cool explosion presets that you could dissect so that you could make your own in Maya. If you got the full version you could export them out and comp them into your scene, but remember they are only 2D.

[HappyCalaveras]

Peter Shipkov's awesome Overburn (formerly known as Afterburn) tool can be found here:
http://www.petershipkov.com/development/overburn/overburn.htm

but as Aikiman said, you'll need Fluids to use it. Also be aware that, like all fluids, rendering time will be higher than just using particles for this effect.

You could also make an explosion out of particles using a combination of sprites, cloud particles, and ramp-shaded particles. That should render quicker, but would take some tweaking to get it to look right. I would be very suprised if there wasn't a tutorial already in the CGTalk forums somewhere on how to do this edit: Actually, I found one on my local machine, here you go: http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=other&file=ParticlesFireball.zip don't expect the same results as you could get with fluids, but at least render times will improve

[PantherX]

Thanks everyone for your assistance - the OverBurn software is really kewl, am currently rendering a beautiful looking explosion (started over 3 hours ago-lol).

My next question now is how can I get the explosions created to react with active and passive objects dynamically, for example an explosion knocking a wall down. I tried applying a gravity node to the explosion emitters however it wouldn't take.

What can I do?

[Aikiman]

To have your particles collide with your rigid bodies is really easy, but make sure you select the leadParticle in Overburn and not the emitter. Then shift select your collision object, go to your particles menu and 'make collide'.

To make your dynamics blow your active rigids over use radial or volume axis field which is connected to your rigids only, and time the magnitude with your explosion. Keyframe for example your magnitude to 500 then kill it over a couple of frames, you can add fall off if you like, and dont forget gravity on your rigids also.

If you haven't worked with rigids much its always a good idea to turn off self collisions for a fast simulation otherwise use low res proxies.

[PantherX]

Thanks Aikiman, helpful as ever.

The thing is I want the explosion to drive the physical event - ergo explosion forces active bodies apart like a real explosion. The way you've mentioned I'm going to try when this has finished rendering; however I'm looking for something quite simulation real.

Also have you considered working with someone on your dogfight animation? Can I have a copy of your airplane model in maya compatible format so I can blow it to pieces?

[Aikiman]

At the moment your Overburn explosion is driven by expressions so there is no magnitude as such to blow your wall over, you have to add your own magnitude field to affect any rigids. Just look at it like Overburn supplies you with eye candy but left out the invisible magnitude just so you can put one in yourself!


Also have you considered working with someone on your dogfight animation? Can I have a copy of your airplane model in maya compatible format so I can blow it to pieces?


Dude, thanks for the offer, but thats what I intend to do once I get some time on my hands. If you are keen to make something happen then send me a PM or email, but I'm really looking for somebody who can model and animate rather than know dynamics. ;)

[PantherX]

Kewl - still waiting for the rendering to finish now, once complete I'll start work on blowing a brick box apart.


Dude, thanks for the offer, but thats what I intend to do once I get some time on my hands. If you are keen to make something happen then send me a PM or email, but I'm really looking for somebody who can model and animate rather than know dynamics. ;)

I can model pretty much anything. If you don't believe me check out my portfolio here on CGTalk and my blog at http://t3kaos.spaces.live.com. I'm more of a modeller than animator and my modelling speciality is vehicles, buildings and environments high-res.

[Aikiman]

Would you mind posting the animation up in hi-res if you can so i can have a look at the quality of Overburn? Also give us a headsup on rendering time and how many frames. That would be great if you could.


I can model pretty much anything. If you don't believe me check out my portfolio here on CGTalk and my blog at http://t3kaos.spaces.live.com (http://t3kaos.spaces.live.com/). I'm more of a modeller than animator and my modelling speciality is vehicles, buildings and environments high-res.


I dont have time to do anymore modelling or texturing even though I enjoyed doing it at the time which is why this project has come to a stand still for now. Basically I need to model another jet fighter, some ground vehicles, maybe Surface to Air missile launchers, random houses, (city scapes if Im feeling really ambitious and didnt have a life) and landscapes. And to top it all off some nice character animation of the pilot in cockpit which would be quite easy since the guy woiuld have his head gear on.
ha ha ha, so much to do, so little time :)
If you want to contribute then send me an email PantherX, It would be awesome to get some help if its something you have time for, and if not, thanks for taking interest :thumbsup:

[PantherX]

Screenshots and information about the render is now on my blog. Many thanks everyone. I'm going to start testing a dynamic explosion this week and will provide a new update next week (or earlier if I can crack it).

Thanks

[PantherX]

Thanks everyone.

Screenshots and information about the explosion have been added to my blog http://t3kaos.spaces.live.com.

I'll be testing a dynamic explosion blowing apart a brick box this week, so when its rendered I'll give you all an update.

Thanks again.

[avillabon]

nice explosion! Looks very cool. And taking it only took you three hours to put together is not bad at all! How was render time?

There is something i dont understand though... You did this in maya? I though after burn was for 3Ds Max, i might be wrong. The reason i ask is because im doing a little research myself for a project (http://www.vfxtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6338) and i need to build a realistic maya explosion. Check out my thread if you can...

And please dont forget to tell me if this was max or maya. Thanks for the help!

Alex

[PantherX]

There is something i dont understand though... You did this in maya? I though after burn was for 3Ds Max, i might be wrong.

This Maya only. If you check my blog entries at http://t3kaos.spaces.live.com/ you'll see details on rendering etc. I would recommend using Maya for your project because, frankly, its far superior to 3DS Max for detail work and physics simulation. It would help if you downloaded the novodex plugin as well for improved physics simulation (this is also available for 3DS Max).

[PantherX]

I've started RnD on blowing apart a simple building structure using dynamic forces and then keying it to match an explosion. However the problem is that when I shatter the building and apply a volume axis force to it - instead of blowing apart it gives me an 'object interpenetration error'. If interpenetration occurs will it stop the physics simulation taking place? How do I get around this?

[floppydj]

Hi,

I'm no maya dynamics guru but was just doing a car body exploding (panels etc) and had a lot of the interpenetration thing happening.

When it comes with that error usually the offending objects will be selected. Under the solvers menu is an option that says something about interpenetration (not in front of maya right now soz) use it with the objects selected on the first frame of the animation.

I think what it does is to tell maya at the start to not calculate these objects colliding with each other. For my purposes this worked well, but if you are wanting more accuracy, then making sure the geometry pieces are fully enclosed (no holes) and upping the sampling may help as well.

Dave

[apoc519]

nevermind.

[-heavy-]

I've started RnD on blowing apart a simple building structure using dynamic forces and then keying it to match an explosion. However the problem is that when I shatter the building and apply a volume axis force to it - instead of blowing apart it gives me an 'object interpenetration error'. If interpenetration occurs will it stop the physics simulation taking place? How do I get around this?

i think the interpenetration happens when the shattered pieces overlap after shattering,
to solve this U can shatter and then select all pieces and scale them down a bit.

or U can use Blastcode from FerReel Labs - www.blastcode.com (http://www.blastcode.com) which can create even
more realistic broken buildings, windows, bottles and so on.

may i am wrong, but your explosion on your blog looks, like the examples which comes with overburn.
nevertheless dit U understand what overburn does?

cheerz
deHeavy

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