Best fracture plugin?

#1

Hi! What plugin do you think is the best one to fracture objects into pieces? To use afterwards as a rigid bodies. Which one is procedural? THANKS!!!

#2

Ruins, Dmm, Fracture…?

#3

If you want control over your destruction sim, http://www.fracture-fx.com/ is the only way to go. It’s used extensively by companies like Luma, Stargate, Zoic, The Mill and many many more.

Have a look at our spring reel and see for yourself:
http://www.fracture-fx.com/reels

You can download a trial here:
http://www.fracture-fx.com/fracture_demo

On top of that our customer support is world-class and there is a constantly updated tutorial section:
http://www.fracture-fx.com/tutorials

#4

There is also PulldownIt for Maya and it looks pretty interesting and easy to use.

#5

hii , i have try DMM, and Pulldownit, fracture looks very goodd too, what about BlastCode???

#6

what about BlastCode???

  • only works on NURBS
    -hasnt been updated in years
  • rumor on the interwebs has it they will close down soon

There is also PulldownIt for Maya and it looks pretty interesting and easy to use.
That is not what we hear from people in production.

Dont take my word for it. Have a look at our client reel. Fracture FX’s Spring 2013 Client Reel features work from clients like Method Studios, The Mill, Stargate Studios, Prime Focus, Zoic Studios. In the past few months, Fracture was used on feature films like Dredd 3D, Snowwhite and the huntsmen, Wrath of the titans and 30 minutes or less; TV series like NBC’s Heroes; and high-end commercials for Range Rover, Bacardi and
American Idol.

http://www.fracture-fx.com/reels

Try it out for yourself with our free trial here:
http://www.fracture-fx.com/fracture_demo

#7

Use Soup plug ins with ncloth (for maya 2012 and later) it is procedural.

These two tutorials may help
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HLlpOoXe2c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7RkOJiPihM

#8

I tried fracture when it was in beta and it’s very thorough and smart; but there’s a lot of boilerplate and it trades extensibility/accury for speed a little too much imo. Use it if you’re a studio have TDs and need realism. I also felt, like most other plug-ins, that shards felt too voronoi-ish; but a lot of time should be spent on modelling the true insides of what you’re going to break.

For quick & dirty sims I’ve used rayfire on max and was happy with it.

#9

I’d go with DMM (no experience with fractureFX). It takes some time to get your head around, but its well worth it. There’s no need to pre-fracture our objects with DMM, but you can do something similar using texture maps. DMM does everything for you during the simulation, but is a bit hard to “artistically direct”, since it more or less realistically simulates the fracture based on stress.

There’s no magic bullet for everything though. For different things, I’d use different methods, ie nCloth with SOup can provide very good results as well. It all depends on what you need out of it and what it is you want to destroy.

Cheers!

#10

but is a bit hard to “artistically direct”,
And therein lies its major flaw. Art-directbaility (ie fine control over your sim) is exactly what you need in production to final your shots. And it is precisely what Fracture FX excels at: control your sim and final your shots. DMM looks cool in demos, but it lacks the ability to address precise notes like “Can you make that fragment break 4 frames later and a bit more to the left?” Fracture FX is created for production by industry veterans (ILM, MPC, The Mill, Lucas Animation) to help you final your shots, fast and efficient.

The only company that really uses DMM at feature film level is MPC, and that is because they spent (and are spending) years writing their own proprietary version of it (“Kali”), so they can actually use it in production.

Fracture FX on the other hand s being used, out-of-the-box, by companies like Luma, Method Studios, The Mill, Stargate Studios, Prime Focus, Zoic Studios, etc.

try it for yourself with the free trial version:
http://www.fracture-fx.com/fracture_demo

#11

I am not going to argue with your pretty aggressive sales pitches, because there really is not point to it. But in case someone does not need ie fragment 32 to fly directly past the camera in a certain way etc, but just wants a more or less realistic simulation, DMM or any other solution will do just fine. You don’t always need 100% control. It’s nice to have in some cases, but it hardly is an absolute necessity. The best shots in practical effects are hardly 100% controlled btw and usually look a lot more interesting than a 100% controlled visual effect. But that’s a matter of taste, I guess. :wink:

Cheers!

#12

I have played with some of these tools and my favarite is still Pulldownit, it is easy to use and very stable, it get along very well with maya particles and fluids too so you can get very good destruction effects inside maya using it,

Hey RazorsEdge, after palying with dmm I find it interesting for deformation like metal, but how the hell you bake keys for dmm objects? I cannot find the way

#13

Yeah, I Pulldownit can be pretty cool for certain things. For large-scale destruction, I have to say, I prefer ThinkingParticles in Max, though.

 DMM is great for those shots where you need an object to plastically deform before it breaks etc, ergo close-up/slow-mo shots and it can do a lot more than "just" destroy things, btw. It's a whole dynamics system in itself. I posted some test-videos of some very simple examples a while back somewhere here in the forums of a destroyed pillar, a simple mini-golf course, a hand-held catapult firing a stone at a can, a wrecking ball, etc, all objects 100% DMM simulated. The vids are on Youtube [here](https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRazorsEdgeDE?feature=watch). These tests are very bland and basic viewport playblasts from the time when I was learning how to use the plugin and were just a means to explore the functionality using the tet-limited version included with Maya 2012, so don't expect anything grand.
 
 What I find a major drawback is the lack of easy particle integration in Maya for secondary debris faking etc. Some rather unique things can be achieved quite easily with DMM, but as mentioned, I would not currently use it for a number of other things. If I just have to break an object more or less realistically, ie for static display or standalone simulation, or do something like a bullet hitting a metal plate etc, its a great choice though.
  
  Anyways, with "bake keys" I assume you mean to save out the animation of the objects and fragments so you don't have to run the sim or dmmCache? I think the only way to currently save out and export a DMM sim is to use the plugin's cache function. Another drawback, I'd agree, but last thing I heard, they were working on a solution for this.
  
  Cheers!
#14

thanks for all your hints RazorsEdge, I agree with you when you want deformation before shatter dmm does it very easily, you can do it also with tearable ncloth but you need more steps and preparation, but the problem is when it comes to break solid materials like stone both of them always deform in some extend and computation gets terrible slow, Pulldownit does it very fast though, so well I suppose you have to choose the right tool for the effect,

So dmm cache is the way? I will tray but a “bake keys” like Pulldownit does would be very handy, for exporting I think is a must, but also for fixing issues, modify the keys time and improve the final animation using just key tools makes it easier for me

#15

LOL, no its a matter of good production. Good luck getting a job telling your employer this. :wink:

#16

if you are looking for that kind of art direct-ability, just save yourself the headache and get houdini. seriously. you will thank me later. I have evaluated every plugin on the market. houdini is by far the best solution bar none. im sure you will disagree but you are biased.

#17

actually he raises a very good point. on set I always push to shoot elements and usually they are used and look fantastic. on the occasions when they dont look good enough, 100% directable simulations fill in the gaps. This is where having precise control becomes important. number one thing is to look good and be on budget. i agree that you dont always need to pixel fuck everything. but at the end of the day, i would still choose houdini for all fracturing tasks. all of these plugins are incomplete half steps. even a single seat of houdini will do any studio much better than all the plugins combined. im more convinced than ever that nodal tools like that are the future of CG.

#18

LOL, whatever you say!
Got anything “constructive” to contribute to this thread? Pun 100% intended. :wink:

#19

Just to add to my previous remarks on this, I think DMM in Maya 2013 supports Alembic caching. I haven’t tried it yet myself though, so I cant really add any more info than that. And you might want to try this script .

Cheers!

#20

I agree, I’ve used pretty much all the destruction systems out there and it really depends on what you need to destroy. Stone destruction is very different from wood. Houdini is th best general purpose tool available to people outside of the the major vfx studios with big end budgets.