How to smash a car?

#1

Hello!

For an animation/short-film project at university we want to create a car crash.
The shot will be about 15 seconds long at the end of a short movie, where the actor drives his vehicle into a tree.

We’re working with 3dsmax 2011, so for all the particles (like the bursting windscreen, …) we plan on using rayfire.

But still we need some tips on how to create the deformation of the front of the car. Has anybody got some experience with a scene like this?
We’re still a little lost when it comes to this.

We would really appreciate any kind of help/tips we can get!

Thank you in advance!

#2

I seem to recall in one of the Autodesk training DVDs (available in their online store for $29) how they used the vertex color channel to “paint” deformations by color-- and the example he used was in fact a car wreck scene. I’ll try and have a look this evening and tell you specifically which one it is.

#3

Create a rig of boes for the parts that gonna deform, create a tope on the car surface according to the folding and wreckage and skin it to the bones. Cloth sims are an option too.

#4

Using vertex color channel for painting deformations in their Vehicle Shader is discussed in this Autodesk training DVD… maybe this could help you.

http://store.autodesk.com/store/adsk/en_US/pd/productID.81371100?resid=S5K2fgoBAiMAACNiWqAAAAAt&rests=1288419505432

#5

thanks for the tips so far!

I’ll have a look into the training dvd, but is there some picture how the result with the vertex color channel - method looks like?

Thanks, I was thinking about something like a little bone-rig in there. But what do you mean with “tope”?

#6

It’s a typo error. It should be ‘topology’

#7

Most likely you’ll be using reactor, simplify the car model for the simulation/collision object detection. Proxy model may consist of objects and different constraints (for example a wheel-constraint for the wheels, which allows rotation in one axis and constrains movement in all axes). The “real” objects, which are visible in the video are then linked to the corresponding object in the proxy model. There are no soft bodies used, everything looking soft is actually made up of many hard proxy parts.

#8

are there any good guides or tutorials around that show how to use reactor/cloth with cars?

I can’t get it right somehow, everytime I use it the parts aren’t animated anymore…

#9

Joe Gunn has a training DVD on using cloth for car crashes and stuff… called “Cloth Beyond the Character” check it out here:

http://www.joegunn3d.com/Shop.html

#10

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