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Battle Droid Dicing

Discussion in 'Archive: Scifi 3D Forum' started by Jedi_Kyeju, Mar 16, 2005.

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  1. Jedi_Kyeju

    Jedi_Kyeju Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2003
    Hey guys,
    I'm looking to do a little action sequence with a jedi chopping up some battle droids for an upcoming project I'm working on. I know how to animate with a biped but the question I have is, what would be the best way in the middle of the animation to have it split in two or more peices and animate them independently.
     
  2. fireresq7

    fireresq7 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 24, 2002
    What I have done in the past(even though it's probably not the right method)is during the course of the biped animation I have animated parts of the body and make them go all over the place. I just made sure the battle droid's biped legs were the only thing that was keyframed. that way, when I throw the body everywhere the upper biped wont contradict the animation movements. Do u get it? I'm really bad at explaining this.



    ~Rory
     
  3. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    Well there are lots of ways you could do this...if you cut to a different angle right before the Jedi sliced them you could use a special model for that shot, or you could animate them as suggested above, or you could even use dynamics if you wanted to get really fancy. Just a few ideas. My suggestion is to play around with some different methods and see what works the best for you! Good luck!
     
  4. joek1010

    joek1010 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Feb 16, 2004
    What program are you using? I know with Max you could even set up a particle system to spawn particles on impact to create small bits of metal flying off.

    As for chopping it up, couldn't you take one of droids and boolean a plane?
     
  5. fireresq7

    fireresq7 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 24, 2002
    YEah I have been reading a tutorial on blowing an object up by means of space warps and using the PBomb effect, but when I link the two objects together it doesn't work. Can anyone explain how to make this work?

    ~Rory
     
  6. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    PBomb is a particle space warp - it won't work on geometric objects. If you select the "Bomb" from the 'Helpers > Geometric/Deformable' rollout you can link that to your objects and it will blast them into pieces. Just be sure your object contains enough fragments otherwise you'll get large triangles. :D Good luck!
     
  7. fireresq7

    fireresq7 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 24, 2002
    Cool I got the bomb to work...pretty neat. Does anyone know how do u make the debris react with the ground and land?

    ~Rory
     
  8. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    You might be able to use a deflector...can't remember which type. Otherwise I'd look up Reactor in the manual and play with that - it's a sweeeeet plugin. :D Hope that helps.
     
  9. JinxKatarn

    JinxKatarn Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Jan 8, 2001
    Make sure to use the gravity warp as well, so you can have the pieces bounce down to the ground realistically. There's a number of deflectors you can setup that'll help the items not go falling through the ground...honestly, best thing to do is render away while changing numbers like crazy.

    Turn all render options off you can spare...usually I turn off anti-aliasing, shadows, reflect/refract by standard. Render at a really small size while using the perspective view to get in close, I'm usually rendering around 300 x whatever aspect I'm using (typically DV).

    If you think you have it down, turn mapping off too and render a fast shot--it'll hammer stuff out damn fast with all options off, you can watch it, decide if you like it or not and go from there.

    If you spend an hour or two doing this I gurantee you'll be using those tools a heck of a lot more...books and tutorials only teach you how to do what they are doing (unless they're well written), discovering it on your own will make you comfortable with it.
     
  10. Jedi_Kyeju

    Jedi_Kyeju Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2003
    couldn't you take one of droids and boolean a plane?

    Thats a good idea. I think the main problem I'm coming up with is the transition from the animation of the droid in one peice to two peices of that droid in a smooth motion.
     
  11. Cryptite_

    Cryptite_ Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 1, 2004
    I too posed this question over at CGTalk.com

    While you could boolean a plane to slice the droid in half; truth of the matter is, everything about the droid is still linked to the biped. And, for now, with character studio, you cannot separate a biped's linkages. Thus, what they suggested you do (for i wanted to apply ragdoll physics to the model as well) was to set up two models, one biped, and one rigged proprietarily to work with a ragdoll setup, make sure they match up and then hide one and unhide the other within the course of a frame. Usually a contact flash will help covering up the transition. Then you can cut it up away...

    Being lazy, and having multiple other 3d jobs to attend to, I haven't yet tried this out. But if you intend to use ragdoll dynamics, realize you usually have to have frames of movement for the object to be affected that occur before the simulation runs. Thus, you'll want to try to animate the ragdoll/simply model and rig for about 10 or 20 frames before the transition should occur, that way, the weight of the droid will be going in the right direction. Then again, if the droid's standing still; you should be fine.
     
  12. QuiGonDave

    QuiGonDave Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 29, 2004
    If you select the "Bomb" from the 'Helpers > Geometric/Deformable' rollout...

    I cannot find that one... is it only in 3ds max 7 and higher? I have 3ds max 6..
     
  13. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    No I believe it was standard all the way through...try looking it up in your user manual and see if it's mentioned. If it's there it'll show you where it is. Hope that helps!
     
  14. Corrin_Wyndryder

    Corrin_Wyndryder Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 17, 2001
    Oh, "Bomb" is in 6. It's in 4.2 which I loved playing with before the one year licence expired.

    As for your question, yeah, a lot of what's being said here is really good advice. Here's a simple, step by step method I would use to solve your problem.

    1: Deside where the Jedi's going to cut your Battle Droid up, and what pieces are going to be the end result.

    2: Build your droid model, cut him up into the verious peices, but arrange him to make him seamless. Make two copies of him.

    3: Animate one copy with a Biped (Character Studio) and make the other "invisible"

    4: When the Jedi makes a cut, make the part he cuts off invisible on the first copy of the Droid, and suddenly visible on the second copy. Then animate the part falling, (Reactor, Rag doll, whatever you need.)

    5: Repeat the process for every part of the droid you cut off. For multiple droids, you want 2 copies of each droid, specially designed with how they fall apart.

    Additional effects, like Bomb, or particles for sparks, etc... can be added and perfected later.
     
  15. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    Cheers Corrin.
     
  16. Jedi_Kyeju

    Jedi_Kyeju Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2003
    Thanks for the advice guys! I may try this out tomorrow or tuesday. I'll post the test in this thread after I'm done.
     
  17. QuiGonDave

    QuiGonDave Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 29, 2004
    :eek: , I found it :)
     
  18. DVeditor

    DVeditor Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2001
    :D Glad to hear it!
     
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