explosion trails??/ smoke trails??

[Fokus]

Hello everyone...this is my first post since joining the Forum last week. And I have been trying various ways to make this animation work, but i just havent been able to. I am using LW7.5, and have created a simple test scene of a sphere exploding with the SG_explosion plugin. The explosion is fine but I would like to create some kind of particle trails behind the exploded bits/chunks, which follow the path of the bits/chunks. Can anyone help me with this? Or is this even possible with lightwave Particle System?


I have attatched a sample zip file...

[Edbittner]

Here's a little cheat.
Go to
[url]http://desktopimages.com/Download There on the right side of the page you will find their "Explosive Effects with hypervoxels instructional dvd. D-load the files and learn.
Ed
( I LOVE THIS STUFF)!

[Edbittner]

Well the link doesn't work. You'll have to type it in or do a search.
Ed

[Fokus]

I looked at the sample files on that website, but I would still like to know how to get the trails to be directly attached to the bits that are flying out.

For some reason when I attach the particles and set them up so that they are emitted from the polygons verteces or normals, they dont follow the bits which are flying out. I guess lightwave still thinks that the object is in the same position even though it was exploded using the SG_explosion plugin. This is obvious because the particles form the original sphere shape....:mad:

Does anyone else have any experience with this kind of set up?

[HowardM]

yep...you cant do it with SG_E but you can do it with PFX!
I wonder though if you could use points from modeller, make them emitters, and parent them or just place them in the center of your SG_E parts..then run the same SG_E settings on them...finally add child emitters to them to spit out the trail....
got it?
:)

[Fokus]

Well i really appreciate the suggestions. I tried your suggestion wiht the PFX also, and every which way I go about it the particle just appear in the center of the explosion, they do not follow the motion of the exploded bits...whether I change the sphere to points then polys and attach child emmiters to the surface or normals... the end result is the same.

any other suggestions?:confused:

[HowardM]

ok, sorry! seems that you cant do it with SG_E because its a displacement plugin...BUT you should be able to do it with PFX and MD!...ill do a test, but heres what im thinking...
...same idea...make your blown up object with Crackit and turn on gaps...I think youll need to unweld the gaps to then remove them, and then make sure each broken chunk is a closed obj....then bring it into layout and use MD as hardbodies, with either an obj or effector like wind to blow up the object....
then make a set of ............damnit...it doesnt work! i just tried...
looks like you gotta buy Napalm or something to actually parent an emitter to a blown up object!
:(
...please someone chime in with the solution in native LW!?
:)

...hmm the real solution is? well weve been thinkin backwards...
make an emitter, spit out some particles...attach your broken pieces using FXlinker to those particles....add child emitters to leave a trail of smoke and debris....simple!
:)

yep...thats it, but its kinda a hack, and the pieces dont really roll or blow up correctly, but in a shot with a big flashy explosion itll work great....read up here (http://forums.newtek.com/discus/messages/2/37858.html?) to learn how to make the FX trails!

[Fokus]

I really appreciate you trying to figure this one out, Howard, I have been at it for 2 days now...and no luck...

I have tried making the debris and using the fxlinker to attatch them to particles(kind of like the leaves blowing in the wind thing);) .

There just has to be some way to do it, other than having to put the objects into seperate layers and attatching emmiters to them one by one...and animating each piece of debris:(

...debris, thanks for that word Hoawrd:) , I have been in asia so long that my vocab has slipped and I seem to be forgetting such words and opt out to using chunks and bits instead.:o

anyhow back to trying to solve this I will try to play with MD tonight as I found an interesting tutorial in a local magazine to make parts blow up...see what i can come up with...

[HowardM]

Look up C4 at flay....maybe it will allow you to parent particles to it?
:)

[SplineGod]

Originally posted by Fokus
Well i really appreciate the suggestions. I tried your suggestion wiht the PFX also, and every which way I go about it the particle just appear in the center of the explosion, they do not follow the motion of the exploded bits...whether I change the sphere to points then polys and attach child emmiters to the surface or normals... the end result is the same.

any other suggestions?:confused:
Typically if you emit particles from an object that is being deformed you need to run FXStart first. There is also a plugin to parent an object to a point in another object. You could probably parent an emitter that way as well.

[Fokus]

Well thank you for your reply SplineGod...that was the ticket, it is funny how such a simple thing as FXstart is sometimes overlooked.:o

Now if i ad HV to them I can make the explosion I wanted to make...Very very useful...I will work a bit with this and then upload the final renering in a day or so!!

CHEERS guys!

ps: what is the name of that plugin by the way?Napalm?

Howard:looked at C4, it looks good but it seems to be buggy with 7.5...have you tried C4 with 7.5 yet?

[Fokus]

Guess what happens when you try to render the HV once they have been activated on your particles...yup you guessed it

They appear as one big ball in the center(the original pivit point of the sphere/object) and NOT BEHIND THE FLYING DEBRIS!!:mad:

Its very funny how you press FXstart everything looks fine and dandy, you hit render and VOILA a big ball of smoke in the center of the scene...

here is the scene and obj file to check for your selves...no texturing and no lighting set up yet. Its all testing mode still...didn't want to go through texturing the HV and find that it doesnt work.

[SplineGod]

Try saving out the particle motions and then render

[HowardM]

sweet! so it does work!!!!!!!! yep, saving out the pfx file helped!

[Fokus]

Well that did end up working...now i can finally concentrate on getting the animation I wanted. As soon as its done, ill put it up here... thanks to you guys!;)

[SplineGod]

Glad it helped. By the way the World Wide Tour CD and Next Dimension Tour CD contain, among other things, a LOT of material covering particles and hypervoxels including a few things Ive never seen covered anywhere else.

[Fokus]

Where does one get these cds? I guess i can do a search on google, but if that doesnt turn something up...

thanks in advance!!;)

uhhmmm this is an edit to the post, i found the cds on your online training site...:o

[HowardM]

so psyched you got this to work! gonna have to try MD exploding forces now! :)
check out this test from your scene! (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56671)

[HowardM]

so, im trying this out with MD, thinking its a Displacement just like SG_E...and its not working even though i save out my PFX files! argh!

Larry, any luck using MD and emitters?

thanks!

[SplineGod]

Originally posted by HowardM
so, im trying this out with MD, thinking its a Displacement just like SG_E...and its not working even though i save out my PFX files! argh!

Larry, any luck using MD and emitters?

thanks!
Ive never used MD with emitters but it should work. Try running MD scan or try different settings with MD to "bake" the displacement in somehow.

[Fokus]

I really appreciate you took this exampe to a new level, I checked the other site where you included this....I will have an example up this week...hopefully it can turn out as good as your did...

CHEERS

[HowardM]

Youre welcome!
If you need any help just ask.