Creating a Missile Animation in 3DS Max using Particle Flow Source - Page 2
By Aziz | 3D Studio Max | Intermediate | Page 1, 2This section we will make our missiles track/follow the targets and explode upon their content.
Guiding the Missiles to Track the Teapots Using the 'Find Target' Operator
I am sure that you have noticed that the missile flies in a straight line, while our objective is to target it at the teapots as they move. This section will explain how to do that.
Right-Click an empty spot below the Display operator and go through Insert>Test>Find Target as illustrated in the image below. Make sure that you do not right-click on it because that might replace Display by mistake.
Select Find Target then and apply the following: set Speed to 1200, the Variation to 24 - those are the same values we set in the Speed Operator earlier. You will also need to set the Accel Limit to 7200. Look for the Target section, select the target as Mesh Objects, click on By List and select the teapots from the list to set them as targets. Finally, make sure you enable the Follow Target Animation option to allow the missile to track a moving target.
You can test your animation now by clicking on the play button on the animation playback controls.
Creating the Missile Smoke Tails
The tool that we will use here is the Spawn Test. Spawn creates new particles from exising ones at the same location as its parent and in the same orientation and shape. To add a Spawn Test, click below Find Test Operator and go through Insert>Test>Spawn, then select Spawn and apply the following changes: Under the Spawn Rate and Amount group of settings select the option for By Travel Distance, this lets you spawn new particles at regular intervals of distance as the parent particle moves. Set the Step Size to 3, this means that your parent will spawn new particles in every third step. On the Speed group of settings, select In Units and set it to 50, this specifies the speed of spawned particles, then set the Variation to 10.
We also need to define the shape and texture of our spawned objects. This will require defining another event to do that. Right-click an empty space on the Particle View window and go through New>operator>Shape Facing to create new event with shape facing operator in it. Now to change the configures of Shape Facing, click on the button labeled None under Look at Camera/Object and select the Camera from the scene. This will make all the new spawned particles face it all the time. Now in the Size/Width group, select In World Space, set its value to 5. Go down to Uniqueness and set the Seed to 235, this will add a randomization element to the variation of size and width.
Our smoke is supposed to grow bigger in size as time passes, to do this we will add a Scale Operator. Right-Click under Shape Facing and go through Insert>Operator>Scale. We will make the changes to scale with time, so we will use Auto Key Framing to specify at which frame the particles should grow, move the Time Slider to Frame 120 and then Activate Auto Key Framing by clicking once on the Auto Key button.
Select the Scale Operator and apply the following changes:
- Set the Type to Relative First. - This makes the particles scale sequentially.
- Under the Scale Factor group set X, Y, and Z to 200%.
- Under the Scale Variation group set X, Y, and Z to 10.
- Enable Constrain Proportions for both Scale Factor and Scale Variation to retain the current ratio for these settings.
You now have to turn off Auto Key by clicking once on it again.
We now have to assign a material to our smoke tails. Add a Dynamic Material Operator by going through Insert>Operator>Dynamic Material. On its parameters rollout, click on the None button below Assign Material, select Mtl Editor radio button and double click Smoke Material to select it.
Select Display Operator and change type to Geometry.
Our smoke should not stay forever, to remove our smoke we are going to add a Delete Operator to our event. Right-click below our display operator and go through Insert>Operator>Delete. Access its properties and select By Particle as the Remove type. Set the Life Span to 120 frames and the Variation to 10.
We now need to connect the new event we created to a Spawn Test. This is a necessary step to ensure that our particles satisfy the conditions we required. We need to connect the new event we just created to the Spawn Test operator and also rename it to Missile_Smoke_Tails. I also suggest you rename event01 to launch_Missiles.
Create Explosions
Creating the explosions will require using Events and Operators just like the previous part of our tutorial. I am going to provide you with the general outline on how to do this and you will have to supply your own values for these operators as an exercise. If you get stuck at any part from here you can ask for help at the Forum. Here you go:
- Start off by creating a new Event with a Shape Facing operator. Set its parameters and make sure not to forget to assign the Look at Camera/Object option to the camera on the scene.
- Add a Scale Operator and sets its properties, turn on Autor Key before changing the Scale Factor and Scale Variations and turn it off when you are done by clicking once on it. You will also need to use the Time Slider to know what frame to start scaling at.
- Texture the particles by adding a Material Dynamic Operator, follow the same procedure we did for the Smoke Tails Material Dynamic Operator, however, this time assign the Explosion Material that can be found in the Mtrl Editor.
- Add a Delete operator to remove the explosion smoke after the impact, use a short life span.
- Again, Delete the missiles right after the impact, to do that add a Spawn test and change the Spawn Rate and Amount group to Once and enable the Delete Parent option to do the trick.
- Configure the Display Operator in the event by changing the type to circles.
Once you are done you have to link the last event to Find Target Test in our first event. And rename it as Explosion.
That's it. You can now test your movie to see the missiles exploding!
This concludes our tutorial, I hope that you learnt something new. Feel free to post at the Oman3D Forum if have any questions.
- End of tutorial.