Animating Ground Cracks/Debris

iWeReZ

So basically i have 2 weeks to make a minature cutscene for a random character.

And it involves breaking into the ground, Im basically wanting to know any tutorials or tips for animating large cracks, and maybe rocks ?

Im guessing the rocks could be done with reactor, But the cracks i have no idea

Richard Kain

Shape keys? Or perhaps shape keys combined with some particle systems. (to throw up a little dirt/dust and debris)

Mark Dygert

Since you're talking about reactor and I think Maya is reactor-less? I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and say you're using max?

http://www.escalight.com/tutorials/3dsmax-tutorials/earthquake-part-1.html

iWeReZ

Epic thanks to you vig, I didnt realise i didnt say what app i was using. My bad.

Gunna have a wack at that link, ill post if it works

Mark Dygert

If that turns out to be too hack ass for what you're looking to do, check out:
http://cg.glacierise.com/blog/?page_id=126

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AesyMEykQZI[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izNstEq1YKM[/ame]

He uses a bunch of expensive plug-ins but some of it you can do in standard 3dsmax with particles, its just easier and less manual to use the plug-ins.