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
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 :)