Simulation - Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish - page 266

Figure 14.45 Lines, Rings, and Stars

Bits o' Stuff

One other great use for particles are to simulate “Bits o'
Stuff.” These bits could be the fl otsam and jetsam found
in deep ocean water, pollen wafting through shafts of
sunlight in a forest, or even the pieces of a shattered
fl owerpot.

In The Beast , particle systems were used to create the
shattering fl owerpots from shot 10. Let's look at one of
them to see how it was accomplished.

Figure 14.47 shows Penelope, the mean dog, cower-
ing as the Beast pelts her with little fl owerpots. First,
a pot was modeled in its own asset fi le and prepared
for dupligroup linking in other shots. Then the pot
was appended directly into the shot fi le as a local asset.
The shattering process involves some “mesh abuse,”
so it's best to work on it locally. Figure 14.48 shows
the kitchen as a set, with the fl owerpot brought in as a
local object. The pot was keyframed to fl y straight at,
and through, the wall. You can see a time lapse of the
pot's animation in Figure 14.49.

Figure 14.46 The television on fi re, smoking, with sparks

Next, a particle system was added to the fl owerpot, and
a relatively low particle count was given. The amount
of particles in an effect like this will be the number of
pieces the object breaks into. A start and end frame are set only one frame before the pot hits the kitchen
wall (frames 131 and 132). Obviously, the particles need to be generated in time to actually hit the wall, but

Figure 14.47 Look out below!