All images from Maya Plugin Power © Course Technology PTR.

This month, VFXWorld continues a series of six excerpts of the Course Technology book Maya Plugin Power, which will give VFXWorld readers to learn how to take advantage of the myriad of plugins available to Maya users.

There is no better way to blow something up, or wreak general destructive havoc in Maya, than with the Megaton or Kiloton plugins from Blastcode. Here we take a look at how Megaton helps to generate a blast with secondary debris.

Check out Course Technology site for additional information and files.

Collision, Gravity, and Secondary Debris
The next step in the quest for a little more realism is to add some dynamic forces and create some secondary debris. Load the aforementioned red_bricks.mb scene file. We will start with this as the basis for adding our forces. If you tick through the simulation, you will see what has now become our standard wall explosion. The bricks are thrust as individuals by the explosive force. They will continue on their paths indefinitely. Let’s start by adding a ground plane to the scene. Create a polygon plane with the parameters listed in Figure 1a. Shade it any way you like. This will serve as a landing place for our bricks. Both brick wall and ground plane can be seen in Figure 1b.

[FIGURE 1a] The plane will act as a collision obstacle for the exploding bricks. The new impact plane should have a position and dimensions similar to these.

[FIGURE 1b] Brick wall and ground plane positioned for best view of impending explosion.