Find the rendered QuickTime movie entitled secondary_debris.mov. If you run the movie, you will notice the secondary debris. It adds quite a bit to the overall scene. There is a problem, however. About two seconds into the animation, the bricks are adjusting to their final resting place. The secondary debris continues to pour continuously for the duration. This can be alleviated by animating the Secondary Debris Amount attribute, as shown in Figure 8. Bringing the secondary debris amount to zero between frame 30 and 60 will eliminate the problem as the generation of secondary debris tapers off to nothing. Run the simulation to frame 120. Figure 11 shows the secondary debris animation at frame 120.

[FIGURE 11] The secondary debris now has a limited lifespan and new debris is no longer generated.

The rendered QuickTime movie is entitled secondary_debris2.mov. If you run this movie, you will notice that the secondary debris now stops at a more realistic time. It does not continue to flow long after the blast wave has past.

The power of Blast Code’s Kiloton and Megaton are waiting to be tapped. We have barely scratched the surface of what they can do. Blast Code provides a logical workflow to carry out complex destruction scenarios with relative ease. This software could easily be the focus of a specialty career. Check the Course Technology site for some additional scenes and textures for further investigation. There are other visual effects arenas to investigate, however. Let’s move on to the next chapter.

Mark Jennings Smith is a seasoned artist, animator and writer residing in Beverly Hills, CA. Smith has been fascinated by CG since 1972, when at age 10 a chance encounter with the first coin-op Pong changed his life. His interest in the entertainment field led Smith and a partner to establish Digital Drama in 1994, which focused on computer-generated imagery, animation, digital painting and special digital visual effects. Digital Drama designed the digital film effects and animation for companies such as Universal Pictures, Trimark Pictures, Fox Home Ent., HBO and Showtime. Smith has contributed to several books and magazines, including a chapter in Maya: Secrets of the Pros. He also created cover art for the book and a variety of other titles in the 3D arena. He served as the technical editor for Mastering Maya Complete 2 as well as consulted and beta-tested dozens of software packages. Smith has also taught visual effects and computer animation using Maya at New York University.