DIY Explosions
A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Creating Your Own Explosions
By Tina Mantaring
Explosions are something we see more in the movies than in real life. We've seen virtually everything explode, from small packages, to big buildings, to entire cities and even planets. Very few of these explosions, however, are real. While most of the smaller ones are feasible, as you increase in scale, they become either too expensive, or physically impossible, to create in real life. One technique for getting around this involves building miniature models, but while this can be fun, it doesn't give you the detail and the impact that highly sophisticated animation software can.
This project aims to teach others how to recreate some of the famous explosions that we've seen in movies. I have no intention of matching the quality of the effects found in movies, but I want to be able to explore what can be done, given a limited amount of time and resources. The end product will (hopefully) be a series of video tutorials of how to create realistic explosions yourself.
Outline of Project
Background
- Famous explosions in movies
- How these explosions were created (eg. real explosions, miniature models, CG)
- Software used in rendering CG explosions
Anatomy of an Explosion
- Fire
- Dust
- Sound
- Aftershocks
- Exploding medium
I'll be looking at what these components are, and how to simulate them with simple methods and prebuilt filters/effects (eg. particle systems) that are available in either Maya or 3DS Max
Tutorials
- A simple explosion