While creating files for fluid or other dynamic simulations we need our scene to be of certain scale or better term would be ‘Effects Friendly Scale’. 3D Studio Max is quite sensitive to object scales at times and can lead to inappropriate results if not done properly.In large scene files where we have multiple scene objects and most of them are linked to different heads, it becomes really difficult to scale the objects together. In larger teams this problem is quite common and inevitable as different team members prefer to work in different scale units and moving scenes from one member to another can be really problematic.
1. Scaling the objects in the scene is the only solution left to match the size of different objects and effects relative to the scene. So the first option that we have is to use 3DS Max’s Utility which rescales the world units of either the entire scene or selected objects in the scene. Click on Utilities panel > Utilities rollout > More Button > Utilities Dialog > Rescale World Units. Hit the ‘Rescale’ button and set the desired rescale value by which we want our scene scale to get multiplied. In the Affect group select the ‘Scene’ option and hit ok.
2. Another approach is to scale the scene assets proportionally by linking all of them to a dummy object and then scaling the dummy as per our requirement. But in a scenario where we have multiple parent heads for different objects, it becomes difficult to find and link each object head with the dummy parent. Maintaining the object hierarchy is the most important thing in order to maintain the parent-child relationship intact between several objects in the scene. So the solution for faster results would be to automate this process.
So a way around to this situation would be to create a script that will link all the parent heads to a new dummy object in the scene. This script is going to link anything that is at the top of the chain. The highest parent will only get linked to this dummy. This script will help us in creating a scene parent without messing the scene hierarchy and animations.
In large scene files with complex animations, it becomes difficult to rescale the animation key-frames of scene objects as per our liking. Due to many hidden objects and parent heads in the scene, it becomes impossible to track each of them and retime their keys. Even the new re-time tool sometimes does not catch all the animated stuff.
1. A workaround to this problem would be to Re-scale Time from the Time Configuration window. Where we can define the Start Time and End Time of the animation and Re-scale the keys of all the assets in the scene by checking the option - 'Re-scale keys to whole frames'. But the problem with this method is, that it will concentrate the time rescaling to only the current timeline.
2. Another resort for such a problem would be to automatically stretch the keyframes of all the objects in the scene using a script. The script will select all the objects in the scene and stretch the keyframes as per the Scale Factor defined in the script.
Script - scale_factor=2.0 new_end = animationRange.end * scale_factor animationRange = interval animationRange.start new_end scale_interval = (interval animationRange.start animationRange.end) all_objects = $* as array for obj in all_objects do ( scaleTime obj scale_interval scale_factor
01. Now we will start working on setting up liquid simulation for the wine bottle with the help of an emitter object, which is just a cylinder object with a volume similar to the half wine bottle. Create another Phoenix Fd Liquid Simulator grid around the wine bottle with the help of 'Create a Liquid Simulator' tool from the Phoenix FD toolbar. Reduce the Cell Size value to ‘0.15 cm’ while making the size of the grid as per the size of wine bottle by changing the Grid Size values under X,Y and Z parameters to 70,70 and 250 respectively. Also make sure that we have a god gap between top of the bottle and top of the grid.
02. To make sure that our Liquid Simulator Grid always stay with Wine Bottle while it’s animating, we will link them together with the help of Select and Link tool. Create another Liquid Source in the scene and add in Dummy Wine Emitter as an Emitter Node. We would like our emitter object to fill up the bottle with wine during the first few frames and then let it settle into place, so for that we will Key In a high value of ‘500’ on frame number ‘0’, while dropping the value to ‘0.0’ on frame number ‘2’. This will fill the bottle with particles during the first two frame of the simulation without producing any more particles after the second frame of the simulation.
03. Play the simulation to notice that the Bottle doesn’t get filled and liquid has appeared along edges of emitter object. This has happened because we forgot to check Polygon Normals of our geometry this time. So in order to rectify that we will apply a ‘Normal’ modifier on it in order to flip its polygon normals. Also in order to fill the geometry quickly we will change the Emit Mode of Liquid Source to Volume Brush, which will ask us to change the emitter geometry to a Non-Solid object. Click yes on the pop up window, in order to convert emitter object into a Non-Solid object which means that it will still remain a part of the simulation, but won’t interact with it.
04. In order to successfully pass simulation from one object to another we would require the help of a separate Velocity Channel in our simulation. So in order to do that simply check the ‘Velocity’ option from the ‘Output Grid Channels’ under the ‘Output’ rollout. Also from the ‘Preview’ rollout turn on ‘Liquid’ and ‘Velocity’ options while turning off the ‘Show Mesh’ option in order to view them in viewport. To make sure that simulator doesn’t interact with other objects in scene we will check the Include List option from the Interaction rollout and pick only the objects required for simulation - Wine Bottle, Wine Bottle Liquid Source and Wine Bottle Emitter.
05. As the last step before simulating the wine in bottle, apply a ‘Push‘ Modifier to the Bottle geometry in order to refrain particles from entering the walls of the geometry. Once we are happy with the result of Wine in Bottle Simulation we can move ahead and create a separate Phoenix Fd Liquid Simulator for the wine glass in order to fill it up with wine. While setting up simulator for wine glass make sure that we overlap the wine bottle liquid simulator properly, by keeping the glass simulator just above the wine glass. We will keep the Cell Size value to ‘0.15 cm’ similar to Wine Bottle Liquid Simulator, while putting in a value of ‘80’ each in Grid Size X, Y and Z.
06. Create a Phoenix Liquid Source in the scene from the Phoenix toolbar, and as we want to generate liquid from the previous simulation, we will choose the Wine Bottle Liquid Simulator as an Emitter Node. Change ‘Emit Mode’ to ‘Volume Brush’ while increasing the ’Brush Effect’ value to ‘200’. In Liquid Source parameters turn on the ‘Motion Velocity’ option in order to inherit the velocity channel from the emitter object. To make sure that simulator doesn’t interact with other objects in scene we will turn on Include List option from Interaction rollout and pick the objects required for simulation - Wine Bottle Simulator, Wine Glass Liquid Source and Wine Glass.
07. The benefit of this method over a single large simulator is that it is going to save us a lot of simulation time while also giving us a bit more control over simulation. As the last step b efore running simulation increase the ‘Steps Per Frame’ value to ‘8.0’ from the Dynamics rollout in order to get a smooth simulation result. Also improve the liquid quality by improving the ‘Surface Tension Strength’ with a value of ‘0.1’. In order to give some stickiness to the liquid turn on the ‘Wetting’ effect while increasing the ‘Sticky Effect’ value to ‘0.25’, but make sure to bring down the value of ‘Consumed Liquid’ to ‘0.0’ as we do not want to reduce any particles from the simulation.
01. In this lesson we will create a basic Phoenix FD liquid simulation setup of pouring wine from the wine bottle into a glass. Fire up 3DS Max and open Liquid Basics 01.max file from the projects folder. The scene contains a dining area scene with a basic animation of bottle pouring wine into a glass. From the Layers Explorer turn off the layers for 'Table 001' and 'Table 002' assets while switching on the layer for 'Dummy Geometries'. This will isolate the non-render-able geometries of wine bottle and glass along with two other dummy emitter geometries.
02. Before starting the scene always make sure that the geometries that we are using for simulation does not have any hole or other polygonal errors. So in order to check that we will apply the ’STL Check’ modifier onto the geometry and turn on the ’Check’ option from its parameters. Similarly for successful fluid and geometry interactions we have to check the position of 'Polygon Normals' on the geometry, as a liquid will not enter a hollow geometry if the polygons are flipped. So in order to check that we have to apply an ’Edit Mesh’ modifier onto the geometry and turn on the ‘Show Normals’ option after enabling Face, Polygon or Element sub object.
03. ‘Scene Size’ is another very important factor for a successful Phoenix FD Simulation, so always make sure to build the scene in ‘Real World Scale Units’. For this scene we have used ‘Centimeters’ as our ‘Display Unit Scale’ while making sure to match each object as per its real world size. Open up ‘Units Setup’ dialogue box from ‘Customize’ menu and from ‘Display Unit Scale’ menu choose ‘Metric’ while choosing ‘Centimeters’ from the dropdown. Further dive inside ‘System Unit Setup’ and from ‘System Unit Scale’ set ‘1 Unit’ = ‘1.0 Centimeters’ from dropdown.
04. From the Phoenix FD toolbar select and drag the 'Create a Liquid Simulator' tool in order to create a Phoenix FD Liquid Simulator around the wine glass, while making sure that the sphere is inside. Since the simulation is going to be for small scale fluids, we have to reduce the size of the Voxels accordingly. Switch to its modify panel and from the Grid parameters rollout reduce the ‘Cell Size’ value to ‘0.15 cm’. Now in order to keep the size of the container appropriate to the wine glass and the emitter change the Grid X, Y and Z Size values to 70,70 and 210 respectively.
05. Click on 'Create a Liquid Source' icon in the toolbar and place the Liquid Source in the scene. From it’s modify panel add the Sphere Emitter into the Emitter Node list. Currently the ‘Emit Mode’ is set to ‘Surface Force’ which will make only the surface of the sphere object to emit the liquid. It’s ‘Outgoing Velocity’ value will help in setting up the pace of liquid getting emitted from the sphere object, so now in order to keep a low pace of our simulation we will reduce the ‘Outgoing Velocity’ value to ‘5.0’. Play the simulation from the ‘Start’ button under the ‘Simulation’ tab to check the result so far.
06. The last step will confirm that the sphere is emitting Liquid inside the Simulator. In the simulation so far we can notice that the edges of the pour are not even, which is because of the less steps of calculations between each frame. So from the 'Dynamics' rollout crank up the ‘Steps Per Frame’ value to higher values, which will help in fetching a more natural look for the pour but at the cost of more simulation time. So it would be great if we could find the lowest setting for Steps Per Frame for every effect that we make that gives us a closer result to any ideal value. Here we can set the ‘Steps Per Frame’ value to ‘8’ as it will serve the purpose for now.
07. Right now particles are hitting side boundaries of the container and disappearing, which means that our simulator is open from sides and needs to be closed. So in order to do that, open up the 'Grid' parameters rollout and from the 'Boundary Conditions' menu choose 'Jammed Both' option for all three axis. Rerun the simulation to conclude that particles are now colliding with each wall of the container. Further to improve fluid quality, increase the Strength value under the Dynamics > Surface Tension rollout to ‘0.1’ as it will help the fluid to retain its typical spherical shape without breaking apart to form droplets or tendrils.
08. Our simulation is currently overflowing the glass, so in order control the flow of liquid emitting out from the sphere we will animate the value of ‘Outgoing Velocity’ from the Liquid Source parameters. If we play the simulation we will notice that our glass is getting filled at around frame number ’30-40’ which means that we have to cut the flow of liquid around these frames. Click on Auto Key button and on frame number ‘25’ fill in a value of ‘5.0’ in the ‘Brush Effect’ parameter while decreasing it to ‘0.0’ at frame ‘30’. This will help in cutting down the liquid flow at around frame number 40 and as a result we will get a filled glass without any spill.
09. We will notice that a lot of liquid has been leaking out from the walls of glass, which we can easily rectify by increasing scale of the glass walls for our liquid to interact with. Liquid interaction in Phoenix FD requires the object walls to be at-least twice as big as the scale of the grid ‘Cell Size’. So in order to measure that, create a box geometry corresponding to size of two grid cells and scale up the glass walls as per it. We can always apply a Push modifier onto the geometry in order to increase the size of the walls of the geometry. But in this case we have the privilege to move down to the level of Editable Spline for the glass and modify the walls as per our requirement.
10. Render the result so far to view that the liquid is currently of a solid purple color. Open up the slate material editor and drag in a new V-Ray material while renaming the same to 'Wine'. Change its Diffuse color to a darker shade of Maroon (R,G,B - 45,0,0) while changing the Reflect and Refract color to White. Set the RGlossiness to 0.95 while keeping the Reflect Fresnel IOR value to 1.6. Turn on the ‘Show Background in Preview’ parameter from the right click menu of the material to visualize the material properly in the preview window. Apply this material onto the liquid simulator and render the scene to check the result of the material.
11. Currently the liquid resembles a lot like water as there is no color to it yet, so in order to add a maroon tint to the liquid we will add a shade of Red (R,G,B - 166,20,20) to the Fog Color while reducing the Fog Multiplier value to 0.005 for lesser fog strength along with the Fog Bias value to -2.0 in order to make the liquid look much thicker. Now in order to get a better refraction similar to a wine material, we will decrease the Refract IOR value to 1.3, crank up the Refract 'Max Depth' value to '20' and switch on the 'Abbe Number' option. As a last step change the 'BRDF' type to 'Phong' in order to lift the highlights of the material.
12. Further to enhance our simulation, turn on the 'Wetting' option to make liquid stick to the glass surface like wine. To prevent long visible tracks left from the wetting effect we will change the value of Consumed Liquid parameter to ‘0.01’, as a higher value can lead to disappearing of liquid particles while creating a single wet map particle. Now to set the drying speed of material, we will put in a value of ‘15’ seconds while also introducing some stickiness to the fluid by putting in a value of ’0.5’ in the Sticky Effect parameter.
13. We will now set up our material for wet map. The way it works is by using ‘Phoenix Particle Texture’ to pick up the Wet Map Particle Group which generates a procedural map, that map can be used to blend between dry and wet materials using V-Ray Blend Material. Open up Slate Material Editor and create a V-Ray Blend Material while piping in two variations of glass materials - one with default glass material values as Base material, while the other one with the properties similar to a wine material but with very little reflect and refract values which will serve as Coat 1.
14. Now we will create a Phoenix FD Particle Texture and set it as a Blend Map for V-Ray Blend Material. Under its parameters choose Phoenix Fd Liquid Container as Source Particle System in order to access the Wet Map Group from the Available Events List. Set the Blending Method to Biggest which looks for the particles with biggest contribution in determining end result. Also increase the blending radius around each wet particle by increasing the Blend Radius value to 1 cm, so that we can have smooth wet map. Assign this V-Ray Blend material onto the Wine Glass geometry and render to check the final result.
1. This lesson will take us through the
basics of M Particles in 3Ds Max while we create a simple scene with bunch of
ice cubes dropping into an ice cube container. The scene file contains a basic
dining setup with a couple of non render-able models of ice cubes along with metal
container. We will start working on the scene by opening the 'Particle View'
window from the 'Graph Editors' drop down menu or by hitting the '6' key on the
keyboard.
2. We will now create 'MParticles Flow' Particle
System from the right click menu of Particle View window 'New - Particle System
- MParticles Flow'. This will give us a basic particle flow physical simulation
of a bunch of particles dropping off from a volume grid and bouncing off after
hitting the viewport grid. Disable the 'Spin' operator from the Event operators
by turning it off from the right click menu, as we do not need any external
force to affect our particles except Gravity.
3. Now in order to replace Box shapes
with the model of Ice Cubes in our scene, we will replace the 'Shape' operator
from the Event operators with the 'Shape Instance' operator and pick the 'Ice
Cube Geometry' model as 'Particle Geometry Object'. Since our 'Ice Cube' model
is much smaller than the default Box geometries of MParticles Flow, we have to
decrease the 'Grid Size' value of our Birth Grid to 2.5 cm just a bit bigger
than the dimensions of Ice Cube geometry.
4. Our last step will increase the
particle count as the dimensions of 'Birth Grid' from where particles are
spawning, is still at default values. Decrease Icon Size Length, Width and
Height values to 7.5 cm, 7.5 cm and 150 cm respectively in order to concentrate
the particles as per the size of our container model, while placing the birth
grid over the container geometry from the top viewport. Now when we play the
simulation by hitting the play button from the timeline we will notice that the
particle count is appropriate to the size of container geometry and we are good
to excel towards the next stage.
5. We can now start working on making
the ice cube particles to interact with the container by converting the later
into a colliding geometry. And for doing that we will append a ‘MP Collision’
Test below MP World operator inside our Event while adding the Container Dummy Geometry
as the Deflector from its parameters. But in order to do that we have to apply
a ‘PFlow Collision Shape’ World Space Modifier onto the Container geometry
first as it will make it a Collision geometry that is visible under Deflectors
list of MP Collision Test.
6. Before hitting the play button make
sure to hit the Activate button inside the Parameters of PFlow Collision Shape
modifier, as the collision effect will become active only after this step. Most
of cube particles are falling off outside the container geometry and are
colliding with the grid instead of going out of frame by continuing to fall. So
in order to do that we have to dive inside the MP World operator parameters and
uncheck the 'Ground Collision Plane' option.
7. Now to randomize the appearance of
this cluster of ice-cubes, we will create a Multi/Sub-Object material with 4 different
variations of ice cube materials. Once we are ready with our materials we will
apply it onto the cluster by appending a 'Material Frequency' operator to Birth
Grid Operator inside our 'Event'. Pick the Multi/Sub-Object material created in
the last step from the Assign Material button available under the Material
Frequency Menu of the operator and assign the values of 25 each inside Material
ID #1 to #4.
01. This lesson is an extension to our previous lesson on creating a fish school in 3DS Max. Here we will try to take our previous result a step ahead by making the fish school follow a dynamic path made through spline, thus making our fish school a procedural system. This time we will rig our fishes by following a simpler and faster approach. We will start the scene by defining a path for our fish school with the help of a long curved spline in the center of the scene.
02. Drop in a 1000 cm by 1000 cm ‘PF Source’ icon, from the ‘Particle System’ drop down menu under ‘Create Panel’. Align the ‘PF Source’ Icon according to curved path and place it at beginning of the path, as we want our particles to follow the direction of the path. Hit ‘Particle View’ button from the ‘Setup’ menu under ‘Modify Panel’ in order to open the ‘Particle View’ window. Currently the particles are following the Direction of PF Source Icon Arrow as per the ‘Speed - Along Icon Arrow’ Event.
03. Replace the ‘Speed’ event with ‘Speed by Icon’ event and increase the Icon size to 1000 cm. Align the ‘Speed by Icon’ to the PF Source Icon and place it at beginning of the curve. Now in order to animate it along the path we will apply the Path Constraint to it and link its animation to the curve. Align the Icon Animation to the steep curves of the path by turning on the ‘Follow’ option from the ‘Path Options’ menu and by changing the Axis to ‘Y’ from the ‘Axis’ menu.
04. Currently the speed of Icon Animation is way too fast as per the current timeline. So in order to slow down the pace of Icon, increase the timeline to 600 frames and move the Animation key-frame from 100th to 600th frame. From the Particle View window turn off the ‘Rotation Event’ and change the ‘Display Type’ to ‘Geometry’ in order to visualize cube geometries as particles in the viewport instead of 2D shapes of ticks.
05. We will now replace the cubes in the scene with our 3D Fish model with the help of Shape Instance event. Unhide the animated Tuna Fish model in the scene and add it as the ‘Particle Geometry Object’ under the shape instance parameters. In order to randomize the size of the fishes a little bit increase the ‘Variation’ value to ‘10%’. Turn on the ‘Animated Shape’ option in-order to incorporate the animation of the fish as particle object animation. Set the ‘Animation Offset Keying’ Synchronization by Particle Age in order to manage the animation of fishes as per the age of each particle.
06. The only major problem left with the animation of fish particles so far is with the motion of the fish school at the sharp turns of the assigned path. So in order to make the fish school revolve properly, turn on the ‘Rotation Event’ option and set the ‘Orientation Matrix’ as ‘Speed Space Follow’ while increasing the value of ‘Z’ axis to ‘90’. Select the icon ‘Speed by Icon’ and turn on ‘Use Icon Orientation’ option in order to make the fish particles use the orientation of ‘Speed by Icon’.
07. In order to increase the length of fish school and the number of fishes, change the ‘Emit Start’ and ‘Emit Stop’ values inside the 'Birth Event' to ‘-100’ and ‘0’ respectively, while increasing the ‘Birth Event’ value to ‘2000’. Finally to make the fish school look more realistic increase the ‘Length’ and ‘Width’ values of ‘PF Source’ icon to ‘2000.00 cm’ each. As a final touch up to the animation, introduce some subtle variation in the speed of the fish school by turning on the ‘Speed Variation’ option with the ‘Min’ and ‘Max’ value of ‘90%’ and ‘100%’ respectively.
This lesson will take us through the journey of rigging and simulating a wrecking ball hitting a pillar, while the lateral gets destructed into pieces. We will use Mass FX inside 3DS Max for creating this scene while also using a free script from 'www.scriptspot.com' for breaking the model of the Pillar into several tiny parts.
01. We will learn some basics of Rigid Bodies in Mass FX while creating a Ball and Chain constraint with the Mass FX Tools. Open up the ‘Wrecking_Ball_Begin.max’ file and select the first part of the chain ‘Static_Hook_01’. As we want this part of the chain to act as a fixed object therefore we will make it a static rigid body by choosing ‘Set Selected as Static Rigid Body’ from the Mass FX Toolbar.
02. Access the modify panel of the object in order to access the Mass FX Rigid Body parameters. Open the ‘Physical Shapes’ menu and set the ‘Shape Type’ as ‘Original’ in order to leave the shape of the geometry mesh as its original geometry while calculating the mesh for Dynamic Simulations.
03. Select the second part of the chain named ‘Chain_Element_001’ and convert into a Dynamic Rigid Body by selecting ‘Set Selected as Dynamic Rigid Body’ from the Mass FX Toolbar, as we want this to act as a moving object. Being an instanced object the current changes will automatically get applied onto the other parts of the chain.
04. From the ‘Physical Shapes’ menu set the ‘Shape Type’ as ‘Concave’ in order to generate the shape of the geometry from the chain's original form of a hollow object but with lesser polygons, as it will helps us to speed up the calculations while calculating the mesh for Dynamic Simulations. Now from the Physical Mesh menu hit 'Generate' in order to generate the mesh of the object according to 'Concave' shape type.
05. Select and convert the 'Ball_Hook_001' and 'Wrecking_Ball_001' object into Dynamic Objects while changing the ‘Shape Type’ parameter as ‘Concave’ as we want these elements to act as the parts of the chain. Hit the 'Generate' button for generating the mesh of the object according to 'Concave' shape type. Now select all the chain elements one by one and change the 'Physical Material' preset as 'Steel' in order to apply the steel mass properties to each element of the chain.
06. Play the simulation so far from the Mass FX toolbar in order to see the elements of the chain behaving like an attached Chain and a separate Ball object. We are now left with the attachment of Ball element to the Chain, for which we have to take the help of the Mass FX Constraints. Select the 'Wrecking_Ball_001' object and create a ‘Universal Constraint’ from the Mass FX Toolbar through 'Create Universal Constraint' tool, without worrying much about the size of the Universal Constraint object.
07. From the Universal Constraint parameters select 'Ball_Hook_001' as the 'Parent' object of the Universal Constraint. Play the simulation and test the behavior of the Chain and the Ball. We might notice the chain breaking into several separate elements, this happens because we are not having enough Rigid Body Sub-Steps which eventually is restraining the RBD simulations to calculate the steel behavior properly.
08. Open the 'Mass FX Tools' parameters and inside the Rigid Bodies options increase the 'Sub-Steps' to '50' while decreasing the 'Solver Iterations' to '4'. Enable the 'Use Multithreading' and 'Hardware Acceleration' options from the 'Engine' parameters menu in order to enable the 3DS Max to use all the processors and graphic cards on our board for calculating the simulations.
09. Right click in the viewport and unhide the Pillar model while placing it above the grid with Transformation value of ‘100’ in ‘Z’ axis. The Pillar has been modeled keeping the real world size in mind as it is essential for a better simulation with Mass FX. Before breaking the Pillar into pieces we will create a clone of the pillar as a backup. For the fragmentation process we will use ‘Fracture Vornoi 1.1’ max script which is easily available online for free.
10. Select option ‘Run Script’ from ‘Scripting’ menu while browsing folder containing ‘FractureVoronoi_v1.1’ max script and hit run. From the ‘Fracture’ dialogue box that appears hit ‘Pick Object’ button and select ‘Pillar’ object from our scene. Reduce the Number of parts to 4 and hit the button ‘Break in 4’ in order to defragment the pillar into 4 random sized parts. Repeat the step by selecting and defragmenting the parts one by one which are going to be impacted by the Wrecking Ball the most.
11. Once we are done with defragmentation select all defragmented parts and apply ‘Mass FX Rigid Body’ modifier onto them. From ‘Rigid Body Type’ dropdown menu select ‘Dynamic’ in order to make all parts act like objects in real world. Turn on ‘Start in Sleep Mode’ in order to make pillar’s defragmented parts static until struck by a non-sleeping rigid body. From Physical Material parameters we will choose ‘Concrete’ preset in order to determine the way by which pillar fragments will interacts with other elements in simulation.
12. Rigid Body Dynamics in Mass FX generates a separate Collision Mesh to fit around the Graphical Mesh of Dynamic Objects. Under ‘Shape Type’ menu Mass FX provides different options of choosing appropriate mesh type as per shape of our object. Here for this example we will use most accurate ‘Concave’ Shape Type to wrap a physical mesh around column parts for better results. As we want to apply different mesh shapes as per original shape of each fragment of pillar we have to make their Mass FX Rigid Body modifier unique in respect to each other.
13. ‘Multi Object Editor’ toolbar inside ‘Mass FX Tools’ window enables us to work with the settings of ‘FX Rigid Body’ modifier for multiple pillar fragments together. So in order to apply ‘Concave’ Shape Type to each pillar fragment, choose ‘Concave’ Mesh Type from Physical Mesh tab once again. And in order to wrap a physical mesh around each fragment of the pillar as per their respective shapes, hit the Generate button. Under the Contact Shell tab, reduce the Contact Distance and Rest Depth parameter to 0.0m and 0.1m respectively in order to retain physical mesh size of pillar close to its object mesh size.
14. As our last step we will repeat step number 8 to run the simulation but this time with the ‘Sub-Steps’ and ‘Solver Iterations’ values of ‘100’ and ‘50’ respectively. Make sure that ‘Use Multithreading’ and ‘Hardware Acceleration’ options are checked from the ‘Engine’ panel. Hit ‘Bake All’ from the ‘Simulation Tools’ panel and let it simulate for some time.
