Blasts and explosions

[terjeber]

I am making a small movie where I would like one of my objects to "blast" or "explode" towards the end. Whether it is blast or explode doesn't really matter as long as it ends up in lots or pieces and goes off the screen. My snipped is 250 frames long, and I would like the blast to start at frame 175 and finish at 225.

First I try blast. I add it to my object, in the timeline I enable the plugin mask to show the little "enabled" line in my timeline. I move the start of the little line to frame 175, and voila, my blast starts at frame 175. I move the end of the little pink line to frame 225, and I have my desired effect. Kinda. The problem is that with the blast plugin, the blast is always reversed, so at frame 225 rather than having a blased (gone) object, it has been re-built in reverse. I can not find any way to make the blast be one-way. Am I missing something?

Anyway, I noticed that the explosion plugin seems to be one way only. OK, I can explode my object. Fine. I do the same thing, add the effect, enable the little pink line, and drag the start of it to my starting frame. That should work, right? Nope, it doesn't. It seems that with the explosion plug-in, the explosion starts at frame 1 no matter what, and the fact that I drag the start of the explosion to frame 175 just means that I can't see the explosion.

The effect is that for the first 174 frames the object is fully there, and when I hit 175 it doesn't start to explode, it is already fully exploded just one or two bits lingering.

So, the plugin-mask enabler works very differently in the two effects. For blast, when I move it to frame 175 the blast doesn't actually start until 175, for explosion the effect starts in frame 1 no matter what I do. The problem with blast is of course that it happens in reverse too, which I do not want.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[Ron P.]

Hi Terjeber,

I was able to recreate your problem. However if you look at the Object Explosion effect in the Easy Palette, you will notice that it is doing just what you describe. That is the default for that effect. However you can modify it to behave however you want. Do this:

1. You will notice when you apply the effect Keyframes in the timeline. Click & Drag the First Keyframe (not on frame 1, you can't) to the right of frame 1, drag it to the Frame (175 in your instance). The others will shift accordingly.
2. Now set the pink timeline for the effect on frame 175.
3. Go to the added Keyframe (where an effect changes) this would be around frame 200 or so you should see a marker on the timeline). Select it and delete it. That is where the effect starts to reverse it's action.
4. Now in the Attribute Panel, you should see Object Explosion. On Frame 225, Set the Movement Type to Shatter, Collapse Type-All, Level, Rotate and Variation to 100.
5. Now you can go to the Transparency and add a Keyframe to Frame 175. No changes. Now go to Frame 225 and set the it to 100.

You can play with it and others to achieve the your desired effect. But that should get you started...
By the way if you want to learn more about this go to Vasst.com scroll down to Cool 3D. They are offering their training video for only $14.99. Ulead still sells it for $99. It is worth the $14. I bought it abot a month ago.

Regards

Ron P.

[rwernyei]

Ron,
Nice detailed explanation. I did things differently though. Just select where you want your explosion effect to begin and end by setting keys and changing the Level value. I did 0 right before the breakthrough and 100 for the full scatter. Enjoy!

http://media.putfile.com/Great-Glass-Wonkavator/320