PYROMANIA! is a set of CD-ROMs full of great explosions, fire and smoke effects that are in sequential targa form. When used as texture maps for explosions in 3D scenes the results are unsurpassed in realism. True, you can use 3D explosions for some situations with great results, but the memory overhead to create explosions as real as the ones in PYROMANIA! would make it difficult if not impossible to do as a true 3D effect. The 2d explosions are surprisingly realistic though, as long as the normals of the explosion object stay fairly close to pointing at the camera.

We will use a spaceship for our example. There are may different types of explosions we could use but since we are in a zero gravity environment, we will use a sequence from PYROMANIA! volume one called Zero-G explosion (meaning no gravity will effect the exploding particles). There are some other things peculiar to explosions in space, for example, no oxygen is present so no smoke or firey flying pieces of debris would be present. Also, there is little or no ambient light in space. If you watch movies much, or watch alot of space shows on television , then you probably realize that they don't always hold to these principles. You may have to bend the laws of physics a bit yourself, in order to get a great shot.

Tesselate the faces

For this example we will explode a fairly small ship that could hold maybe 8 people. Larger ships might have multiple explosions. First copy the entire ship and tesselate any large faces so that you will have sufficient polygons to make the explosion look realistic. Then using editmesh/edge unhide all the edges in the object.

Attach Faces

Next, attach the pieces together using edit mesh/attach. Since 3DS MAX keeps the mapping coordinates of the individual pieces even when combined into a larger single object, the ship will remain identical to the original in rendered appearance.

Edit Face Detach

Now using edit mesh/face select small sets of faces that you want to represent a peice of debris as the ship explodes, then use detach to create a new individual object with the same mapping coordinates as the original ship. For this ship we created about 25 of these small chunks. As long as you don't move them, the rendered ship will still remain almost identical to the original.

Turn on Two Sided Material

Check two sided on the ship materal. This will make you ship debris appear as solid objects when exploded.

Making an Explosion Template

A good way to decide how you want your explosion to look is to create a template object out of joined boxes that is approximately the dimensions of your spaceship. Then bind this object to a bomb space warp and adjust your parameters to explode the template object in the way you want. After getting the explosion just right, go to the last frame of your explosion and turn on the animate button.

Copy Explosion Motion

Move the peices of your space ship in the same manner as the exploded template object. This will give you a more realistic explosion pattern. After you have deleted or hid your template object, in the same last frame, rotate the ship debris pieces in varying directions to get a tumbling effect when the ship explodes.

Ready for PYROMANIA!

Lets load in the ZG-01.avi or TGA sequence from PYROMANIA! volume 1 CD as the diffuse map for a new material in the materials editor. In the general settings set the shininess to zero and turn on two sided materials. Self illumination is at 100. Now in the opacity channel of the material definition lets load in the same ZG-01.avi file and use the rgb value to defiine the opacity of the texture. (see illustration). Set in the time parameters the AVI to hold after end, and start it 3 frames before the exploding ship begins to fly apart. This will simulate the fire coming through the ship hull and then the force causing the explosion.

Create Explosion Polygon

To create the explosion geometry use a box with little or no thickness. For mapping, use bitmap fit to maintain the explosion aspect ratio and apply as planar mapping. Assign your explosion texture and position it so that the start of the explosion is centered where the bomb space warp was. Scale the explosion to follow the same velocity as the pieces flying out.

Cast Some Light on the Subject

In a true explosion the pieces of debris will be illuminated by the fireball in the center. To simulate this create a simple omnilight that is the same general hue as the fireball and animate the multiplier to coincide with the exploding object. This will give the impression of light coming from the fireball.

Add Motion Blur

This is a good application of object motion blur. So make sure to turn on object motion blur on the ship peices. Now group the ship, animated omni light, and pyromania object into one. You can animate this ship and use it as a standin when you want to explode the original. Just adjust the trackview keys for the peices and omni light, and the AVI start point in the materials editor for whatever frame you want to start the explosion.

Other Possibilities

Some other things that add to realism are: exploding a small sphrere with the explode space warp with glow in video post to simulate sparks. Using combustion to simulate 3D smoke or fire on individual pieces. (if you aren't in space!) Using volmetric lighting on the animated omni light. If you try these steps you should have a real cool explosion setup. Now go and blowup a planet or two!