This scene contains a wall made of individual bricks, a plane, a single animated spherical deflector, and a wind spacewarp to be used within the Particle Flow system. You will be knocking down the wall and rebuilding it. In the course of the the wall being knocked down the bricks will interact with some flexible columns.
Open Particle View (Keyboard Shortcut 6) to create a new particle flow system.
Create a new PhysX Flow - this flow will be used to create the wall
Remove the Shape operator
Remove the Spin operator
Replace the Birth operator with a Box#2 Birth Group operator
Add all of the boxes to the Birth Group
Press "Update Particles From Objects" button - this refreshes the operator to show your new particle shapes
Press the "Hide" button to hide your original geometry.
Add a PhysX Force operator
Add Wind01
Set the Exponent to 3 - This multiplies the effect by 10 to the third, PhysX forces need more force than standard pflow
Enable Time Warp and set it to 5 frames - This simply creates a burst of wind instead of a constant force
Click the PhysX World operator
Press the "=>" -Access Driver Parameters- button
In the modify panel notice the PhysX World Driver is now selected, scroll down to advanced parameters, open the rollout
Set the Subframe Factor to 18 - to increase system accuracy
Add a Particle Flow Collision Shape Modifier to the Plane01. Leave at default and enable the "Activate" button
Add a PhysX Collision test operator to event01
Add Plane01 to the test, configure as shown below.
Note: Always add PhysX Test Operators below the PhysX World Operator for them to function correctly
Add a PhysX Glue Operator above the PhysX Collision operator
Set the Binding Type to "Rigid"
Set the Bind Distance to 20.0 - Simplified/Rigid bind distance can be guesstimated by particle object center to particle object center
Tick Bind Center Aligned Only - this refers to axial alignment of adjacent particles, if within the set value, particles are considered aligned
Set Breakable by Force
- we want the mortar to break
Max Force = 200000.0
Max Torque = 200000.0
In the "To Bind With" section tick Deflectors and Ground
- this creates binds to deflectors as well as the ground
Add the object Plane01 to the deflectors list.
Add a Script operator below the Birth Group Operator. Edit the Script Operator as shown or grab the script HERE
The next section is straightfoward given that you are already familiar with Particle Flow. Mouse over the operators to see each operators settings. After duplicating the settings below this is how your flow should look
Brief description of operator settings:
Event 02:
Collision Test - see if a particle has hit the Spherical deflector, if yes, continue and goto the next event
Age Test - if particles have been in the event too long, send them out
Spin - stop any spinnning
Speed - stop any speed
Event 03:
Age Test - hold the particles in this event for the specified duration then send them out
Event 04:
Spin - give the particles some spin
Find Target - since we gathered particle position data earlier in the flow with the "Store Data" Script operator we are now going to use that data with the Script Vector option in the Find Target parameters. This tells the Find Target operator to return the particles to value we saved in the particleVector channel or in other words the their original positions
Event 05:
Go to Rotation - this tester will work with another Script operator we will add later, it will, over time, return the particles to their original orientation
Speed - stop any particle speed
Inside Event 04 add a PhysX Switch Operator below the Find Target Test and Copy/Instance PhysX World from Event 01 below the PhysX Switch
In Event 05 add a new Script operator below the Go To Rotation Test. Rename it to "Rotation Script"
Brief Description of Settings:
PhysX Switch - the physx switch gives you the opportunity to disable certain aspects of the PhysX World system. In this case we are making our particles match speed and spin and turning off the simulation. This gives control of the particles back to the standard operators without being influenced by the PhysX World system.
PhysX World operators need to reside in every event you want to impart PhysX on your particles. You need to copy and paste or instance your original PhysX World operator to the new events. If you create a new PhysX World in subsequent events you will also be creating a new World Driver and your simulation will not be constistent. All PhysX Worlds in a flow need to be on the same World Driver in order for particles to interact.
Edit the Rotation Script Operator as shown or grab the script HERE
Part 2 - Adding the Columns
Create a new Birth Event with a Box#2 Birth Grid and wire PF Source 01 to the new Birth Event (Event 06)
Set the Grid Spacing to 10.0 - this amount defines the spacing between particles within the grid
Tick Non-Uniform Grid and set as follows:
Grid Length - 400.0
Grid Width - 300.0
Grid Height - 50.0
Change the Icon Size as follows:
Lenght - 200.0
Width - 150.0
Height - 100.0
Next add the following to the new Birth Event (Event 06)
Add a standard shape operator
Shape - Cube
Size - 5.0
Add a new PhysX Shape operator or copy the PhysX Shape operator from Event 01 to Event 01
Add a PhysX Drag operator and set the Dampening Factor:
Linear - 3.0
Angular - 1.5
Copy/Instance the PhysX World operator from Event 01 to Event 06
Set the Display Operator to Geometry
Add a PhysX Glue Operator
Set the Binding Type to "Simplified"
Set the Bind Distance to 10.0
Tick Bind Gap and set it to 1.0
In the "To Bind With" section tick Deflectors and Ground
Add the object Plane01 to the deflectors list.
Add a PhysX Collision test operator below the PhysX Glue test
Add Plane01 to the test
Play the Animation
With more going on in this scene you may choose to "Bake" your PhysX World. This ensures a smoother playback
Note: You should always "Bake" before rendering, this is a must if you choose to use Object Motion Blur :-)
