Particle Explosion Part 3 - Adding Debris
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Tutorials in this series:
- Particle Explosion Part 1 - The Explosion: Create a fiery explosion particle for multiple purposes, including an FX sequence.
- Particle Explosion Part 2 - Hot Balls of Fire: Create a ball of fire that will be emitted with it's own smoke trail for use in a FX.
- Particle Explosion Part 3 - Adding Debris: Create some debris that will be emitted to accent the explosion.
Particle Explosion Part 3 - debris
In this tutorial we are going to create some debris that will be emitted to accent the explosion. This tutorial assumes you have completed parts 1 and 2 of the explosion particle tutorials as well as gone through the static asset export pipeline.
Step 1 - Export a Static Asset
For this particle we want to use a static asset. You may take this time to export a static asset of your choosing or simply use the asset located here in clean engine when it's time. \Engine\CleanGame\GlobalParticles\meshes\oil_barrel_debris
- The mesh should have a small texture on it and should be as few polygons as possible.
Step 2 - Create Particle Spec and Add it to the Area
Create the particle chain by going through the create menu Create/Particle/NewParticleSpec/Local. Name this one "debris_mesh_tutorial." Set the particle type to MESH and choose the mesh that you intend to use, preferably the one listed above,oil_barrel_debris.
Create an instance of the particle either through the create menu or through the assets panel. The initial behavior(seen below in fig 1) is the same as a billboard Point particle, except that these are meshes.
Step 3 - Tweak Properties
We want the same motion that we had in part of the Particle Explosion, a nice arc for each piece of debris while emitting a few in a single shot. To do this, we will adjust the following parameters.
On the emitter property sheet.
- Set EmitFrequency to 10
- Set Number to Emit to 10
Every 10 seconds you should see a clump of your model emitting downward now.
On the particle property sheet
- Set the LifeSpan to 5
- Set the Trajectory to some Gaussian values with in the following range.
- On Y set your Min and Max .3 and 1 respectively. This is our upward impulse.
- On X and Z, Set Min and Max to -.5 and .5 respectively. This is our outward impulse.
- Set Buoyancy about .2. This dictates how fast they start falling dowward again after their initial impulse from the trajectory.
- Set the diffuse color to a timeline that is white and fades out to 0 alpha so that the object maintains its true color then fades out.
- you could also add in some values in the DeltaRotation3D under the Visuals section. This will give each piece of a debris a spin.
Step 4 - Final Gallery
The following image in fig 2 should be what you end up with.
- evolution of the debris effect
fig 1
fig 2
