[viewnathan]

Hello...I'm stuck...
how do i make a brick wall that falls apart in bricks instead of polygons if hit by a collision object.
Somehow i missed the part of preparing your object before breaking it apart with hardFX.
I would like to see parts with volume fly around instead of flat surfaces.
How do i change an existing object..let say a cup...in an object that comes apart in parts.

thanx for help

[NoStr0m0]

Hi!
I'm not the brightest in the bunch (doh!) but I have a suggestion regarding the brick wall. Just create a box then use the "Array multiplier" found in modeler or just clone it until you have the wall. Remember not to weld the boxes together or you and Layout will have a hard time separting them. Just leave a small spave between them and you should have no problem with Hard_FX.

I presume that you could do something simmilar with the cup. In Modeler draw some splines and cut you cup with them the way you want (extrude and bolean, or Shift+R and slice, etc.)
then separate it in pieces (cut) in different layers and close them by creating polys (select the edge points in order and press p). After that you copy the cup pieces into one layer and empty the others you don't need. As long as you don't press merge points you sould be fine. The send to layout and crack

Hope it helps. Good luck!

[viewnathan]

Thanx a lot NoStr0m0
That works perfect though i find it rather strange that there seems to be no plugin for this job..at least not for mac.
viewnathan

[NoStr0m0]

Actually there are some plug-ins but they don't come cheap, and for the young pennyless artist they are all but afordable.
Anyway....

Glad I could help and if you have anymore problems, remember : someone else has hit the same bump in the road and got over it so they can help you too.

Good luck!

[viewnathan]

Can you give the names of this plugins...i'm on a mac and find the plugin jungle not to clear as it is to find a compatible version.
regards Viewnathan

[NoStr0m0]

One of them was Crack-It but I haven't found it anywhere, just saw a reference to it. Now the one I was talking about was BlowUp/Shater plug-ins found here http://www.cinegraphics.net or more exactly down here http://www.cinegraphics.net/product.php. There's also an explanation of what each of them can do.
But I'm sure there's more of them on that wild world web

[viewnathan]

While you replied NoStr0m0, i was typing what follows....thanx for your reply...BlowUp/Shater...nice but for pc only

Why does Lightwave make me believe Mac is not the right platform for it????
I'm not the most advanced user of Lightwave around but i'm sure that if there was so much trouble with it on te pc as is on mac it wouldn't be that popular...
Apart from this i hope that someone can tell me if there is a reliable place for getting plugins..(tested and clear of platform)
I've been searching the net for 2 days for a plugin that can make my objects fall apart in a narural way after hit by a collision object. Not the poligons but believable parts.
The only one's i found compatible with mac was "C4 destruct" but that gives a failure "Line 307, invalid object method line()" and Crackit came up with "Fatal: Code 001"
Ofcourse These are no Newtek plugins but to me this means that there is no way to blow up objects in a natural way on a mac.....
I hope someone gets me out of this before i start buying PC's

Viewnathan

[Mark]

Unfortunately, you are in the minority as far as LW users go (using a Mac). Most plugin authors just don't find it economically viable to develop Mac plugins (costs of Hardware, Compilers, exta lightwave seats, etc).

Much of the plugin development community are either Lightwave users who write plugins to overcome their own problems, or in-house studio developers writing for their own animators.

The simple fact of the matter is there are many, many more LW users out there on PCs, and until that situation changes, most plugins will only be available for PC.

That said, the best place for you to go search for available plugins is www.flay.com - they have possibly the most comprehensive database on the net - if it's not there, its probably not worth bothering with.

You could try checking for the C4 set of plugins - these facilitated the destruction of objects within LW - not sure if these were PC only or not - again, flay.com is your friend.

[viewnathan]

I understand all you're saying but maybe newtek could put some extra effort in trying to close this gap a bit. For instance make some plugs for essencial things like blowing up objects themselves.
I think that if you let the usability of software rely for some vital parts on 3rd party developers you should try to get that working on both platforms...otherwise the mac user will be having gaps in a for the rest very good software.

this is what is said on the C4 website: Mac Users : Currently, only C4 : Destruct will work on a Mac (since it's an Lscript). You can use it to break up your objects and use the Output feature to save your pieces as individual objects for use with other 3d party plugins in Layout.

But i get this: failure "Line 307, invalid object method line()" if i try to destruct an object.
Anyone succeeded tho?????

[Mark]

Well, it might be down to the version of LScript you're running if its giving you an error. LScript tends to get updated with each version of Lightwave and fixes some bugs that cause scripts to fail, and introduces new ones that also cause scripts to fail.

Why don't you try reporting the bug and your version information to the developer of the plugin - they might have a solution for you...


As for NewTek producing extra plugins for the Mac, you have to understand that their development resources for the Mac are also stretched thin - they don't have as many developers working on the Mac port of the software as they do on the core PC version. You have to remember, they will put the development effort in wherever it is most commercially viable, and at present, the Mac is a niche platform.

Anyway, none of the tasks you want to accomplish (ie: the destruction of an object) requires plugins to perform - admittedly a decent set of plugs will make the process a lot easier, but you can still achieve the required effects with manual animation techniques.

Also, if you're running a version of LW prior to 8.0 you might want to consider upgrading since 8.0 introduced rigid body dynamics that might make your task easier.

[viewnathan]

Thanx for your vision on the subject allthough i differ in opinion on the subject of what is "commercially viable"...why did they make it for mac then....As a customer you don't think this way and if you tell me that the effort of making the best 3d software in the world is getting more attention on pc than mac i see this as very dissapointing way of being "commercially viable".
But as i said...i'm not working for Newtek.

I tried to mail the makers of C4 destruct but the mail couldn't be delivered...
I work on version 8.3 so i guess my Lscript is recent.
Can you explain me how to make irregular cuts in an object with dynamics instead of modeling every bit you want to separate in an explosion.
Or do you know of a tutorial to this subject..
regards viewnathan

[Mark]

The simple method of cutting the object is to go to a fresh layer and make up a lattice of 2 point polys that will form your cutter object (ie: form the pattern that you want to break the object into).

Make sure that all the polys are connected to one another, then extrude them so they are thicker than your model (note I'm concentrating on cutting along a single plane here - there's no reason however, you couldn't adapt this technique to cut along multiple planes however).

Now, with your object in the foreground, and your cutter in the background, you need to boolean the two (make sure you've saved first) - this can be a little problematic at times - you can also achieve the desired effect using copious applications of the 'knife' tool.

Once you have the sections you need, copy them each into their own layers (hint: select a single poly and then select connected) - this will now form your 'broken' object.

The manual step comes in patching all the open areas of geometry you have in the pieces you've now created.

Now, over in layout, have the correctly formed, whole copy of your object in the scene - and in exactly the same spot, load up the 'broken' object (you might want to parent the individual pieces of the broken object to a null to make movement as a whole easier). Set dissolve on the broken object to 100%

Now, when you want your object to break, simply swap the dissolves over at that moment - your complete object will disappear, and in its place - the broken object will be visible allowing you to break it apart manually or via dynamics.

Tedious, but that's essentially the way that the C4 plugins used to work...