GLASS-HOOPS DESTRUCTION

This was an idea that grew from a tutorial, taken from the Blender Foundation book 'Bounce Tumble 'n' Splash' (link to Amazon) - a comprehensive book on Blender 2.4's physics simulations. The utorial in question uses 'particle' and 'explosion' modifiers.

USING PARTICLES

To experiment with particles, create a mesh object, and view the PHYSICS buttons (Click the three-axes 'OBJECT' icon, then the third, particles icon from the three icons that appear to the right, or press 'F7' three times)
Then, follow the next few simple steps, experimenting as you go...

•   Click ADD NEW
•   Choose EMITTER from the menu that appears underneath.
if it's not there already.
...(you can choose REACTOR if you already have an EMITTER to react to, or HAIR and follow the rest of the steps without the START, END or LIFE settings)
•   Select an AMOUNT of particles (or strands of hair/blades of grass etc.)
•   OPTIONAL: Set a START and END time (in Frames) for the particles to be created.
•   OPTIONAL: Set a LIFE (Lifetime in Frames) for you particles to last before they die - (setting a RAND value will allow your particles to live for varying lengths of time, based on their LIFE time in Frames, plus or minus a RANDOM range of values - with 1 being +/- 100% of their lifetimes)
•   Set a TRAJECTORY - to begin with, try setting NORMAL to a value between 1 and 5 This will cause your particles to travel in the direction that the mesh's FACES are, well, FACING! ..this angle is called the face's NORMAL), and RANDOM between 0.5 and 2.5
•   Set a GLOBAL effect - like virtual gravity, or wind - by setting AccZ , depending on your other settings, to about -1 to -5.
•   OPTIONAL: Set the EMIT FROM section to organise where your particles will be emitted from - for example, RANDOM , makes them emit in a random order, VOLUME means they will emit from INSIDE your mesh - and FACES and VERTS (Vertices) will cause them to emit from the shell.

Now you're set up, try pressing ALT-'A' to play through your scene, and watch your particles fly! (Unless you chose HAIR! - in which case you'll have to use a SOFTBODY modifier to watch that fly!

ENJOYBLENDER-3D!! IT'S ACE!!!!

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