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menu command. Drag this Space Warp in the Top view, and make it wide enough to be completely under the mirror object. Rotate the POmniFlect Space Warp so that its arrows are pointing up at the mirror. Position it so that it lies in the same plane as the plane object that makes up the floor. In the Modify panel, set the Reflects value to 100 percent and the Bounce value to 0. Bind this Space Warp to the PArray as well; this keeps the pieces from falling through the floor. Press Play to see the results.

Figure 42.19 shows the mirror immediately after being struck by a ball.

FIGURE 42.19

A shattering mirror

Tutorial: Making water flow down a trough

That should be enough destruction for a while. In this final example, you'll make some water particles flow down a trough. You accomplish this using the Path Follow Space Warp.

To make water flow down a trough, follow these steps:

1. Open the Water flowing down a trough.max file from the Chap 42 directory on the CD.

This file includes a simple trough made from primitives and a spline path that the water will follow.

2. Select Particle Systems from the subcategory drop-down list, and click the Super Spray button. Create a Super Spray object in the Front viewport and position its pointer where you want the particles to first appear. In the Viewport Display section, select the Ticks particles option. In the Particle Generation rollout, set the Speed to 10 and the Variation to 100. Then set the Emit Start to 0 and the Display Until and Life values to 100. In the Particle Type rollout, select MetaParticles and enable the Automatic Coarseness option.

3. Select the Space Warps category button, and choose Forces from the subcategory drop-down list. Click the Path Follow button, and create a Path Follow object; then click the Bind to Space Warp button on the main toolbar, and drag from the Path Follow icon to the first Super Spray icon. Open the Modify panel, select the Path Follow icon, click the Pick Shape Object button, and select the path in the viewports. Set the Start Frame to 0 and the Travel Time to 100.

Figure 42.20 shows the rendered result.

FIGURE 42.20

Water flowing down a trough using the Path Follow Space Warp

Summary

Space Warps are useful for adding forces and effects to objects in the scene. Max has several different types of Space Warps, and most of them can be applied only to certain object types. In this chapter, you learned the following:

• How to create Space Warps

• How to bind Space Warps to objects

• How to use all the various Space Warps in several subcategories

• How to combine Space Warps with particle systems to shatter glass and explode a planet

You can have Max dynamically compute all the animation frames in a scene using the physics-based MassFX engine, which is covered in the next chapter.

Chapter 43: Simulating Physics-Based Motion with MassFX

IN THIS CHAPTER

Exploring the MassFX tools

Setting object type and running simulations

Assigning object properties

Setting collision mesh type

Using constraints

Baking animation keys

When you speak of MassFX in Max, you really are speaking of physics. Physics is one of the coolest arms of science because it deals with the science of matter and energy and includes laws that govern the motions and interactions between objects. For animators, this is great news because what you are trying to do is to animate the motions and interactions between objects.

So, should all animators study physics? The answer is absolutely. Understanding these laws through study and experience will sharpen your animating skills. But you can also take advantage of the work that other animators have done in understanding the laws of physics and turning them into a product that ships with Max. The other animators are the PhysX group at NVIDIA, and the product is MassFX.

The MassFX physics engine included in Max is the same engine commonly used in games to simulate game-world physics.

Using MassFX, you can simulate many physical properties like density, mass, and friction