If you have ever tried to use a volumebreak on a geometry with deformation (of an animated character for example) you will see that volumebreak does not preserve information on the deformed geometry. Instead you can use the fragment node, this node can read the geometry and deform it, but directly from the box does not have the same break visible as volumebreak, here is a workflow to combine volumebreak with the fragment node.
First, load the deformed geometry, I use a girl lowpoly with biped and mocap animation, you can use a simple cylinder and modifier the animated curve on it. Clone, and prefrag this clone with any tool, I use rayfire but use any tool you like to prefrag. I use probolean ID5 assignment to the sides of the fragments. Do not create a lot of fragments in order not to weigh down the CPU calculations, there will again be a procedural fragment inside tp.
Now we need movement at this point, to do this we will use the skinwrap modifier. Select a frag, convert editable poly and link all the other fragments, now we have only a mesh. Add a skinwrap modifier and use the original animated object to deform it.
We have an animated geometry and its deflagration, perfect! Also note that there is an Omni light on the scene, I will use it to activate the girl’s fragmentation.
Now let’s go to the Thinking Particles. The system is very simple, we add an o2p operator, add our geometry already Fragged, check the example, and keep track the object of the particle, send this particle to a group (in my case group “ini”).
Let’s add another dynamic set, since we now have only one geometry.
The important parameters on the fragment node is to specify your light as a rupture activator, this will detach our sections from the main body. The fragment group will select which group you want to send the particles to, select “count” and 1. In fragment form, make sure the thickness is set to zero, and “exclude closed fragments”, so now the node, only fragment will detach the elements from the main form. Furthermore it is possible to define the different ID to apply the materials and thus create a different effect.
And this is all! you only need to add a baffle object, gravity on the detached particles, and a sc operator.
Tutorial created by: andvfx.com
Original article: www.andvfx.com