Animate terrain breaking into pieces

[Muto Mapping]

Pretty much title explains it all. I want to make a fight scene and I want some of the terrain to break like you would commonly see in anime like Dragon Ball Z. I know there is the "RT: Break Apart Shapes" in the Physics section however I don't think that would work, considering the detail I'd put into making the rocks seem like rocks and not some random shape.

Does anyone know how to do this?

[slowtiger]

Well, you have to create all the pieces, then assemble them, then animate them breaking apart. That's it. There's no button for it.

[jahnocli]

Depending on what you want to do, you might think about using Motion Artist. It's pretty much abandonware, but it can do things like break stuff apart n a very simple fashion (there is even a tutorial on how to do this on the Smith Micro site). If you haven't already got the software there is a free trial, and it's not too expensive either, if you want to buy it. Just be aware it's not going to be developed or supported, by the look of things...
HTH

[hayasidist]

this was a "quick and dirty" done for a completely different reason - but it has something similar to what you want.

https://youtu.be/FAc1rpfxAz8?t=11

the panel that explodes is (IIRC) three items:

> the rectangle - that switches to ...
> a rectangle with a tiny hole in the middle -- the hole expands in just a few frames and as the hole expands ...
> a particle layer starts up and throws mini rectangles towards the camera


What you might like to try is drawing a few (3-4) "rocks" (and/or other terrain debris) for the particle layer
You'll need a "before" and "after" image of the part of the terrain that explodes
and maybe use a smart mesh to warp the transitioning part …

hope that helps