Creating a Hut Destruction Scene Using Photoshop, 3ds Max, and After Effects
Preview
In this tutorial, I'll show you how to show a still image of hut being destroyed by a storm using Photoshop, 3ds Max, and After Effects.
I'll show how to create secondary animations of torn cloth, debris, dusty wind, etc., to add feeling to the scene. Using these techniques, you'll be able to turn any still image into a beautiful live action scene.
1. Setting Up the Image in Photoshop
Step 1
Open Photoshop.
Step 2
I've imported an image of a hut into Photoshop to demonstrate the
effect. You can use a different image if you prefer.
Step 3
Since the upper part of the hut will be shattered, isolate this upper part in a separate layer.
Step 4
With the help of the Lasso Tool, select and cut the indicated upper part of the
hut.
Step 5
Make a new layer and rename it Outer Part. Paste the cut upper
part in that layer.
Step 6
Following the same method, make another new layer and rename it Inner
Part. In this layer, make an inner shattered part. You need to do some
paint work in this step.
Step 7
Now, turn on all layers. It will just look like before, but the upper part
and the BG are now separate. Save the file in PSD format.
2. Creating Flying Debris Using Particle Flow in 3ds Max
Step 1
Open 3ds Max.
Step 2
To create flying debris, go to Create > Shapes > Line
and create several random shapes.
Step 3
Once done, select all the chunks and apply an Extrude modifier to them.
Step 4
Select all the chunks and then go to the Group
menu and group them all, Group > Group.
Step 5
Create the flying debris using the Particle Flow system. Create a PF Source system by navigating to Create > Particles > Particle Flow Source, and open the Particle View window by pressing 6 on the keyboard.
Overwrite Shape with the Shape Instance operator. Click on None and select Group from the list.
Step 6
Go to the Shape Instance operator and turn on the Group Members option. Decrease the Scale % value. You'll now see the chunks scaled down and scattered randomly.
Step 7
Go to the Speed operator. Decrease the Speed amount and
increase the Variation and Divergence values as indicated in the
following image.
Step 8
Go to the Birth operator and set the values of Emit Start to -100,
Emit Stop to 100, and Amount to 100.
Step 9
Go to the Spin operator and set the Spin Rate to 360 and Variation to 20.
Open Render Setup and render the animation sequence from 0 to
100 frames.
3. Creating Torn Cloth in 3ds Max
Step 1
Open 3ds Max. Create a plane in the perspective viewport. Keep its Length
Segs and Width Segs as 100.
Step 2
With
the plane selected, apply the Cloth modifier to it.
Step 3
In the cloth modifier, click on the Object Properties tab.
Step 4
In the Object Properties window, select plane and turn on the Cloth radio button. It turns the plane into
cloth. Click OK.
Step 5
Open
the cloth modifier roll out. Select Group.
Step 6
With
the indicated top left and bottom left vertices of the plane selected, click on the Make Group button.
Step 7
In the Make Group window, rename the group name as Hold Vertices.
Step 8
With
the Hold Vertices group selected, click on Preserve.
Step 9
Go to Forces
> Wind and apply a wind force in the scene, from left to right.
Step 10
In the
cloth modifier, click on the Cloth
Forces tab.
Step 11
In the
Forces window, select the wind and click on the left to right button to
bring the wind force into the simulation. Click on OK.
Step 12
Click
on Simulate. The simulation starts, and you
can see the cloth simulation in the viewport.
Step 13
To
make the cloth torn, I would use a black and white texture as the opacity map.
You can make your own opacity map in Photoshop. The black part would be
transparent while the white part would be opaque.
Step 14
Press M to open the Material Editor. With an empty slot selected, click on the Opacity channel. It opens the Material/ Map Browser.
Click on Bitmap and
select the black and white image. Click on OK.
Step 15
Apply
the material to the cloth.
Step 16
Render
the torn cloth simulation up to 100 frames.
4. Creating Shatter in After Effects
Step 1
Open After
Effects.
Step 2
Import
the Hut.PSD file into After Effects as a composition. It comes with three
different layers: Outer Part, Inner Part, and BG.

Step 3
Create
a new solid layer and apply a Turbulent Noise effect onto it: Effect
> Noise & Grain > Turbulent Noise. Set the Contrast and
Brightness values as shown in the following image.

Step 4
With the solid layer selected, go to Layer > Pre-Compose. Rename
the pre-composed layer as Ramp and choose the second option. Click on OK.
Step 5
Turn off the Ramp layer.
Step 6
With the Outer Part layer selected, go to Effects > Simulation > Shatter and apply the effect to the layer.
Select View as Rendered.
If you move the time slider, you will see the outer part of the hut is
getting shattered. But you need to tweak it to get the desired effect.
Step 7
Open the Force 1 and Force 2 dropdown menus and set the values of the properties as shown in the following image.
Step 8
Open the Gradient
dropdown menu and select Ramp as the Gradient Layer. Animate the
Shatter Threshold value from 0 to 100 values, starting from the frame
where you want the shatter effect to begin.
Step 9
Import
the torn cloth and particles debris and put the layers on the timeline to
composite.
Step 10
Create
a solid layer. Apply the S_Clouds, Genarts Sapphire plug in, effect to the layer. Set the Shift Speed X value to 600. This will
create an effect of stormy wind.
Step 11
Create
an adjustment layer. Apply S_Film Effect and Hue & Saturation
effects to the layer. Turn on the Colorize option and set the Colorize
Hue value to 40. This will create a pale stormy day effect.
Step 12
Hit the play button and you will see a stormy scene with flying
chunks of the hut, various wooden debris, and torn cloth.
Conclusion
You've now seen how to take a still image of hut and show it being destroyed by a storm using Photoshop, 3ds Max, and After Effects. You can play with the values of the properties of the various effects to get the desired look.
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