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.