Q:I wonder if there is an effective methode to create the effect of "stone-engravering" - i want to animate that a tool "scratch" my name into a stone block with smashing stones with more... I have thought about making subtract text from the block at different stadies - then morphing them afterward, but it seems to take long time... thanks in advance..
A:I decided not to respond to the Question until I find a good Answer :o)Here is a tutorial for carving an "M" into a marble block and the resulting MAX scene.
It uses standard functions of MAX and the FREEWARE SpaceWarp BOMB2 by Johnny Ow, but it would work with the regular Bomb of MAX, too.
Note that it DOESN'T MAKE ANY USAGE OF BOOLEANS!
I did it in about 1 hour (including figuring it out :o), it should take less to recreate...
The Animated GIF shows only a part of the animation, and includes just every 2nd frame.
The first step will be: Creating a carved Marble Block.
Start a new scene in MAX. Turn SNAP (S) on. Go to Create/Shapes/Text, enter the text ("M"), select the font "Times New Roman Bold" Click in the Front viewport to create the Letter. Use SHIFT+Move to create a Copy of the Letter. Using Create/Shape/Line draw the Block Contour around the First Letter. Use SHIFT+Move to create a Copy of the Block Contour spline. Go to Modify and apply an EditSpline modifier to the First Letter. Turn Sub-Object OFF and Attach the Block Contour. Apply a Bevel modifier to the shape with [Height 3, Outline -3]. Select the Copy of the Letter and turn Optimize OFF. Apply the Bevel modifier to the Copy of the Letter with [Height 3, Outline 3] Apply the Bevel modifier to the Copy of the Contour with 2 levels: Level 1: [Height -20, Outline 0], Level 2: [Height -3, Outline -3] Select all objects, apply an UVW Modifier, turn Sub-Object ON and allign the Gizmo to the front side of the Block. Open the Material Editor, load or create a marble material, and assign to all objects.Now you have a beveled marble block with an exisitng beveled letter-shaped hole in the front, and the same beveled letter filling this hole.You might want to save this state to a separate file because the letter shape is still editable.
The next step will be: Detaching portions of the Letter to separate mesh objects.
Select the Letter, apply an EditMesh modifier. Turn Sub-Object ON, go to Face level. Turn Crossing Selection OFF - Window Selection ON (last line, left-most button)- Using Single Face mode, select parts of the Letter you want to carve with one "hit". Press Detach to create a new object.
Repeat this step until you break the whole letter into small pieces. Go to Create/Space Warps, find the Johnny Ow entry in the rollout and create a Bomb2 right behind the first piece of letter. Set the Bomb2 properties to [1,0] [5,0] [1,0] [5] [5,0] [2,0] [90,0] [120,0] [1,0] Bind the first piece of letter to the Bomb2 using the Bind to Space Warp icon.- Use SHIFT+Move to create a copy of the Bomb2 behind the next piece of letter.
- Set the Detonation time to [25] and bind.
Repeat the last two steps for each piece and add 20 to the last detonation time (e.g. 45,65,85,105...)If you play the animation now, a part of the block will break away each 20 frames.
The next step will be: Creating and animating the Carving Tool.
Create a spline with the desired cross-section of the tool Apply Extrude or Bevel for the 3rd dimension Use Scale to make it fit the size of the letter parts it will be carving. Assign a Metal material of your choice to the tool. Hit Spacebar to lock the selection of the Tool. Allign the Tool in the Front viewport to the first piece of letter. Place the Tool in the Left viewport to be at the initial distance to the block. Go to the Display tab and in the Display Optimizations rollout, check Trajectory. Press the Animate button- Enter 5 in the frame counter and move the Tool to hit the block in the Left viewport.
- Enter frame 10 in the counter, and move the Tool back to the initial position. In the Front viewport, move it up to allign to the next piece.
- Enter frame 20, right-click the Time Slider, uncheck Scale & Rotation, and create a Position key.
Repeat these steps for the next hits, adding 20 to all frame entries (25,30,40...45,50,60...65,70,80...) Turn Animate off. Open TrackView, find the Tool object, expand the tracks. Replace the Default Position Controller (Bezier Position) with a TCB Position Controller.
Right-click the first position key on frame 0.- Set [Ease From: 50] in all "starting" keys (0,20,40,60,80 ...)
- Set [Ease To: 50] in all "returning" Keys (10,30,50,70,90 ...)
This will make the tool speed up before the hit and slow down after it.You can animate the rotation of the Tool,too, if you want to allign it to the carved lines.
The next step will be: Creating sparks for the hits of the Carving Tool.
Go to Create/Geometry, select Particle Systems, create a Spray with [50] [50] [2,0] [40,0] [20,0] [Drops] [Tetrahedron] In the Timing field, uncheck Constant and enter [4] [20] [40] Set the Emitter size to [10],[10] Allign the Spray to the hitting edge of the Tool, pointing back. Link the Spray to the Tool. Go to Create/Space Warps, create Gravity, set it to [10] [0] [Planar] Bind the Spray to Gravity. Select Spray, go in the stack to the Particle System, hit the Animate button, go to frame 19, in the Modify Tab enter 0,5 for Drop size. Go to frame 20 and enter 2 for Drop Size. In the TrackView, find and select the Drop Size track for the Spray, hit the Out-Of-Range button (6th from the left)and select Cycle for both sides of the curve.
This will make the sparks appear with a Size of about 1,5 and almost disappear before the next hit.Now you can create a Spotlight and a Camera to finish the scene.