Assembly/Disassembly with Particle Flow in 3Ds Max

Assembly/Disassembly with Particle Flow in 3Ds Max

Tutorial Details
  • Software : 3Ds Max
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Completion Time: 1 hour
  • Required Script: Via ScriptSpot.com

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

This entry is part 4 of 12 in the Best of 3D Studio Max – Part 2 Session
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Twice a month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from throughout the history of Cgtuts+. Today we’re taking a look back at Sachin Joshi’s awesome tutorial on assembling and disassembling objects with Particle Flow in 3D Studio Max. This tutorial received a great response when it was originally published back in July of 2010, so if you missed it the first time, why not check it out now.

Being creative with the dynamic systems in our 3D applications can produce stunning, exciting and elegant results. In this tutorial, Sachin Joshi walks us through one such example using Particle Flow in 3Ds Max, showing us how to assemble and disassemble objects within your scene.


Video 1

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Discussion 50 Comments

  1. Normal Privates says:

    Thanks. This is a worthwhile watch.

  2. Mike Yull says:

    Can’t find the chunks script on scriptspot but the baker one was there.
    Very helpful tut

  3. Tripp says:

    A proper link to the Maxscript would have been nice, but awesome video none-the-less.

  4. Naveen says:

    Sachin, thanks for the wonderful tutorial, it has amazing possibilities, and always wondered how these were done.

  5. Archie says:

    Awesome Tut as always, Really helpful .
    Thank you.

  6. Mike Yull says:

    Thanks a lot! Anyone else having trouble with the script?

  7. Robin says:

    I love this technique. Great Tutorial and thankyou for sharing.

  8. Steve says:

    I enjoyed watching this tut, very good and informative, Thankyou very much, Sachin.

  9. VIKI says:

    Wow, actually going to do this kinda project and I find this. Very helpful and a good tut too.

  10. ivy says:

    thanks for the tut.as before your tut has been very helpful.

  11. rayez says:

    very helpful tut …. enjoyed it …

  12. Lyn says:

    The tutorial content and it’s subject is very interesting, A good tutorial,
    Thanks and keep it up.

  13. Om Shrestha says:

    pretty awesome tutorial. Thankx a lot for providing such a wonderful tutorial. KEEP IT UP..

  14. Claudia Edson says:

    A neat tutorial and its awesome. Thanks for sharing.

  15. nemo says:

    don’t work…

    [ Editor note - Hi Nemo, If you can let us know the problems you're having, I'm sure someone here would be glad to help you out :) Thanks, Matt. ]

  16. it’s very nice to watch, thanks!

  17. Raoul says:

    Nice tut.

  18. Hawk says:

    The script does not show up even when i clicked on the direct link at the top of this page. when i viewed a cached copy and copied the script from there to the maxscript editor it saved properly but when i try to open it in the pflow part it says that the script contains errors. I’m not really sure what’s going on there. I hope this is descriptive enough for someone to help me. if not i’ll try to clarify more.

    • Rany Bishara says:

      on ChannelsUsed pCont do
      (
      pCont.useAge = true
      pCont.useTM = true
      pCont.useShape = true
      )

      on Init pCont do
      (
      global ChunksArray = $Box* as array
      )

      on Proceed pCont do
      (
      t = pCont.getTimeStart() as float

      if t < 0 do
      (
      NumChunks = ChunksArray.count

      for i = 1 to NumChunks do
      (
      pCont.AddParticle()
      pCont.particleIndex = pCont.NumParticles()
      pCont.particleAge = 0
      pCont.particleTM = ChunksArray[i].transform
      pCont.particleShape = ChunksArray[i].mesh
      )
      )
      )

      on Release pCont do
      (

      )

  19. Rany Bishara says:

    I love the tutorial but i’m facing a problem.

    I have detached a guitar and followed the same steps as the tutorial but when I change the type of the particles to geometry the guitar becomes deformed, parts are scaled and out of place! please anyone help i need this project !

  20. Manish Sharma says:

    Nice tutorial… but there is something wrong. i copied that script from the web in to .txt file then save it as .ms file. then i open my scene and open this script, change the name then save it, it saved properly but pflow does’nt took mesh as particle. i am using 3ds max 2010. i think in my case the maxscript is not working.

    i copied that script from this link
    http://www.scriptspot.com/bobo/mxs5/pflow/pflow__Chunks_Basics.htm
    and i only change the name of my object.

    please help me….
    i am dying to achieve that effect….plz

    • sachin joshi says:

      can you send me the scene file , I can have a look,

      • Manish Sharma says:

        i have sent u the scene file on your gmail. please have a look and tell me where was i wrong…

      • sachin joshi says:

        Hi Manish,

        going thourgh your scene file you probably have done some mistake. like all your models are not center to pivot, so align the pivot to the center of the object and reset xform and convert to poly.

        Still you will find your scene wont be working, because you have create the messy script.
        Under the birth script in your scene, if you scroll down, you forgot to delete extra default script that comes with birth script, you need to delete that too. now once again delete everything in the script and paste your birth script.

        Now , this will work for sure.
        All the best.

      • Manish Sharma says:

        yeah it works….and now i get the effect. Thanks you very very much for helping me.

      • sachin joshi says:

        glad to hear that.

  21. Saroj Khan says:

    I love this tutorial, man. and yes, I got my effects done.
    Thankyou once again for such a sharing.

  22. Rusty_Carr says:

    I am having the same problem as Manish. Any luck on finding the problem? Cheers.

  23. anup shakya says:

    very good tutorial, nice to watch.
    Thanks for sharing.

  24. Gyanon says:

    wow this looks cool………..
    thanks for the share .keep it up………..

  25. Dawn says:

    Great technique to learn, however extremely hard to understand what was being said a lot of the time which is a bit of a downfall.

    Still nice effort. thanks

  26. jose says:

    very good tutorial, nice to watch.
    Thanks for sharing.

  27. Robert says:

    Great tutorial. Amazing to see particles used in all these neat ways! This is a bit like the digital domain lexus commercials…

    Thanks!

  28. virat says:

    nice tutorials sir i like all of steps i will create some real vfx .
    thanks

  29. Marta says:

    Hi!! does anyone know where I can find a tutorial like this, but for Maya??? I tried to folow along translating into Maya step by step… but it’s looking a bit too complicated lol.. Thank you for the tutorial anyway :D The result is awsome!!

  30. Albert says:

    I’m having problems with the render. Everything else is good except that when I render, it keeps on rendering the first frame… HELP PLEASE

  31. Sebastian says:

    Good tutorial but I wanted to create this effect with my existing geometry that contains UVs. Anyway around this?

  32. ROD S says:

    I am trying do use this effect with a .iam file from inventor 2011. The partical script wont pick up the objects for some reason..is there a way to convert the inventor file into a usable max file?

  33. Nawaz says:

    hey sachin thanx for the tut…it was so informative,i got d effect in my first try,thanx for the bunch of information…

    *** i have a query though…at d start of tut,u show some renders in Ram Player,d effect you are gonna get at the end,i noticed three different views in one window,is dat a plugin or done manually…coz doing manually would be so painful…please clearify…

    and thanx for the tutorial again,its the easiest way i’ve seen for particle system object assembly/disassembly…

  34. krembo99 says:

    Very nice tutorial.
    One question though – How do one use the original Material settings for an object without assigning it manually to each particle ??

  35. Steve says:

    Works great!- Is there a way to animate the the objects along a curved path- like for building a brick road?

  36. Felice says:

    Not all my objects are picked up by the particle flow system. Everything is xformed and objects pivots oriented to their center. What step is missing?

  37. Adi says:

    Very nice tutorials, but I also have problem with creating this. Can you please tell me where i can donwload the scene? I have registered as premium only for this :)

    Thanks in advance

    • Adi says:

      … also if you have a tip for hidding the old geometry. Here it appears the old geometry and the disintegrating geometry is on top, so both shows. I dont know what I am doing wrong

    • Chris Tate says:
      Staff

      Hi Adi,

      I’ve just checked and unfortunately it looks like the author never submitted any project files for this tutorial. Very sorry!

      All the best,
      Chris

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