Create a Dynamic Shattering Text Animation in Maya

on Jul 27th 2011 with 37 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Software: Autodesk Maya
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Estimated Completion Time: 30 Minutes
This entry is part 5 of 9 in the Best Of Maya – Part 2 Session
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The Maya shatter effect can be a useful technique to know, but if used incorrectly, it can also cause many headaches due to slow simulation and interpenetration issues. In this tutorial we will go over some different methods of dealing with the shatter effect to create a faster and more reliable workflow, which can be used in a variety of different scenarios.

Republished Tutorial

Every few weeks, we revisit some of our reader's favorite posts from throughout the history of the site. This tutorial was first published in February of 2010.

Tutorial Details

  • Software: Autodesk Maya 2010 (possible with older versions)
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Techniques Covered: Shatter effect
  • Completion Time: 20 min
  • Software/ Hardware Requirements: Autodesk Maya running specs

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    By

    Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

    Jostein loves graphic design, motion graphics, music, and computers, and tries his best to put them all in a blender and watch the result. His weapons of choice are primarily Maya and After Effects but he likes to explore and experiment both digitally and analog. Jostein currently resides in Brisbane, Australia. He is also very Norwegian.  

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    • jacob

      Great tutorial

    • http://tashaat.deviantart.com/ SANJIT PANDEY

      WOO GREAT WORK

    • Matas

      More maya tutorials!
      You’re great!

    • http://deerworkshop.deviantart.com Deer Workshop

      awesome man! doing it after school!

    • Chris

      Great work, but makes me appreciate Cinema 4D so much more.

    • http://www.amplifiedanimations.com Julian Waller

      Awesome tutorial. I know this is off topic but how do you set the viewport background to a gradient?

      • Sam

        alt+b

    • http://www.youtube.com/jazioblaq Jazio Blaq

      Thank you!!! Needed something like this

    • ishiro

      Julian, try Alt-B

    • Chris

      Wow. Nice tut, but man am I glad I’m a Cinema 4D guy. LOL

      • Creation

        Why do you post twice with the same information?

        • Aldo

          he is funny daaaa

      • Aldo

        No COMMENT

    • http://www.rafaelbraga.com Rafael Braga

      wow… pretty nice… I’ll try it now!

    • vamc

      good tutorial…thnks

    • sanjit pandey

      Amazing :D

    • gangadhar

      hi gangadhar verry nice tutorial

    • Boris

      Hi there!

      i don´t know why but when i do shatter (i delete history first etc…) it gives me an error that make the caracter wheter enormous or super small. Do you know why could be this happening?

      Thanks!

    • http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/autodesk-maya/create-a-dynamic-shattering-text-animation-in-maya/ xyz

      nice tut…n i need further help in this…i tried the same thing in an already animated charater. i want the charater to blast into pieces after his action. since we need 2 delete history of the object so i duplicated it n then deleted history ..but still it isn’t showing any result neither is showing any error..i can’t make out where i m going wrong. please help..

    • ganesh

      you are really excellent …..Great work..i am a beginer in maya ,pls help me !!!!pls………..

    • http://www.gameselite.hd1.com.br Luan Yuri

      Please can you do a text version of this turorial? I live in BRAZIL and this video is difficult for me to follow…

    • Seyi

      tried this but shatter never works on the text…………………………………..i’ve deleted ALL history and it still doesn’t work! i’m using maya 2011………….or does this work only on 2010 and below?

      • Nexus

        I am having the same problems using 2011 =[

        • Nexus

          Just found that, when creating the text initially in 2011 take these options:
          Reset
          Type: Poly
          Match render tess… On
          Type: Triangles
          Tess.. Method: Count
          Count: 200 (was fine for me but just increase untill you get the right smoothness)

          Then after deleting history the Surface Shatter works fine :)

          Hope that helps

        • NIKNOK

          thank you nexus.=) i’m glad i read the comments section.

        • Brian

          Nexus, your right. For 2011 I just made a poly text in the initial setup and then was able to select each letter and shatter them. The tutorial says to delete the extra letters in the outline, I deleted everything but the shards and have been able to add dynamics to the letters. My poly count on the text was around 350. Also I turned down the bounciness on each shard to make it look heavier.

        • Poly

          Thanks Nexus!!! =D

        • tinybee

          Is there anyway we can have that nice bevel of sharp while still using the shatter effect?

    • DennG

      dont work with bevel und solid shatter in maya 2011 :/
      please help

    • laska

      @DennG: it works perfectly, but maya crashes everytime letters reach their background. any suggestions why?

    • Deinfrank

      good luck doing this in 2011

    • Jake

      Good but r u teaching us how to do the shatter effect or r u pointing out problems with it?

    • tinybee

      Hi I tried to click the shatter effects but the it gave me an error message even i already deleted the history. Any ideas why? My surface shatter is fine but the solid & crack shatter show the error message.

    • http://www.aleso3d.com Aleso3d | Vray & 3ds Max tutorials

      really nice shatter effects, in 3ds max i always use rayfiretool or some voronoi script type like fracture

    • Pratheep

      hi,
      I am using maya2011 but im unable to shatter them, even after deleting, my shatter effect is not affecting n it says “// Error: An error occurred while running the Solid Shatter script. Results may be invalid. If necessary, undo to restore the previous situation.”
      what do i do for this error…
      help me out.

    • User_Maya

      Tutorial is good, but I use Maya 2011, and I can’t do it in 2011… After the nurbs to polygons, and again Surface Shatter doesn’t work! What have I to do?

    • guido

      doesn’t work… why? error