3ds Max Reactor is a toolset that animators use to simulate realistic physics in an animation scene.
3ds Max Reactor Tutorial

For this 3ds max animation tutorial, you will learn how to create a realistic fracture and making it real with Materials and Lighting.

This animation will be of a steel ball falling on a rock and shattering it into chunks. To do this, we'll use a free 3ds Max script called "Fracture Voronoi" which you can download below:

* Download the 3ds Max fracture script:

Will update when Download get's added to the Download Section, please bare with me!

* Download the material maps

Will update when Download get's added to the Download Section, please bare with me!

---

Watch the Video:

---

Realistic Fracture with Materials and Lighting in 3DS Max

1. Make a box which will make the fractures. Make the box with X:60; Y:70 and Z:30. Then make a surface with another box. Make sure the surface have enough space to hold the fragments and the Z position is -.20. Then make a sphere with Radius:10 and 15 segments.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

2. To make the fragment we'll use a free script called "Fracture Voronoi" which can be found on my Downloads when it get's submitted. Now you have the script, Go to MAXScript>Run Script and open the FractureVoronoi.ms file. On FRACTURE, click pick object and click on the box that will be fractured. Set Nb Parts to 45 and click Break in 45. Now an uniform fragment is generated. You can close the FRACTURE now.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

3. Now select the surface. Go to Animation>Reactor>Open Propertey Editor or just click on Properties from Reactor toolbar. Change Mass:0; Friction:0.3; Elasticity:0 and check the Unyielding option. Same way click all the fragments and open propertey editor. Change Mass:1; Friction:0.3 and Elasticity:0. Finally select the sphere object and change Mass:250; Friction:1 and Elasticity:0.8.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

4. Now select all of the object in the scene and go to Animation>Reactor>Create Object>Rigid body collection or click on Create Rigid body collection from the reactor toolbar. Now select only the fragment objects and go to Animation>Reactors>Create Object>Fracture or click fracture from the reactor toolbar. Select the fracture and go to modify panel. In the Break on, set Velocity to 40% and Energy Loss to 0.05%.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

5. Now go to Utillities panel, click on reactor. Now expand Havok World rollout. Set Col. Tolerance to 0.8. Now go to Animation > Reactor > Peview Animation. Check your animation if it works correctly. If it doesn't, try varing the col. tolerance value from havok world. Once you're happy with the animation, create animation from Animation>Reactor>Create animation.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

6. Now we have our animation ready. Let's make it realistic with materials and lights. First of all, download the textures and normal maps of this tutorial. Now go to material editor and apply a new material to the surface and another material to the fragments and the sphere. Now go to the first material which is for surface, click on the button next to the diffuse, click Bitmap in the new window then chose the "Opal Persian.jpg" file. Go to parent of the material and expand the maps rollout. Click on the Bump, click Normal bump on the new window. Now click on the bump and chose bitmap and select "Opal Persian_NRM.jpg" file. Go to parent and in maps, set bump value to 70%. Set the Specular value to 25 and Glosiness to 15.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

7. Same way, select the second material which is applied to the fragments. Select "6.jpg" file as the diffuse texture and "6_NRM.jpg" as normal bump. Change the bump vlaue to 90%; Specular: 40 and Glosiness: 25. Now we see the textures a little wired. Select all the objects that are textured, apply UVW Map modifier. Select Box and change the values U:50; V:50; W:50.

8. Now we have to set the lights. Go to Create>Lights>Standard lights>Omni. Find a nice angle and place the light that fits to the angle. Now go to Modify panel. On the shadows, click on and select Shadow Map. On shadow Map parameters rollout, set Size:450; Bias:0 and Sample range:8.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

9. Now we have pretty realistic light but the environment doesn't look so realistic. Select the omni light and go to top viewport. Hold down shift then drag the light to a different position. Make Z position a little lower for this light. In the Intensity/Color rollout, set multiplier to .5 for this light.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Congratulations! You are done. Now render the animation and see the result.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]