Log into your account to keep track of your progress. You can work through the lessons without logging in but your progress will be lost when you refresh the page.

Destruction plays a big role in many of the most popular video games. Learn how to fracture a building, generate the explosion and export the sim from Houdini to UE4. Learn how to art direct the results by fracturing different parts of the model based on their material type then setting up glue constraint networks. Once the explosion has been simulated, learn how to use the Vertex Animation Texture tools from SideFX Labs to transfer the simulation into UE4. Once in the game engine, you can set up trigger boxes and use blueprints to set off the explosion.

NOTE: These lessons use the SideFX Labs tools. Make sure the latest release (non production build) is installed when doing this lesson.

PROJECT FILES
Overview
Before getting started, let's take a quick look at the overall workflow for the lesson. This will give you a good introduction to the concept and techniques being used to destroy the building.
1 | Fracture the Building
The first steps involve determining which parts of the model will be static and which will be active in the simulation. The active section will then be broken apart using the different materials to determine how the fracturing will be handled.
2 | Prepare the RBD Simulation
Learn how to generate the RBD simulation using a "hidden" sphere as the main collision object. You will also play with velocity vectors to help shape the collision and use glue constraint networks to make sure that some parts of the model break apart sooner than others.
3 | Implement FX in UE4
Once you have the simulation, you will export Vertex Animation Textures that will be used in UE4 to set up the destruction sequence. A trigger box and a blueprint network will launch the explosion. A cut scene will also be generated to show an alternative approach to featuring the effect in-game.

CREATED BY

caittrout
CAITTROUT

Caitlyn Trout is a senior technical artist at inXile Entertainment. She discovered technical art while in school at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy. She's worked in the AAA game sphere since 2013 on teams at EA Tiburon and Gearbox Software. She’s contributed to multiple games as a tech artist including Borderlands: the Presequel, Battleborn and Borderlands 3. Caitlyn enjoys coding art pipeline tools, discovering new vfx techniques and empowering artists in building bigger, more reactive worlds.

More from caittrout

COMMENTS

  • BlissettDMB 3 years, 11 months ago  | 

    I asked @SIMON VERSTRAETE to help out with a SideFX Tutorial on Destruction\Vertex Animation setup between Houdini and Unity, and he pointed Me to your work.
    I did watch your earlier videos on Youtube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYCDmOe4i_A] which was mega awesome!!!
    Well done!!!

    I was so inspired that I decided that it would be in wonderful if you did a similar walk-through for Unity :)

    Watching your vides now.

    Thanks again,

    Dave.

    • BlissettDMB 3 years, 11 months ago  | 

      Hi @CAITTROUT,
      Were project files ever published with this series??? Google points Me here for the starting point for this post, but I cant locate the Project Files.
      Kindly let me know when possible.

      Regards,
      Dave.

      • lb29212746 3 years, 11 months ago  | 

        where PROJECT FILES?

        • Unreology 3 years, 9 months ago  | 

          To download the project files click on the first link "PROJECT FILES" in the top-right list

          • folpatte 3 years, 9 months ago  | 

            Hey Caitlyn !

            Thank you for your tutorial serie, it is great and super enriching.
            I would be curious to see one covering more in depth the steps for setting the VAT shader : pasting the code in the material function and following manipulations to grab pivot min and max from houdini, or to set the is looping parameter. I am not familiar with those.
            Let me know if that is something you could do someday.

            Thank you very much for the very smooth tutorials serie.

            Kind regards,
            Florence

            Please log in to leave a comment.