Planet Explosion FX in 3D Studio MAX

All of us have seen mighty explosion of planet in many sci-fi movies. And this mass explosions respect us with their disaster force and destruction power. In this tutorial you will see how to make similar explosion on some planet in 3D Studio MAX.

Of course the planet in this tutorial is spherical and we will use Sphere primitive to make her. Also we need a view point (camera), to look the scene in prepective view like in real word. Take a look next movie to examine how to make this.

Now you have to make boom for top crust of the planet. This is a top thin layer of the planet - soft and light part of planet which will explode and detach first from the planet. Typicaly this is small part which flying from center of the planet to outside dircetion with larger speed.

Next you have to make boom for the core of the planet. Internal substance is separated in large parts and explode more clumsy with lower speed. This parts is something like the core and mantle of our planet - the Earth.

Now you have to place some light source. Planets are illuminater from the stars. We will user Direct Spot light with more contrast for this. Also you have to make gizmo object for positioning the fire from the explosion.

Next select sphere Gizmo and apply fire affect to it. Also you can animate this Gizmo to enlarge around the planet. In Material Editor prepare material for the planet like shown in the movie and apply to the sphere.

Now you can render your scene and save to avi file format. Lets see what we make it.