Animating with Blender

Bits o’ Stuff

One other great use for particles are to simulate “Bits o’ Stuff.” These bits could be the flotsam and jetsam found in deep ocean water, pollen wafting through shafts of sunlight in a forest, or even the pieces of a shattered flowerpot.

In The Beast, particle systems were used to create the shattering flowerpots from shot 10. Let’s look at one of them to see how it was accomplished.

Figure 14.46. The television on fire, smoking, with sparks

Figure 14.47 shows Penelope, the mean dog, cowering as the Beast pelts her with little flowerpots. First, a pot was modeled in its own asset file and prepared for dupligroup linking in other ...