Escalight - 3ds Max tutorial, Photoshop, Flash, V-Ray, Blender, Free 3D models, etc

by Didik Wijaya
This tutorial needs you to understand basic use of 3dsmax.

This is the second installment of Desert Chase tutorial. After we created dust trail in part 1, now we are going to create machine gun blast effect. We will use Atmospheric Apparatus to create this effect and then apply noise to make the blast 'blinking'.

1. If you have followed Desert Chase Part 1 tutorial, you can continue to this tutorial. If not, it's okay. You can download finished part 1 file (70kb, zipped, 3dsmax 8 format) and material (25kb, zipped, jpg) here. Zoom helicopter in. Notice that there are two machine gun on left and right side.

2. Before you begin, make sure slider is in frame 0. In Front viewport, zoom in on one machine gun. In Command Panel, click Helpers icon. Choose Atmospheric Apparatus from drop-down list. Then, click SphereGizmo button. Click and drag in Front Viewport to create Sphere Gizmo like image below. Use Radius=12 and activate Hemisphere.

3. In Left viewport, move Sphere Gizmo in front of machine gun. Use Select and Non-Uniform Scale to stretch Sphere Gizmo along X axis, abour four times long. While Sphere Gizmo is selected, click Select And Link button. Open Select Object window by pressing "H" in keyboard. Highlight "apache main" object and click Link. Now, Sphere Gizmo is linked to helicopter. Scrub slider, and Sphere Gizmo will follow helicopter's animation.

4. Make sure Sphere Gizmo is still selected. Click Modify tab in Command Panel. In Atmospheres & Effects rollout click Add button. A small window will appear. Choose Fire Effect and click OK. Fire Effect will be added in rollout. Highlight this Fire Effect row, and click on Setup button. Environment and Effects window will be opened.

5. In Environment and Effects window, move rollout until you find Fire Effects parameters. Use Flame Type Tendril. This type will create fire that spread to a distinct direction, like camp fire, torch or candle. For this tutorial you may use Flame Size 20-35 and Density 40-80. When finished, close this window and render your animation. A gun blast effect will be seen. Note: Fire Effect only visible in Camera viewport. In that case, always render Camera Viewport from now on.

6. Machine gun blast that we have just created is static. It means, its shape is not changing from time to time. What we need is gun blast effect that 'blinking'. We will correct this using Track View. Open Track View window (in above of your screen, choose Graph Editors>Track View - Curve Editor). In left pane, click small plus sign (+) on left of Environment. Click again plus sign on left of Fire Effect until you find Density. This Density parameter is used to control how thick your flame is. Select Density, right click and choose Assign Controller. A small window will appear. Choose Noise Float, then click OK. When a new window appear, just click OK. In Track View, when noise is applied, a jaggy line appear. This means, we have used noise to create random density value

7. Next step, we will tell 3dsmax when gun blast effect should appear. In left pane, click plus sign on left of Density. Select Noise Strength row. Activate Add Keys button.Click twice on dotted line to create 2 keyframe. Select one key on left, fill 49 and 0 at the bottom right of Track View window. Select again the other key, fill in 50 and 200. This way, your gun blast effect will appear only from frame 50. When finished, close Track View window.

8. In Front of Left viewport, move Sphere Gizmo while pressing Shift to the other machine gun position. This will duplicate Sphere Gizmo. Use Instance in Clone Options window. Recently created clone will also linked to helicopter, so you don't have to link it again.

9. Render your animation. Remember to always render in Camera viewport. Desert Chase Part 2 is finished.

10. Desert Chase Part 2 finished file is available here (71kb, zipped, 3dsmax 8 format).

Any question or comments regarding this tutorial should be sent to:
Didik Wijaya, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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