Escalight - 3dsmax, Photoshop, Flash Tutorials, Free 3D models, etc

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

Imagine you are a soldier, marching to battlefield and suddenly thousand arrows shot by enemy armies fall like rain from the sky. I always love to watch this scene in movies. And now we will create this special effects from scratch. All you need is 3dsmax, version 6 or up, because we will need Particle Flow feature. Basically this tutorial will introduce you to Particle Flow.

1. First we will create an arrow model. Open or reset your 3dsmax. In top viewport, create a box in any place. After you created this box, click Modify tab in Command Panel. Change these parameters, Length=1, Width=90, Height=1, and Width Segs=3. Name it “arrow”. Change its color to dark brown. Right click on box, and choose Convert to Editable Poly. In rollout Selection, activate Vertex. Move vertices in the middle to the left and right.

2. Select all vertices in the most left and using Select And Uniform Scale make this side sharp.

3. Change Selection to Polygon. Select one of right segment polygon. In rollout Edit Polygons, click Inset Settings button. Use Inset Amount=0.4 or 0.5 if you want smaller size. Press OK. Click Extrude Settings button. Use Extrude Amount=4. Press OK.

4. Use the same technique to other 3 side. Change to Vertex selection. Select all necessary vertices in extruded polygon and move it to the right. Turn off all sub-object selection. Now, you have an arrow.

5. Next step, we will create Particle Flow. In Command Panel, click Create tab. Change drop down menu to Particle Systems and click PF Source button. Click and drag in Top Viewport to create PF Source icon. Click Modify tab, and make its Length=400, Width=600. In Front viewport, rotate PF icon to 135 degrees (look left image). Try to move the slider, particle will come out of PF Source icon.

6. After you create PF Source icon, now open Particle View window. Just press "6" button in your keyboard. In Particle Flow, you have Event that represent particle activity. In the bottom window, there are operators, which affect how particle behave. By default when you create PF Source icon, Event 01 consist several default operator.

First we need to change particle appearance. Select Shape Instance operator form bottom and move it into Event 01. Place it exactly on Shape operator, in order to replace it. In Shape Instance 01 rollout (on the right pane), click button under Particle Geometry Object and the click "arrow" object in viewport. You have just made arrow object used as particle.

If you move slider, you may notice particle appearance still hasn't change. Select Display 01 operator in Event 01. Change Type to Geometry. Voila! Arrows now appear as particle.

Select Speed 01 operator, use Speed=500 and Variation=200

Select Rotation 01 operator, use Orientation Matrix=Speed Space Follow, and Y=180. Arrows will always point up.

Select Birth 01 operator. You may change particle quantity here. Hundreds, thousands, choose any number you like. Remember, more quantity may slow down your computer. By default it will use 200 particle.

7. In Command Panel, click Create tab. Press Space Warps. Make sure drop down menu reads Forces. Click Gravity button. Click and drag in Top viewport to create a Gravity Space Warp. Because you create in Top viewport, Gravity icon will point down, the same direction to gravity forces we need.Click Modify tab, change its Strength=0.1.

8. Open Particle View again. Add a Force operator from bottom pane into Event 01. Place it under Shape Instance 01. Don't place it above any other operator, because you need to add, not to replace. In Force 01 operator, click By List button and choose your gravity space warps, Gravity 01. After this, when you play this scene, arrows will slowly move downward.

9. Add a Free Camera in Left viewport. Use background image you like. Press play button. Sit back and enjoy your thousand arrows animation.

Source file can be downloaded here (3dsmax ver 8 in zipped format, 20kb)

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