http://primefocusworld.com/work/portfolio/finding-life-beyond-earth-darlow-smithson-nova
"In one challenging shot, where two moons collide, the team used Fracture FX, a new fracturing plugin for Maya. This allowed them to create a procedural animation which replicated the break up of a planet into hundreds of thousands of pieces in a way that a real planet would crack and break up under stress from another planet impacting on it. They could also add gravitational forces or speeds of impact which further enhanced the realism of the rendition of the event."
Recently RECOM FARMHOUSE completed a series of portfolio pieces for photographer Holger Pooten which relied on Fracture FX to produce the illusion of breaking glass.
Photography: Holger Pooten
cgi: RECOM FARMHOUSE
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Abstraxion is a motion graphics short made by designer Bard Hole Standal. Fracture was used for destruction and the film was rendered with V-Ray for Maya 2.0.
Abstraxion (2011) from HelloBard on Vimeo.
FractureFX was used in a Coco Pops commercial titled "Winter Transformations"
Coco Pops 'Winter Transformations' from Tim Argall on Vimeo.
Press release:
Zoic Studios Creates Reverse Explosion Effect for Simon Cowell & Fox's The X Factor
Fox's new show The X Factor had a dramatic introduction during the Super Bowl as thousands of Xs came together to form the show's host Simon Cowell. The reverse explosion of Cowell was produced by Fox, Three (One) O, Park Village Productions in collaboration with effects powerhouse Zoic Studios.
To create the effect, a variety of plaster forms simulating Simon Cowell's legs, torso and head were detonated at high speed (1000-1500 fps) and shot on the Zoic Studios Stage. A week later on a London sound stage, high-speed principal photography captured multiple angles of Simon Cowell, both static and spinning on a turntable, against an all-black environment with heavy backlight.
Zoic Studios used the 3D scan of Simon Cowell in AutoDesk's Maya and used the Fracture-FX Maya plug-in to apply a procedurally event driven simulation to fracture and explode the Simon Cowell 3D model. The Fracture-FX software also gave Zoic the flexibility to break out individual pieces and hand animate according to specific creative direction. Along with traditional particle effect simulations and hand animation, Zoic was able to create a hyper realistic, reverse explosion of Simon Cowell.
During the 3D lighting phase, Zoic Studios used traditional techniques of projection mapping the principal photography onto the 3D textured pieces. Using The Foundry's Nuke Software, the compositing challenge was to integrate all the live-action elements from the explosion shoot, principal photography, and CG passes of Simon's fracturing shell, individual body parts, and various "X" shapes to create the illusion of Simon being formed from the ground up - a task made more complex by the high-contrast environment. After mattes for the live action elements were isolated, Nuke's optical flow time-warping tools were utilized to accurately match them to Simon's body parts. Separate smoke and debris elements were layered with the explosions and CG to create a unified, dimensional environment. Particular attention was paid to maintaining a specific depth of field, from objects tumbling in front of the lens to those pieces forming from behind Simon as well. Nuke's 3D capabilities were effective in re-projecting various elements onto 3D cards, a technique featured when Simon rotates 90 degrees and becomes fully formed in the spot's finale. Custom lens flares were also crafted for each shot per the client's creative direction. Final color timing was addressed at the end of the post process using AutoDesk's Flame.
Tools:
Autodesk Maya & Flame
Fracture-FX Plug-In
The Foundry's Nuke
The folks at Naughty Dog used Fracture when creating the Gameplay trailer for Uncharted 3. Great work guys!
Derik uploaded this nice rendition of a FFX infused avalanche. (Only visible to FFX demo testers due to WIP nature of project)
2D avalanche WIP |DvdB| 3446 from Fracture on Vimeo.