Tutorial: Animating a Nuclear Explosion

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videoimg_mini.jpgFabien Weibel has made this great and detailed tutorial of how to make an atomic bomb (or any other massive) explosion. The result looks really good so don’t miss this intermediate/advanced level tutorial!

Weibel writes:

After many tests, I found that the particle system was inadequate to create an atomic bomb.
So I decided to find another way to do this. It is displacement mapping.

Go to the tutorial to read more (mirror). It’s viewable in pdf-format in both English and French.

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    • http://www.blendernation.com Bart

      Awesome. I also like the fact that the sound comes only two seconds after the blast. While not accurate (this would place the observer at only 680m from the detonation ;-), it’s a detail that not many people would pay attention to.

    • http://www.letwory.net Nathan Letwory

      Nice, but Blender 2.5 doesn’t even have tools yet :S

      /Nathan

    • aws357

      Nice, although the mushroom part lloks a bit too solid.

      The first part with the light and smoke looks more realistic.

      Wished I could see the tut. But the site seems to be blendernationed for now.

    • http://iskrembilen.com freqmod

      Mirror: http://folk.ntnu.no/frederv/upload/atomicbombtutorial_EN.pdf

      (tell in a comment if you don’t want it mirrored)

    • Master Danix

      Now THAT´s an explosion,going to see tutorial now

    • http://www.mumeli.org/en/ Serge Gielkens

      Wow, that sound and the camera movement. Now we are talking!

    • http://tonton.pascal.free.fr TP

      Very nice tutorial.
      Despite the effects of such explosion, I think Nuclear mushroom is one of the most beautyfull thing.

      Explosion should be add at the end of the tittle. I thought it was modellinf of a just a bomb (beneth a plane wing…)

    • http://www.marketiers.org/ shul

      Very convincing, I was almost convinced blender 2.5 is out (even unofficially..) :-)

    • Goofster

      Congratulations, Blendernation is now officially on the FBI watchlist :)

    • roofoo

      Is it really good to have a headline “Making an Atomic Bomb”? Now you’ll have terrorists flocking here wanting to learn how to make bombs, as well as the FBI like Goofster said…. lol

    • RNS

      He meant 2.46,not 2.50.That version is features with new layers and new window interface along with new clothes goodies and composite lay out.What a blast !

    • James Hales

      @Goofster: That would explain the 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable that I got when I visited the tutorial, XD. Luckily freqmod provided a mirror. Thanks, freqmod!

      This is a very clever technique.

    • http://www.fantomgl.com MikeHart

      Wosh, what a nice animation. I will definately have a look at the tutorial. thanks for sharing!

    • http://www.zombieundead.com Solhex

      Great! I’ve been asked to create a mushroom cloud like this (to destroy leicester city) and I said I couldn’t do it because I would have been trying to figure out how to make the partcles in blender do such a thing semi believably. Add to that ,it might have taken me months to figure out. Then comes along this tutorial; simple, understandable at a glance and mainly keyframing. I suppose (and I’m trying this out later) I should be able to play around with shape keys a little, to get the mesh objects to “act” within the particulars of a scene. Cool. Thanks Fabien that’s just the kind of tutorial I like.

    • Moonman

      The title should perk up a few ears at the NSA…LOL

    • http://www.blendernation.com Bart

      @Goofster, Moonman: good! I’m sure both the FBI and NSA will have use for a good open source 3D application %^)

      Still, point taken: I’ve updated the title.

    • bohica

      @Goofster, Moonman: good! I’m sure both the FBI and NSA will have use for a good open source 3D application %^)

      If we get all sinister forces in the world addicted to Blender, maybe peance and freeance will break out all over.

    • http://fweibel.com ! FaB !

      Thank you BlenderNation for showing my tutorial and video here.

      I hope that my tutorial will be understandable, because this is my first one^^
      Don’t hesitate to correct me if something is wrong or badly explained !

      Please do not forget to send me a link if you make YOUR A-bomb !

      @nathan
      Actually, I meant blender 2.46, not 2.5…sry

    • http://fweibel.com ! FaB !

      oops….
      My site has some “capacity problems” ! LOL

      @freqmod
      Thank you for the this link
      http://folk.ntnu.no/frederv/upload/atomicbombtutorial_EN.pdf

    • http://www.taddmencer.com Tadd

      Very nice indeed … very nice. I like the effect, though I have to agree it looks too … solid … but then again, who have actually been this close to a nuclear explosion? Except for that guy with the two heads. He doesn’t count.

    • http://www.blendernation.com Bart

      /me cranks the wheels and pulls the levers to point the BlenderNation Website Deathray to our next victim!

      (insert hollow maniacal laugh here)

    • http://www.letwory.net Nathan Letwory

      @RNS what new window interface? :)

      /Nathan

    • amoose136

      Good but it would be brighter stay glowing longer. Also, the shock wave wasn’t big enough. I’m going to give a try at it to see if a can’t just make it look better. Funny, I live right by oak ridge and I’ve never made the atomic bomb in blender before.

    • http://www.blendernation.com Bart

      Looking at the animation again, I think it could also use a good deal of dust blowing towards the camera?

    • http://www.paraisoenterprises.com Byron Kindig

      Thank you Fabien for the great tutorial. I have not finished it but have learned a lot already. I really like the effect, but learning the techniques is what I like the most. Thank you for posting this is English also. I know it is not your first language, but your tutorial is clear to me. I hope none of us will ever see a real atomic blast.

    • http://fweibel.com ! FaB !

      I have just uploaded a video on youtube of a new project I work on: A ROCKET LAUNCH !!! hehe
      this use the same technique that the a-bomb. Maybe i will write a tutorial.
      Here is the link to this pre-preview-test-video^^
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOeIi883xoA

      @Bart
      I have tryied to do that with the particle system…but the result didn’t satisfy me…actually, I don’t really know how to use that particle system and how to get good renders with the halos…

    • http://www.paraisoenterprises.com Byron Kindig

      Wow! I like that rocket blast off video. I think this technique is very useful for lots of things. I can imagine a fire breathing dragon using this same process.

    • kylecaldbeck

      Wow!!

    • blendercross

      Well done Fabian!
      ….and the preview of your missele lunch is fantastic – watch it four times – great!!!!

    • Marcus

      Nice Tut,

      but to everybody who plans to make tutorials in the future:
      Why making your layout like for traditional print when everybody is watching it on screen?

      Landscape layout pages!

    • Marcus

      WOW!
      I love the rocket, smoke has even more realistic dynamics and color/ Light simulation than in the bomb video.
      Very Convincing!

    • http://imatgedart.com Raimon

      Hi,

      thanks for sharing and writing this tutorial. I think is a great approach but here comes some issues with displaying at once all these modifiers (I’m already aware of display options in modifiers, but…). My results is not so equal to your screenshots, I think this isn’t bad (blender is not an exact science, fortunatelly) but perhaps your tutorial is too straightforward in some steps, so it don’t covers completely the whole work that you come to show us.

      Great anyway!
      Raimon

    • asche

      Hi,

      Please provide, if you can, the worjing tutorial. The one you`ve provded refers to non existing.

      thanks,