Thinkinetic has released a new Maya version of their massive rigid body dynamics solver and fracturing plugin. New shatter features include Acquire Shatter to transfer a current shatter pattern to another object including animation keys, a Shatter option for using a volume shape as source, updated Jagginess which is now independent of the original mesh tessellation, a new soften edges UI parameter for Jagginess to adjust the roughness of jaggy edges, and a new option to apply jaggines to broken fragments only.
Dynamics see speed improvements of up to 30% for the PDI solver, with 50% less memory required for caching sims. There’s a new feature that enable pieces of an animated object to be pulled apart at desired frame. A bake selection option has been added, and keys can now be baked for specific fracture bodies, they can still interact with the remainder which are still simulated. There’s also better performance when selecting fragments in advanced fractures, improving viewport responsiveness.
Cluster break has been simplified to make it easier and more predictable by making energy independent of body mass and scale. PDI files are now smaller thanks to the fact that first hit bodies that eventually don’t move are excluded from caching and baking, and only the broken or moving parts of fracture bodies set to “break upon impact” are cached. Finally fragments set as static aren’t cached at all.
Node locked license of Pulldownit for Maya cost $395 and floating licenses cost $495. The 3DS Max version has yet to be updated. Find out more information about the new including video demos on Pulldownit’s blog.
