Animating the Falling Sand

Creating a Realistic Hourglass

Adding a Camera

 

Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials >  Modeling Tutorials > Creating a Realistic Hourglass > 

Creating the Sand Build-Up

The ability to animate object parameters gives great power and flexibility to 3ds Max. In this lesson, you will create a hemisphere with a pivot point at its base, then animate the hemisphere percentage to achieve the illusion that the particles are forming a mound with volume.

Continue from the previous lesson or open sands_of_time4.max from the \tutorials\hourglass directory.

1. If necessary, activate the Select Object tool on the main toolbar.
2. Hide the Snow particle system. Select it in the viewport, and then right-click and choose Hide Selection from the quad menu. Select the Hourglass object (Cylinder01 unless you've renamed it) and again choose Hide Selection.
3. With the Perspective viewport active, click the Arc Rotate button to display the navigation icon. Rotate the view so that the bottom of the hourglass is clearly visible.
4. From the main menu, choose Create > Standard Primitives > Sphere.

   At the top of the Create panel > Object Type rollout, click to turn on the Auto Grid Toggle.

5. Drag out a Sphere object until the radius is approximately 17. A sphere should be created at the bottom of the hourglass plate.
   TipLook at the Radius spinner in the Parameters rollout as you drag the sphere.

   Right-click and select Unhide By Name and unhide the Hourglass object.

   Assign the Sand material to the new sphere. (Open the Material Editor if necessary.)

   

   Sand mound made using a Sphere.

6. On the Parameters rollout, turn on Base To Pivot.

   The sphere changes position in the viewport.

   

   The sphere now rests on the bottom plate.

7. Turn on the Auto Key button and then go to frame 0.
8. On the Parameters rollout, change the Hemisphere value using the spinner. Set the Hemisphere setting to .99.
9. Move the time slider to frame 25 and set the Hemisphere to .98. This will keep the hemisphere very small for the first 25 frames.
10. Move to frame 57 and set the Hemisphere to .9.
11. Move to frame 67 and set the Hemisphere to .8 and Play the animation.
    Note You may first need to change the rotation of the view before playing the animation if you previously rotated the hourglass when creating the sphere object.

    

    The hourglass at frame 57.

12. Move to frame 96 and set the Hemisphere to .6 or so.

    

    The hourglass at frame 96.

13. Turn off Auto Key and play the animation. After stopping the animation, right-click the viewport and choose Unhide All from the quad menu

    The sand level goes down in the upper globe as a stream of sand falls and collects into a mound in the bottom globe.

    Tip For a more realistic mound of sand, select the hemisphere and add a Taper Modifier. Set the taper Amount to -.75 and the Curve to -.5 , so the hemisphere turns into a rounded cone.
14. From the main menu, choose Tools > Align and pick the bottom plate. In the Align Selection dialog, tun on X Position and Y Position then click OK.

    

    The finished falling sand effect.

15. Save your work. On the File menu, choose Save As, then name your scene MyHourglass7.max.

    If you want, load the file sands_of_time_finished.max to see the finished model.