Worked in Houdini to create a splinter simulation of a ball hitting a baseball bat. The animation on the bat was done in Maya then imported as an FBX into Houdini. Bat model and texture are from free3D.com.
Topics Learned: Simulation time! Scatter, Voronoi Fracture, and RBD were very helpful to learn here. Improving skills in rigid body dynamics will help greatly with future simulations. I'm already imagining the possibilities of other shattering objects. I learned how to make the simulation affect only parts of the object, vary the fracturing of the bat, and adjusting the direction/size of the fractures. It's very exciting to continuing learning about the possibilities within Houdini. More fun work to come!
Issues Encountered: Initial problems included loading textures properly and importing the FBX into Houdini despite its constraints to other objects in the Maya scene. After solving this, the process was very smooth. I had to adjust the timing since I was unable to maintain the animation on the shattered part of the bat, meaning the ball had to hit it at the beginning. Moving forward, I would like to fix this issue and incorporate anticipation into the swing and more accuracy to the direction of pieces falling. I'd also like to evaluate the weight and bounce of the splinters.
Simulation of ball shattering a wooden baseball bat.