I'm looking for the most accurate way to show crushing damage to metal objects in an animated form. I'm becoming quite familiar with Carrara 4 Pro and have used Amapi to a much lesser degree, but I can't figure out how to get the correct result without a lot of post work or object replacement. Is there a plugin or tutorial somewhere that will give me what I want?

I am unaware of a plug-in or tutorial for this (but that doesn't mean that there isn't one out there!) I'd do it by simply changing the geometry/model over time - it's not too difficult. What are you trying to crush?

"What are you trying to crush?" ...resistance and the will to live out of corporate employees... sorry, couldnt resist..its a long day at work today..:)

Use a morph target, and animate the slider as the crash occures. Just create your ending damage and it should adjust correctly.

Crushing....wasn't there a "crumple" operation somewhere? Maybe I'm thinking Amorphium (used Amorphium to ding up a model a bit ago).

The wave distortion tool in conjunction with a little noise distortion might work nicely, but they'll both stretch the surface. If you were crushing the hood of a car, for instance, and the hood is 6000 square inches of metal, the crushed version might accordion into 20000 square inches, with a visibly incorrect stretching action in the animation. Then again, if the animation is quick and the damage is severe, it might look great anyway. By the way, the Anything Goos plug-in from Digital Carvers Guild might help to create a distressed metal look. I haven't used it, but for messed-up metal it looks great. http://www.digitalcarversguild.com

thanks to you all for your suggestions. Morphing all of the componants of an automobile may be a long process, but I think it will get the results I'm looking for. When I'm done, maybe I'll post a piece of it in the animation outlet. Just promise not to laugh, I'm still learning.

I think using the morph tool in C4 is your best bet. Unless you want to play with some cool dents (round) using A-kuro's plug-in, Potentializer. It will allow you to animate a series of rounded dents fast and easy. Check out the site. I used it to displace a water plane so my boat wouldn't leak : ). It uses a force field ( again, round - I wish it would conform to the shape of the object, instead of a round sphere around the hot point ) to push a mesh away. You could also use bump maps on shaders for minor damage, scratches, etc. Using many sections to your object(s) and then an IK chain to twist and munch it all up might look good... It would rotate and twist, pivot, etc. around the hot points, but it would look very dramatic. Please post what you come up with. R.

I was looking at Anything Grooves and thought of your project. Give it a look-see. You could use the plug to add very visible, although maybe small changes over time to your model. This would be better than the bump map I mentioned earlier. R.

I think using the Explode for an instant (or is it called Scatter?) modifier first (just to seperate out the polys), followed by a prolonged Punch modifier to the front of the vehicle will do some real damage.