PART 4

cracking of brittle objects.. like an earth crust

for this part we wont use the previous steps. follow this..
1) first create a box on top viewport. give it length 200 width 200and height 5. just like a plane with some thickness.name it "ice"..see the image..

2) now create another box with width 7,height300 and length 20. increase the hieght segs. to 50.name it crack.now rotate it 90 degrees, and fit it horizontal....now apply taper modifier to make the front part narrow. in 'taper axis' use primary Z, and effect X. see the image.

3) next, create a spline on top view. create it in a zig-zag style..as u'wd like the crack follow..as we'll use same spline to create the crack path. be sure not to use corner type vertices as they will create sharp edges, only use bezier type. see the image.

4) now select the "crack"and add pathdeform modifier to it. pick the path u've created. now animate it following the path..u can use either "percent or stretch" parameter to animate the cracking effect. at this stage adjust its position over the 'ice' object. try to cover out its height(thickness) see the pictures

now select the "ice" box and go to boolean & pick the "crack" now u'll see the ice getting cracked..

next we can repeat the same steps...using the X-form to separate the crack. see the image

Also, see the video file for a visual demonstration.

"cracking ice"