Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual page 513

Use this control when your shatter map uses images or letters such as O: Set the portion you don't want to blow out,
such as the centers of the O and the background, to pure white and set the rest to another pure color.
Specifies the scale of the tile pattern. This control works only in conjunction with the preset shatter
Repetitions
maps, which all seamlessly tile. Increasing this value increases the number of pieces on the screen by scaling down
the size of the shatter map. Consequently, the layer breaks into more and smaller pieces. Animating this control is
not recommended, as it can cause sudden jumps in the number and size of shatter pieces.
Rotates the orientation of a preset shatter map, relative to the layer. As with Repetitions, animating this
Direction
control results in sudden jumps in the animation and is not recommended.
Precisely positions a preset shatter map on the layer. This is useful if you want to line up portions of an image
Origin
with specific shattered pieces. Animating this control results in sudden jumps in the animation and is not recom-
mended.
Adds a third dimension to the exploded pieces. The higher the value, the thicker the pieces. In
Extrusion Depth
Rendered view, this effect isn't visible until you start the shatter or rotate the camera. As you set this control higher,
the pieces may actually pass through each other. While this is generally not a problem in full-speed animations, it
may become visible when the pieces grow very thick and move slower.
Force 1 and Force 2 controls
Force 1 and Force 2 controls define the blast areas by using two different Forces.
Specifies the current center point of the blast in (x,y) space.
Position
Specifies the current center point in z space, or how far in front of or behind the layer the blast point is. Adjust
Depth
Depth to determine how much of the blast radius is applied to the layer. The blast radius is a sphere, and the layer is
basically a plane; therefore, only a circular slice of the sphere intersects the plane. The farther away the layer is from
the center of the blast, the smaller the circular slice. When pieces explode, they fly away from the force center. Depth
determines which way the pieces fly: Positive values cause the pieces to explode forward, toward the camera
(assuming the default camera settings of 0, 0, 0); negative values cause pieces to blow backward, away from the
camera. To see the result of the Depth setting, use the Wireframe + Force Sphere view.
Defines the size of the blast sphere. The radius is the distance from the center of a circle (or sphere) to the
Radius
edge. By adjusting this value, you can fine-tune exactly which pieces explode. Changing this value can vary the speed
and completeness of the explosion. Animating it from small to large generates an expanding, shockwave explosion.
Note: To determine when the pieces shatter, animate the Radius control, not the Strength control. Pieces inside the force
sphere are pulled off-screen by gravity even if Strength is set to 0.
Specifies the speed at which the exploded pieces travel—how hard they are blown away from or sucked
Strength
back into the blast point. A positive value blows the pieces away from the blast point; a negative value sucks the pieces
into the blast point. The greater the positive value, the faster and farther they fly away from the center point. The
greater the negative value, the faster the pieces launch themselves toward the center of the force sphere. Once the
pieces are launched, however, they are no longer affected by the force sphere; the Physics settings take over. A
negative Strength value does not suck the pieces into a black hole; instead, the pieces fly through each other and back
out the other side of the sphere. Setting Strength very low causes the pieces to break up into shapes, creating cracks
in the layer, but it doesn't actually blow the pieces apart. If gravity is set to anything other than 0, the pieces are pulled
in the direction of gravity after they break up.
Note: A shatter piece is made up of vertices (points or dots that define the corners of the shape), edges (lines that connect
the dots), and planes (walls of the shape). Shatter determines when a shape has come in contact with a force sphere based
on when a vertex comes in contact with the sphere.
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 507
User Guide