ANR Shard Burst

Overview

Shard Burst breaks the frame into irregular pieces, like glass or a mirror. Each piece has a thickness, flies outward from the centre of the frame, spins and falls under Gravity, and is drawn in perspective, so pieces coming towards the camera grow. Behind the pieces the result is transparent, ready to merge over whatever lies beneath.

Burst Time is the time since the break, in seconds. At 0 you see the whole image; key it to play the explosion. A grey map in Control delays the pieces: the brighter the map under a piece, the later it breaks.

Use it for shattering logos and titles, glass-break transitions, and impact moments in trailers and music videos.

Inputs

1. Sourcerequired

   The image to shatter. Transparent areas stay empty, so a premultiplied logo breaks into pieces of the logo only.

2. Controloptional

   An opaque grey map (alpha 1) that times the break: pieces over black go at once, pieces over white Map Delay seconds later. Without it, all pieces break together.

3. Maskoptional

   Limits the effect: where its alpha is black, Source passes through unchanged.

Output. The flying shards, premultiplied and covering the project format, transparent between and behind them. At Burst Time 0 Source passes through unchanged.

Quick start

1. Add ANR Shard Burst after the image to shatter.
2. On the frame of impact, key Burst Time at 0. Two seconds later (48 frames at 24 fps) key it at 2, and make both keys linear so the pieces move at their natural speed.
3. Merge the result over the background or the next shot.
4. Set Pieces for how many shards, Explosion Speed for how hard they fly out and Gravity for how fast they fall.
5. Set Spin, Thickness and Perspective to taste.
6. Change Seed for a different break pattern.

The panel

The node's panel as Nuke shows it, with the values of a new node. Click any control to see what it does; tabs and sections work as in Nuke.

All controls

Tips

• For a break that spreads from one point, connect a map to Control that is dark at that point and brightens outward, such as an inverted radial gradient.
• Ease the last Burst Time key for an explosion that slows down like a slow-motion shot.
• Negative Gravity makes the pieces float upward.
• The node draws no motion blur. Add a TimeBlur after it for blur that follows the pieces.
• Shake the background with ANR Camera Shake at the moment of impact.
• Speeds are in pixels per second, so larger formats need higher Explosion Speed and Gravity for the same feel.

Good to know

• The pieces always fly out from the centre of the frame. To burst from somewhere else, shatter the element centred in frame and move the result with a Transform.
• Control is read as its colour divided by its alpha, so give the map an alpha of 1 everywhere. A map whose alpha fades along with its brightness, as a default Ramp's does, reads as plain white.
• Pieces pass through each other: there are no collisions and no floor.
• Piece edges are not antialiased.
• Nothing is simulated or cached: each frame depends only on Burst Time, the settings and the inputs, so frames render in any order.

Works with

ANR Tile FragmentsBreaks the image into a grid of small square fragments that tumble and fall away, for crumbling, disintegrating and pixel-drop transitions.ANR Tile ChoreographyCuts the image into a grid of tiles that turn and move in perspective, in waves led by a grey control map, for mosaic transitions and moving backgrounds.ANR Camera ShakeShakes a plate or comp like a real camera, from gentle handheld to earthquake, with impacts and motion blur that stays quick to render.