ANR Tile Fragments

Overview

Tile Fragments cuts the frame into square pieces of Tile Size. When it breaks, each piece flies off in a random direction, spins, falls under Gravity and is drawn in perspective with thin sides. Behind the pieces the result is transparent.

Break Time is the time since the break, in seconds. At 0 you see the whole image; key it to play the effect. A grey map in Control makes the pieces go in order: over black at once, over white Map Delay seconds later. With a gradient across the frame, the image crumbles away from one side to the other.

Use it for disintegration and crumble transitions, titles that fall apart, and pixel-style break-ups.

Inputs

1. Sourcerequired

   The image to break up. Transparent areas stay empty, so a premultiplied title breaks into pieces of the title 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 fragments, premultiplied and covering the project format, transparent behind them. At Break Time 0 Source passes through unchanged.

Quick start

1. Add ANR Tile Fragments after the image, and merge its result over the background or the next shot.
2. Set Tile Size in pixels: small for a fine, sandy break-up, large for big blocks.
3. Key Break Time at 0 where the break starts and at 2 two seconds later, with linear keys.
4. Connect a grey map with an alpha of 1 to Control, such as a gradient across the frame, so the image breaks away from its dark side to its bright side. Raise Map Delay to slow the sweep.
5. Set Spread, Gravity and Spin for how the pieces move.
6. Change Seed for a different scatter.

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

• Break Time must run past Map Delay for the last pieces to leave: key it to at least Map Delay plus the time you want them to fall.
• Negative Gravity makes the pieces float upward, for a dissolve into the air.
• Use the footage itself as the Control map, so the bright parts of the picture hold on longest.
• The node draws no motion blur. Add a TimeBlur after it for blur that follows the pieces.
• Speeds are in pixels per second, so larger formats need higher Spread and Gravity for the same feel.

Good to know

• 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.
• A very small Tile Size on a large format makes too many pieces to render; if the node errors, raise Tile Size.
• Nothing is simulated or cached: each frame depends only on Break Time, the settings and the inputs, so frames render in any order.

Works with

ANR Shard BurstShatters the image into thick, spinning, glass-like shards that fly out from the centre of the frame and fall, in perspective.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 Grid RevealA transition that reveals the next image through a grid of cells opening at staggered times, for shot changes, title cards and graphic montages.