Reactors - Rigid Body - Cloth Reactor

In my first example I wanted a ball to roll down a plane and crash into a group of blocks, sending the ball
and the blocks flying off the edge of the plane.

to begin with I create a plane, rotate the plane down slightly, so a sphere can roll down it.
I then create a sphere, and a block which I clone numerous times and build a wall from them.
it also very important to note that none of the objects, including the numerous blocks should NOT be touching
as this can result in odd behaviour in the animation.
from there I go to reactor> open property editor, and select the plane, I can then change the planes reactor
specifications. as I don't want the plane to move or animate in anyway i select inactive. and under
simulation geometry I select Concave mesh as the plane has no holes and is one whole object.

It is important to select that otherwise you can encounter errors.
then with the sphere selected I change the mass of the object, the friction and the elasticity.
the two latter options are best kept under 1.0 otherwise 3ds max warns you about unrealistic behaviour.
I set the mass to around 20, I want some weight behind the object but I wanted it light enough to move quickly
and pick up speed.
I also set the simulation geometry to Bounding Sphere.
the blocks I set the mass to 2.0 as I wanted the blocks to be really light, so when the ball hits the objects
the blocks fall away.

I also set the friction and elasticity both right down to 0.3 each. the simulation
geometry I set to concave mesh, like the plane.
under reactor>create object> I select rigid body selection. there are other options such as cloth collection
for making planes flop to mimic table cloth. rope collection is for mimicking rope. rigid body is for when
objects hit tough objects like human body's. including many more like water collections.
I place the rigid body collection in one of the view ports, the position doesn't effect the animation in any
way. so its best to place somewhere out of the way and easily accessible. when selected under the RB
collection properties I select Add, and choose all the objects in the scene.
again under reactor> I go to preview animation and watch the animation. from there I can change and tweak the
objects parameters to perfect it.

Be careful when selecting create animation as from then on you cannot change
the details of the animation because it creates the animation and adds it to the time line. from there you can
change the amount of frames etc. and then apply the lights, cameras and materials for rendering.


Cloth Collection

In this example I created a table in a room with a plane placed slightly above the table which will then fall
and flop over the table like a real table cloth.
the table is a simple structure made from 5 basic boxes. the plane is placed above the plane and made slightly
bigger than the table.

Also it is important to add a high amount of length and width segments, this will
effect the animation giving the cloth a much more realistic texture.
with the plane selected I go to reactor>apply modifier and add a cloth modifier to the plane. there's no real
reason to change any of the properties just yet as the defaults are fine.
then I go to reactor>create object>cloth collection and place it anywhere on the stage like I did with the
rigid body collection earlier.
with the cloth collection selected I added the plane in under properties. under reactor you can then preview
the animation and see how it looks.

From there you can create the animation and add it on the time line.