Text animation with destruction

                               In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to create a text animation using nDynamics in Autodesk Maya. In here we use text destruction method for text animation. Most text destruction animations are used in a game or movie or company logos.

                               First you have to create a text. Go to Create->Text and select poly for text type.

                            When you are creating a poly text it will automatically create a curve shape of the text. We do not need this curves so we have to remove them. Don't delete them directly. Select the poly text. Go to Edit-Delete by Type->History. Now you can delete the curves safely. Select all letters of the text and combine them(Mesh->Combine). Select all faces of the text. Extrude them little bit forward to make it look like some kind of 3d text. Select all the edges of the text and detach them(Edit Mesh->Detach Component). Now you have to make a collider to collide with the text. You can use small polygon box or first letter of the text. Then animate the collider through entire text while rotating.

                              Switch to nDynamics menu. Select the text and go to nMesh->Create nCloth. Then select the collider(polygon box) and go to nMesh->Create Passive Collider. Go to attributes editor and set gravity to 0.000. You can find it on nucleus tab. These settings are for normal animation but if you like to design advanced animation you have to use other attributes like Air density, Wind Speed etc.

                              Don't play your animation otherwise it will give you unexpected result. Go to nCache->Create New Cache. It will cache your entire animation to your hard drive. Now you can play your animation. Hide the collider. Assign blinn material with glow function and render.