Hi there,
I’m currently on my study break holiday, but had nothing to do. I was looking on the Houdini website and saw some of the VFX examples. I was stoked, but the price tag of Houdini was $8000 USD!!!. So I thought I’d attempt in Blender 2.5. This was the result. Note that I have heavily broken it down:
Cheers
Wow i really like this…nice job. How did you break it apart? With some script?
Hi. I didn’t use a script. For the major break, the top half and lower half, I pre-broke it, just going into edit mode and separating them. For all the debris, I used a fractured sphere and turned it into a group. This is hidden on a different layer. I used hooks to make the breakage of the pillar irregular. Also, (it can’t be seen) I added a hook on the upper pillar, so that when the cannonball makes contact, it actually breaks the top half of it.
cool video. could you share .blend file please?
You definitely need to make a tutorial!
Nice work man. Interesting to see all the different particles you made
All debris looked the best. 
