Here is my attempt to creat a semi-realistic explosion. Jupiter explodes and forms a star. Need all the crits I can get!
http://gallery.mudpuddle.co.nz/albums/album28/jupex2.avi
Filesize = ~2.1MB (DivX5.2 encoded)
I like it so far. I’m far from being a very knowledgable person compared to most people here, but I would try moving the original planet mesh to an invisible layer pretty early in the animation and make some large and small chunks of planet appear and start flying in all directions. Or, trying a few large chunks going perpendicularly to the blue part of the blast.
-Anthony
I think it would look better without the initial yellow particles moving past the camera. the blue compression ring and white look good.
Are you meaning to get rid of the yellow particles entirely? Or are you just suggesting that I change their behavior so they don’t “go past the camera?”
I think, at least in the opening sequence they don’t look as good as the other affects, so get rid of them, or perhaps make them a lot smaller after all Jupiter is a huge planet.
My 1st suggestion would be to get rid of that shockwave, explosions in space dont create shockwaves, its a vacuum so you cant transmit energy in the form of motion, the sun created from the planet should be smaller than original plaet, suns are much much more dense and take up less space, also for artistic effect id a a halo flare so it seems like the is more energy to the explosion and the resulting sun, one last thing im sure if play with gravity and some other factors on the particles you could get a much better look, i think you need to at least shorten the lifespan of the orange “imploding” particles so that they dont zoom inwards then keeps going off.
Maybe a supernova effect would be more realistic. Where the planet throws off it’s gaseous layers (Jupiter is a gas planet, not a solid one!). I’ll look for some pictures of supernovas. BTW . . . space is not a complete vacuum. . . it is a near vacuum.
BTW . . . I agree that the orange particles seem a little out of scale compared to the the planet.
make it implode and it would be like space oddesey 
I saw a post with this address in another thread. There are some good ideas here.
http://centralsource.com/blender/explosions/
-Anthony
Yeah, I already know about this site. . . but I want something that I can call my (for legal reasons). What I have is loosely based off (if not inspired by) @ce’s explosion (as far as the shockwave goes). The other particles and the the textures, minus the jupiter texture and sun texture, are my own.
I am shooting for a semi-sci fi look and that is why I liked the shockwave. . . are there any other suggestions. . . I am open to suggestions as to what I do other than a shockwave.