Creating Realistic Explosions with 3D Studio Max

In this tutorial I'll show you how to prepare an explosive scene.
I'll not show you how to make the materials but rather how to set up a generic pFlow system
that can be used and reused and with little trouble.
To do so we need a small number of particles and as little number of external forces.
We begin by looking how a generic explosion is composed!

If we don't include any of these parts the explosion will loose its "power" and will not be as impressing!

We begin by creating a simple pFlow , a gravity force and a drag force.
This is all we are gonna use. Give the drag force a 5% on all axis and leave the gravity with the default options.
 

Enter the pFlow mode (this is where the fun begins).
Our goal is this but I'll guide you through.
 

(Click on the image to enlarge in a new window )

Make a system that looks like this:

Each of the split amount and send out will be used to create a different part of our explosion.
This will help us in the re-usability of the whole system.
The percentage of each split is your business but lets assume you follow my steps.

I decided that the first split will be used to create the flying debris.
Its only 7% of the 500 particles.
Each of the debris will spawn a trail and each of the trail particles will have some different properties.
 

The main characteristic of the debris is the spawn , speed and the force.
All others can be modified with little changes on the final result.
Note here that I don't want to check whether or not the debris have hit the ground
(remember we want to have as little external factors as possible) so I delete them before they reach the ground.
Of course if you want a more realistic approach you can make it but it won't be so dynamic.

The next split will be the main explosion.
This is a pillar of fire that violently goes upwards and then becomes smoke or whatever you want.
Again the main characteristics are speed and force.
I include many other things like materials, size etc , but here we will see only the particles side of things.

Finally what is left of the 500 particles becomes the explosion cloud which is actually a filler
that connects all everything together so they wont seem out of place.
Speed and drag here again.

A final note: make sure that your delete times are synchronized so that the
system gradually disappears (not all particles at the same time).