Simulation Explosions.

I will be maintaining this post with my how-to guide to simulating explosions in Maya.
But as a point of reference, this Youtube is an unbelievably excellent resource of real-world examples, from pressurised gas explosions, incendiary and fragmentation explosives and even petroleum explosives (from about 8 minutes onwards there are some insane explosions in fuel depots showing the incredible rate that fuel is consumed and how fast the explosion expands).
VIDEOS OF EXPLOSIONS ON YOUTUBE

Digital Tutors trailer for Petrol explosions. The full tutorial gives you an in depth look at how real explosives work, with regards to fuel consumption, incandescence and pressure.
Digital Tutors Trailer

Battlefield 4 makes excellent use of particle simulations throughout the game. The buildings as they crumble and collapse, throwing out debris and smoke as they fall, the hard cover being gradually chipped away from high calibre weapon fire, the muzzle flashes and gun smoke themselves are fantastically made. Rockets colliding with vehicles, the smoke wrapping around them as they move, and the atmospherics themselves. DICE really broke the mould with their physics engine Frostbite2, which makes all of these simulations masterpieces in themselves. A compilation of them follow;
Battlefield 4

Grand Theft Auto 5, another recent game which contains more fantastic explosions, smoke, dust, particles and cloth simulations. Rockstar really know how to go above and beyond with their detail. Just look at the final couple clips in the third trailer for the game!
Grand Theft Auto 5 - Trailer 3

Maya Explosions - Maya is an insanely powerful program for simulating with. Once you get your head around it, it begins to just click with you. The water, fire and explosions (particles with an emitter) are just so good in Maya and just overshadow Max and the limited simulations it can make right out of the box without any plugins. THIS VIDEO was created by Kyle Jones, a Youtube User, using Maya. My explosion is made similarly, but by looking at how the explosion would react with the fuel, give out heat, which would ignite it's fuel source, the pressure given off by the explosion itself and the way the smoke cloud would dissipate, I managed to make mine look a little more, without sounding overly harsh on his very good work, convincing. Where he has left an emitter giving off smoke, it is a little too dense, and the "chunks" given off move too slow for the pressure that would have been given off by the explosion. These are elements that need to be observed to create a convincing explosive simulation.


CREATING THE EXPLOSION. I have shown key settings to create the explosion I used. Some screen shots I have annotated. Later I may come back and do a write up for these, but at the moment, I have no time. Projects are calling me!