FractureLabTutorial 01
Hand-drawn fractures: break a marble column into hundreds of detailed chunks
Break a marble column with FractureLab: draw cuts with Draw Beziere, add detail with Resolution, Repetitions and Subcutters, and inspect it with Explode.
In this tutorial we break a marble column with FractureLab, drawing every cut by hand. Each stroke becomes a cutting plane that splits the column into chunks, and you see the result live, with every chunk in its own color.
Then you add detail without drawing a single extra stroke — Resolution for finer break edges, Repetitions and Subcutters to multiply the pieces — and finish with Explode and an Inner Material to inspect every chunk and its break faces.
Step by step
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Clear the default scene and bring in the object you want to break: here, a marble column named
Column(in the video it is already in the file, hidden, and Alt H brings it back).FractureLab needs two things from the object:
- A closed mesh, so there is an inside to split.
- Applied scale, because the cutting planes are built in object space.
The column is one closed piece with its Scale at 1.000, so it is ready. In the sidebar, open the FractureLab tab and, under Main Modules, click Cuts And Fractures: this is where all the cutting happens.
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Click Draw Beziere. Blender creates a curve in draw mode (the panel shows You can draw now!), so simply drag across the column, the way you would draw a crack. Start and finish every stroke outside the column's silhouette, or the cut won't go all the way through.
As soon as you release, FractureLab adds the stroke to the List of Cutters and cuts the object: each chunk gets its own color, and Total Chunks tells you how many pieces you have.
For the next cuts, use the shortcut Ctrl D with the mouse over the viewport. Orbit a little before each stroke: changing the angle between strokes is what gives the fracture its variety. Every new stroke shows up in the list (
Cutter,Cutter.001…) and the colors update right away. Make each stroke cross the whole column from one side to the other. With five strokes, the column is split into large chunks.The stroke is drawn from the view
The stroke isn't drawn on the surface. FractureLab builds a cutting plane from it, facing you, and that plane goes right through the piece. That is why every stroke has to cross the whole silhouette.
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Everything in Cutters Settings works live on the strokes you've already drawn: nothing is final until you apply.
- Resolution is the resolution of the cutting planes. At the default of 5 they're coarse, so the breaks are simple and faceted. Raise it to 30: the planes now follow your strokes much more closely, and the break edges get more detail.
- Repetitions takes the planes you already have, duplicates them and adds noise. It's the quick way to turn a few strokes into a dense fracture. Set it to 2 and watch Total Chunks jump (from 6 to 44 in the video) without drawing a single extra stroke.
- For even more detail, go down to Subcutters: secondary cuts that FractureLab derives from yours. Your strokes decide where the column breaks, and the subcutters split it further from there. Count is the real switch of this block: at 0 there are no subcutters. Set it to 3 (388 chunks in the video).
Raise the values one step at a time
Repetitions grows fast, and each subcutter cuts every chunk that already exists, so the number of pieces doesn't grow in a straight line. Keep an eye on Total Chunks and raise both values gradually.
Every change is recomputed live
If the scene starts to feel slow, bring Resolution down a little.
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From the outside, the column still looks whole. To see what's inside, click Explode in the quick access bar at the top of the panel. A slider appears next to it: raising it (to 0.200 in the video) pushes every chunk away from the center, so you can see how far each cut reached and every small piece the fracture created.
Inner Material, in Cutters Settings, is the material of the faces exposed by the break. Pick your inner stone (
Marble Innerin the video) and switch the viewport to Material Preview: polished marble outside, rough stone on every break face.Orbit around the piece to check that every cut went all the way through. When you're done, click Explode again to put the column back together.
Explode is only for inspecting
It doesn't change the geometry: clicking it again puts the column back together.
Five hand-drawn strokes, and the column is now split into hundreds of detailed chunks with stone on every break face. To recap: Draw Beziere draws the cuts, Resolution adds detail, Repetitions and Subcutters multiply the pieces, and Explode lets you see them all.