Make an object swell up and burst

UPDATE:

I ended up skipping the swelling up (couldn't get anything remotely realistic) and just made it explode, then unexplode. Here's the short segment of my movie showing this sequence:

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Hi. I have a video with a microorganism in it. I would like to add effects to make it swell up (like it's filling up with way too much water) and bursting (a particle burst is ok, or any type of burst). The idea is to show what might happen if the organism didn't have a water regulation system inside, which it really does.

I started playing with the warper node, not sure that's the right way to simulate swelling. I'm looking for something similar to a balloon continuing to fill up and then popping.

The video idea is to have it burst, then stop the motion, and rewind back to the unburst, unswelled state where I begin discussing the built-in mechanism that prevents this.

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated. Note I'm using Resolve 19 Studio on a Mac M2 Max Studio. I have some experience in Fusion but any ideas on nodes/settings to make this happen would be great.

It won't be super realistic, but you could give a couple of Dent tools in a row a try.

What about using blender for bursting animation and just compositing and finishing in fusion?

It won't be super realistic, but you could give a couple of Dent tools in a row a try.

Thanks, I haven't looked at the dent tool. I'll take a look.

What about using blender for bursting animation and just compositing and finishing in fusion?

Thanks for the reply. I've never used blender

I ended up skipping the swelling up (couldn't get anything remotely realistic) and just made it explode, then unexplode. Here's the short segment of my movie showing this sequence:

That turned out pretty good for illustrative purpose and its the sound effect that really sells it. I would not try to make it more realistic I think, because it works better as illustration for illustration. Just my 2 cents. Nice job.

You could always use a grid warp and animate the destination frame to be swollen/stretched. I have used this a lot for impacts, heads being crushed etc ... can be quite effective.

[quote="KrunoSmithy"]That turned out pretty good for illustrative purpose and its the sound effect that really sells it. I would not try to make it more realistic I think, because it works better as illustration for illustration.

Thanks. Illustrative to capture someone's attention is all I really needed. Of course a cell doesn't explode like that but it makes the point. I'm happy with it, I learned a bit about particle generation, and it was fun to do. What more could I ask for

You could always use a grid warp and animate the destination frame to be swollen/stretched. I have used this a lot for impacts, heads being crushed etc ... can be quite effective.

Thanks. I started playing with a grid warp but just couldn't get a look I was hoping for -- but admittedly I didn't give it much time. I'll go back and play more with the grid warp, it seems like a good tool to have knowledge about.