I need to show a staff being broken in half in a movie I am making. How can I do so? Is it at all possible? And if so, would anyone be willing to either walk me through the process or do it for me?

I make my dreams into movies.

The complexity of the routine would depend on visual requirements.
It could be as simple as 2 thin textured iClone cylinders linked together (making a staff) and un-linked at the time of break, where they *fly* apart.
And it could be a complex, as when you require to break an existed solid staff prop.
Then it needs to be split apart outside of iClone and brought back as 2 parts.
And for the best visual you would need to use both versions of the staff - solid - up to the point of break and split version when it got broken switching visibility.

I have to break an existing staff in half. What program do I need to do this that I don't have?

I make my dreams into movies.

This can be done in a 3D blender.  Or in Windows drawing to make part of the texture transparent.  Choose what you like.
A picture or video will help us understand what you want to do.

My YouTube channel.

Another option that works ok for making videos, depending on the complexity of the object, is to load 2 of them into your scene. Use opacity textures on the 2 objects so one side is visible on one of the items and the other side is visible on the other model. then position the objects together so they look like the single object. Now you can animate them so they look like it is breaking up in half.
As I said it all depends on the complexity of the object as to how well it looks to be breaking up. Pretty easy to do in little time so maybe its worth a try to see weather it works well enough. If not then spending the time needed to model it might be what you need to do


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Here is a rough example of doing that.
Its pretty rough because I only spent a whole 5 minutes doing it.
It is 3 boxes loaded into iClone in the same position so they look like a singe box.
I sent the UV map to my texture editor from one of them. 
Added 3 layers under the uv map and used what I drew on each of them to guide where to draw on each of them so they match

Like this


Then I saved each of those 3 layers separately.
Then I added one of the 3 images to each of the boxes.
Then I roughly animated them and here is the result



i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

It looks relatively easy. But I still have no idea where to start. I've never done anything like this before. Is there anyone who can do for me what Delema just explained using the staff?

I make my dreams into movies.

This is probably really something you should learn to do yourself. Doing opacity maps is not difficult and you don't have to be a great drawer.
Im not sure what it is you don't know what to do, I'm guessing its 2D editing so here is how.

Step 1 
you need a 2D editor. I mostly use paint dot net because its easy to use and is free.

Step 2
You need to show iClone where your 2D editor is. Here is how to do that



Step 3
Then you can send an objects images to your 2D editor for editing it

Here is how to send the Opacity map for editing. You can also do this with the other objects images too


Step 4.
When completed the editing of the image just save it to automatically update the object in iClone
Here is an example of the result



OK, those methods work fine when its easy to tell where to paint things on the image so they appear in the correct place on the object your adjusting.
When its not so easy to tell where to paint things so it appears correctly on the object you should use the method of doing it with UV map

Step 1
Send the UV map to the 2D editor
Here is how to do that



Step 2
You cant save and automatically update the object in iClone when doing it this way. You need to save the image to your computer and then load it into the objects texture manually.
Here is how to do that



If this is not what you don't understand the you need to very specifically explain what it is you don't understand. Then people know what to answer with





i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Could you post a picture of the staff?

If it is something you can share, meaning a freebie, you can post the staff model.

Having two physical pieces is probably best. Then some clever linking to the hands.

The most realistic way to do what you are attempting to do is to actually model a staff that is in 2 pieces with the adjoining areas having matched jagged edges. This can be accomplished in any 3D creation/editing software such as Blender (free program) or 3dsMAX, Maya, Mudbox, etc. When the Prop (half of the staff) and subordinate part (other half of the staff) are as one, it will appear as a single staff, however you can use the "edit animation layer" feature in iClone to "break" the pieces apart in your time line.

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