With this tutorial you will be able to place special effects, like explosions, where you want on a set, any set!  I used this easy technique in my film Infested!, like the picture below, where I placed 5 explosions exactly where I wanted!

Requirements:
Flm Reader Zero from DCMF~~~Found in the Tools & Utilities Download Section
SFX Tutorial~~~Found in my MODs on Skinshack.  You don't really need these files to accomplish this.  The file is strictly to help you understand how to do this yourself with the tutorial.  All the files in the SFX Tutorial can be extracted from the game with MED.  The file also contains all the pictures(larger) from this tutorial for reference. 

STEP ONE

Open the file called "009_door_explode.FLM" with the FLM Reader Zero program.
Double click the "TextElements" icon.
Double click on:  "fx_rph_explosion"
Lastly click Change List.

This is the SFX maker.  Here is where you pick the explosion you want for the scene.  I have not tested them all, so some may not work. 
For now, leave it as fx_rph_explosion and save this file so you can remember it.  Let's call it "Directed Blast".
Place this file, and any of your other special explosives you create, here: 
C:\Program Files\Lionhead Studios Ltd\The Movies\Data\scene\interactions

STEP TWO

Open the file called 001_2_critical_conversation.flm.
We are going to place your SFX in this scene.  When it comes to selecting a scene for your explosion, there is only one.  It must have an EXTRAS category!
There are alot of FLM files that have this category, so you can search for others. I like the conversation scene because it's a long playing scene.  There is not much point selecting a scene that isn't long enough to play your entire SFX.  But you're the director. 
You can replace each of these extras with a SFX, so in this scene you can place up to 6!
Double click "TextElements".
Double click "001_x_A_gun_3".
Replace "001_x_A_gun_3" with your SFX name, "Directed Blast".

Now save the scene as "048_Directed Blast".  This will place the scene in Dr. House's all scene category.  If you don't have this mod, name the file "015_Directed Blast", this will place the scene on the City Street sets.
Place the file here:
C:\Program Files\Lionhead Studios Ltd\The Movies\Data\scene\interactions\048 (or 015 if you don't have Dr. House's MOD).  If the folder(s) don't exist then make them.
Naming tip!:  Put your name in the scene name like "048_Rysto Directed Blast" for example.  You can use the scene search button in the game to find your new scenes easier that way. 

STEP THREE

The last step is creating an .ini for the scene.  The easiest way is to use the .ini from the scene you are adding the effect to.  In this case, open the file called: "001_2_critical_conversation.ini" with notepad.
Where it says "SCENE NAME" put the name of the scene:  "Directed Blast".  Where it says "SET ID" you place "048"(or "015") for the set you want the scene to appear in(Don't forget the underscore( _ ) between SET ID and SCENE NAME).
Now save this file with the same name as your FLM file, only add ".ini" to the end of it.  Place the file here:  C:\Program Files\Lionhead Studios Ltd\The Movies\Data\scene\048(or 015).  Again, if the folder doesn't exist then make it.

That's is the whole process to creating a new scene with an explosion! 

The following post will show you how to place these SFX ANYWHERE you want to on the set! 

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Let's back up to the first step in creating your SFX:

Notice the grid coordinates circled?  These are where the SFX will originate.  When you select a new SFX you need to input these grids.
Where do you get these?
Go to the set you want to place the explosions.  Now place props where you want the explosions.  Doesn't matter which kind, try a soccer ball or beach ball.  Now save the set dressing!  Exit the game.
Go into your saved set dressing files located here:
My Documents\The Movies\Set Dressing
Find the file you saved and open it in notepad.  An example of one:

The coordinates you need are displayed right here! 
There's only one step to do to the numbers before entering them into your FLM SFX.  Multiply each number by 1000.  Then enter them into FLM in the (x,y,z) order!
So using the above set dressing as an example, it would be (220,-6460,-1000).  Don't forget your minus signs. 
BONUS!:  On the very top of your set dressing ini is a number(SET = 048 in the above picture).  This is the SET ID # you need for STEP THREE!  It's a quick way to find the SET ID #'s for any set. 

Just save your specially placed explosions with names you can recall easily, where it says to, in STEP ONE.
In STEP TWO just rename all the EXTRAS with the new, specially placed, explosions names and save your new scene! 

THUMBS

If you want to make thumbnails for your new scenes, create a picture and save it as a DDS file.  Name the file exactly as it is named as a FLM.  Save the thumbnails in this location:
C:\Program Files\Lionhead Studios Ltd\The Movies\Data\textures\thumbs\films
____________________________________________________________________*

*Hard to see in this picture, but it's easier to see in the SFX Tutorial MOD.  A hint at my next MOD pack.
Animated animal actors!

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You, my friend, are genius.

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There's still more that you can do!

Using FLM Reader Zero you can merge more than one scene into a single scene!

For example here are two FLM files:

006_swat  ~~~ This is the scene where a SWAT team moves to a door
015_van_swat_deploy  ~~~ This is the scene where a SWAT team deploys from a van

It's possible to merge these two into a single scene!
What is the only requirement?    That's right, the EXTRAS category!

All you have to do is replace an EXTRAS slot with the name of the scene you want merged!  In this case it's 006_swat!  Save the scene named how you want and create an ini for it like explained SFX section above.
It's best to save this new scene in 048(Dr. House All scenes mod) so you can build around the merged scenes on a Tarison blue screen. 
Did you notice that 006_swat has an EXTRAS category too?  This means you can merge 015_van_swat_deploy into it!
Why does this matter?  Slide bars!  Whichever ever scene you are merging into will be the one that's sliders are available(like in critical talk scenes where you can adjust the length of dialogue or the emotions of the actors).

NOTES:
Merging the same scene into itself will just overlap the actors.  It looks messy. 
But on DCMF there is a Scene Reblocker Tool that can move scene's starting points.  So you theoretically could do it.  I have not tried doing this myself though. 

You could fill all the EXTRAS slots with other scenes too, but there are only so many actors available in the base scene.  So not all the actor spots will be filled in the merged scenes.

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Now that's an interesting idea... hmmm.  I like it! 

Brilliant mad science work Rysto, love it!  Just when I think everything has been tried, someone pushes the envelope further!

Great job!

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"Badge, Manny! BADGE!!"

I was wondering how you did that rysto. Now I know. haha.  I always figured it was with your "bonus weather effects" mod, but I can see now that it is a bit more complicated than that.

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Shadow Ops
Starring:
TidyChick ; MefuneAkira ; JetCityWoman ; Master007 ; GoofParade ; Sparky1512 ; The Apostle RJ ; josephkw ; kuroken ; postmodernchuck

View SO Trailer at my studio page.

When you said you were going to put together a tutorial to set sfx with FLM Reader, on the DCMF forums, I had no idea you would teach us how to merge scenes. AND WE GET TO SAVE THEM AS A NEW SCENE, sorry got excited, this is fantastic stuff. Thanks Rysto

When I saw your film I wondered how you did the tank scene, as well as 1,000 other things you did in that film.

 

Thanks again!

 

Skelch 

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This is awesome.