MASH Dynamics: Dominoes

In this tutorial we show you how to use MASH dynamics to simulate falling dominoes, then render that animation in Arnold.

[@sveanimation9384]

Also I have to say it s a very straightforward tutorial; every word is said for a reason and it s easy to follow 👍

[@shivaliangurala92]

What a wonderful tutorial. Thank you so much!

[@melvinmonroy]

Genial!!!

[@sveanimation9384]

Did it all - thanks 🥳

[@ittips9569]

This is indeed great tutorial. I was able to follow it, but ran into troubles when I tried my own application. I put the dominoes on the table (made from cube) via transform node. Added the table as a colider into MASH_BulletSolver, but then when I hit play, the dominoes fall apart without any interaction from other object. Any idea what I am missing?

[@swingingonatire]

When I complete this tutorial will I be able to animate a movie like zootopia?

[@3dAnimatorSQ]

I like it ❤️❤️

[@Figster62]

For anyone having problems getting the image, make sure you set the mash network to mesh, and not particle instance.

[@pygmyink]

Since this tutorial has been posted 3 (almost 4) years ago, I am wondering if anybody could help... I've finished up and tested on rendering just to see how it looks. All lights has been set up, but it seems like the image doesn't show up at all. Am I doing something wrong? I render with Arnold by the way.

[@tiaan_va]

Very awesome tutorial, thank you! I want to do something along the same lines but I am running into a problem. My MASH dynamics do not play back every frame. While I simulate the timeslider skips a lot of frames resulting in the string of dominoes to finish its course in 800 frames where as if I skip forward frame by frame the end of the animation is at around 300 frames. Even when I cache the simulation, the cache playback over the scene also skips frames which makes the result of the cache look like a slowed down version of what it would normally look like. I know in the old version of maya you had a playback setting where you could selects "play every frame" but I don;t see that in maya 2018. Would you please be able to tell me what I am doing wrong?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Right-click the Time Slider and make sure Playback Speed is set to "Every Frame, Free". This is necessary for any dynamics.

[@tiaan_va]

@@Autodesk_Maya Oh wow so that's where it has moved to. Thank you so much for pointing that out :D. Feel kinda stupid now haha

[@pixellabmedia7142]

When I add a second layer with cube all dominoes want to fall down out of order. If I keep same simulation on ground plane it works as expected. What should i be looking at?

[@mattc5703]

Pixel Lab Media Had the same problem. I was able to fix it by being really careful that those dominoes weren't falling down at all (not even a tiny bit). I also made them a little heavier and widened them just a tiny bit.

[@jco7551]

I had the same issue. If you put a translation keyframe on the big cube, it'll keep it from dropping and otherwise causing it to be a moving part of the simulation.

[@highpointanimations]

Hello Sir, I've got a problem. Whenever I connect a plane (floor) as a collider my Dominos jump up off the floor once I press play. Any suggestions on how to keep

[@08gardamD1]

Lol, my dominos aren't even tipping over

[@MayaTubers]

w0w very nice !!! i love it !!! Thanks for share !! a hug from my channel !

[@obrenovicnikola]

hi, great video. one question, can i apply picture or different color on just one face of dominos? point is , that you can see image or color when they fall, not before :) i will make camera angle for that, Tnx for answer :)

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Yes, you could easily do that by keyframing the Color node's "Strength" attribute from 0 (no color) to 1 (color). You can then apply a different shader to the other faces of the dominoes (except for the one you want to change).

[@obrenovicnikola]

@@Autodesk_Maya tnx thi is so helpful, i have one more q, when i start animation, i can see dominos are moving and they start falling without touch, how can i remove that? and how to control how fast dominos will fall i tried mass but nothing happend, and last :D i create object which will start animation and when he hit first domino, he push whole domino,and after that fall, how i can control that, thank you. sorry for to many questions :)

[@Autodesk_Maya]

@@obrenovicnikola Try increasing the friction of the surface the dominoes are sitting on. You can also make the dominoes slightly wider. When hitting them to start the animation, make sure you don't hit them right in the center (and not too fast). Just like real life, hit them closer to the top to "tip" them over.

[@VanPanVideoProductionHome]

May I ask why on the end of the clip you render with RENDER SEQUENCE button. I am asking this because in your previous clips you rendered with the BATCH RENDER but when I tried to render on my on Student version of MAYA 2018 the BATCH RENDER wouldn't work and everything froze so I restarted the PC couple of times and on the end I rendered with the RENDER SEQUENCE without problem?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Rendering with the Batch Renderer will produce an image with a watermark on it unless you have an Arnold license. By using the Render Sequence command, you can avoid those watermarks (but the trade off is that you can't use Maya while rendering).

[@VanPanVideoProductionHome]

Thank you for the reply. The thing is that in one of your previous tutorials(MASH end to end workflow - Part 6: Exporting effect layers to After Effects) I tried to render with the Batch Render and it wouldn't work at all so I did it with Render Sequence. Could you tell me why it wouldn't work(may be I need to do some settings or just I have to use these two ways of rendering in specific situations)?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Unfortunately, that I'm unsure of. While Batch Render will produce a watermark without an Arnold license, it shouldn't cause anything to outright crash. This sounds like it might be a bug.

[@VanPanVideoProductionHome]

Thank you for your answer. What would you recommend me to do if its a bug?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

First I would check to make sure that your version of Maya is up to date (all patches and whatnot). If the problem persists, file a bug report: download.autodesk.com/us/support/report_a_bug.html?SelProduct=Maya. In the meantime, use the Render Sequence feature.

[@sky-soldier-gaming7102]

hey! thanks for the tutorial, but im having trouble, you see, when i hit play, the dominoes lift a little bit from the ground and some of them fall, why is that?? how can i fix it? im using maya 2019. im learning so much with your channel, thanks!

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Hmm, are you building the scene at the same scale as shown in the video? If you build them too small, it's possible the collision region is larger than the dominoes themselves.

[@highpointanimations]

Exactly. I'm experiencing the same problem. I'm using Maya 2022.4. I've tried rescaling the scene but it keeps doing the same thing

[@highpointanimations]

@@Autodesk_Maya thanks for the tutorial Sir. But could you please share what scale settings you used. Secondly is this lifting off the ground one play is pressed a bug or something. I've tried everything humanly possible to stop it

[@floodzofwine8888]

when I play the animation... the timing is really slow (fps too but it's something else). how can I increase the speed of the domino falling? I see the time picker in your time line and it goes fast.

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Performance will depend on the power of your CPU and amount of RAM. The easiest way to get around it is to do a playblast (Windows > Playblast). This will "record" the animation and play it back at full speed. However, if you want better interactive performance in the Viewport, you'll likely need to upgrade your hardware.

[@floodzofwine8888]

@@Autodesk_Maya that was'nt the problem. i've just boost the gravity up to 200 and the animation was faster :) but thx you for your fast respond (really appreciate it) +1 sub

[@rickg989]

I'm not sure what it is that I am doing wrong. I can add a dynamics to the MASH_Grid, but as soon as I do that, the animation doesn't animate anymore. If I go back a step, The top dominoes still animate. Help??

[@rickg989]

When I apply the dynamics to the grid, an //Error: No Mesh on Instancer/repro

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Did you delete the Bulletsolver node at any point? It seems there's a bug related to that: forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-forum/mash-no-mesh-on-instancer-repro/td-p/7615705

[@annamalai.d.t.]

I followed each step in this tutorial but I can't stop those dominoes on the floor falling on the intial frame; on giving the dynamic node to them it starts falling to the ground from the frame one itself . How can I make them to react after the top one touches the ground dominoes. I had also tired by increasing the friction in bullet solver, Pls do clarify my doubt.

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Are they actually on the ground or are they floating above it? Make sure the ground plane isn't too far away from them. You can also try increasing their mass or making them a bit thicker.

[@rakhana7076]

My dominoes stay still when it fall off, it doesn't even bounce. It just straightly comes down the ground. Also, I cannot make the sphere to push the dominoes. It went through it instead. I think may be because of the scale of the dominoes is too big, but I also try with the small one then it randomly separate. None of them have the same result as in the video. Anyone know how to fix these problems?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Have you tried downloading the scene file in the description to compare to yours?

[@rakhana7076]

@@Autodesk_Maya I can do it now. Thank you.(By the way, there is no file in the describtion though)

[@Vakiwey]

When dominos are on the box, they slide. They are not static as on the ground..

[@Autodesk_Maya]

In the cube's shape node, you can increase the Friction to your liking.

[@Vakiwey]

Thanks, found the mash node on the pCube, but changing frictrion values didnt work. Increasing it mass to 10000 worked, though :)

[@Youtubeuser2]

hello. İ have a problem. My domino stone spontaneously down. why ? how can i solition. ?continuous vibration.

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Try making the dominoes thicker first, so they have a larger, more stable base.

[@Youtubeuser2]

@@Autodesk_Maya thank u very much.i ll try

[@MarkIreland_carrierband]

What use is this if you cant download the MAYA 2018 student version?

[@lcymet]

The Maya 2018 student version is available. There is a bit of a lag after the initial release to get the student version up, so thanks for the patience. www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/maya

[@MarkIreland_carrierband]

Thanks for your reply. I downloaded it but it failed to install. I am on Win7 64bit. I seem to have a lot of 2018 directories. Where should I look for help? Thanks again.

[@seaofaether]

I am a beginner. I will do my best to copy the tutorial as it is.