Maya 2017 - Exploding text with the MASH Explode node

[@vytasatvmanstudios]

The one thing I think is nice for the MASH in Maya over Cinema 4d's Mograph is that you can share the falloff over multiple objects and effectors. This simplifies the animation process and keeps the viewport cleaner. But still keeping my C4D for motion graphics.

[@digitalaether806]

Everything is working fine until I add the offset node, the mesh is just going around the falloff flying off in the air. Any ideas to why?

[@goofypixel]

Hi Ian, how would I go about baking my exploded geometry? I have tried both geo cache and alembic but I'm not getting matching results to my live MASH setup. I want to apply a texture to my exploded mesh, but when it is live the polys seem to swim all over the UV space so they won't maintain the correct projection hence I thought baking would solve this issue. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[@markfernandez5474]

good tutorial however what if you want the particles to change into another mesh like a star mesh for example... is this possible?

[@YamanPrajapati]

is this not applicable on a mesh....is that working on a type?

[@devilsforkdigital1490]

Great tutorial as always Ian. I'm basically following your tut, although I have my falloff object set to Add. However, I can't get the Offset node to work as it does in your example. If I set the scale attrs to -1 my exploded faces actually get larger! My exploding mesh is all zeroed out and was actually brought in as an OBJ so should be clean of any issues. Haven't been able to find a workaround. One caveat -- I'm on Maya 2018, not 2017.

[@SandroSanakoti]

Hello guys! My problem is - MASH is not offseting scale of faces correctly. Also it doesn't inherit position for exploded faces from mash points (well, it does, but seems multiplied by 10!) If I tweak some settings, I would be able to scale faces to zero but not maintaining their position. They look like they're flying away for a great distance.

[@ianwaters6035]

Perhaps you need to freeze transformations on your exploding object?

[@AyahuascaMagic]

i can never get this to work. in 2016.5 and 2017 i throw a mesh into explode node and it just sits there doing nothing. lol it seems to have separated the faces as i can see some normal activity when i scrub random strength slider but nothing else. what could possibly have gone wrong?

[@matrizx-diseno-grafico]

SÚPER SENSACIONAL TUTORIAL !!! FELICITACIONES !!

[@michelecavalierimaschi]

Hi Ian! just a question...i can't add the random node to all the mash. When i try, the program let me only choose between add the random node to the rotation, position , visibility or to the scale....And when i choose between one of them, the square pieces don't remain attached to the letters but the fly random in the space....Please Heeeeelp Me

[@ianwaters6035]

Hi Michele, Sounds like you are using Maya 2016.5 - I'm not sure the tutorial will work in that version. Try adding the Random to position and playing with the strength sliders.

[@tanvirkhan81]

How to colour and render It? is it the way we normally do?

[@Wodpuncher001]

when I use the offset node to scale the pieces it just scales the hidden repro-mesh! why?

[@paulMlela]

hi! there lan Waters,i am having trouble buying computer for my 3d animation work, can you please help me out specifications of a good desktop computer for my work.

[@jonnyquest8774]

Nice Tut! Is there any way to add dimension to the shattered pieces, so they're not flat?

[@ianwaters6035]

Thanks! It's on the feature request list. The Maya modelling tools weren't built for this kind of dynamic animation so we're thinking of building it into the Explode node itself.

[@RouRa9]

For Mash 2018, turning the falloff node to -1 just gives them different sizes. Any clue how to fix this?

[@amandinemamet7967]

same for me :(

[@brewster9235]

@@amandinemamet7967 I figured this out. I saw a comment he posted down below. My offset node was making my pieces kinda go crazy. I found out all I forgot to do was freeze transforms of the text I was using to explode. I'm not 100% sure if this matters as much, but I made sure to freeze it before I started messing with the MASH network. Completely fixed my problem!

[@rorylaws0n]

it is a very good tutorial, but I know it should be simple but how do I drag my typemesh into the distribute input mesh section, a reply would be great

[@theforum9590]

I am having the same issue, when I try to "drag and drop" the typeMesh1, I just end up selecting it

[@theforum9590]

I just figured it out, you use the middle mouse button

[@ianwaters6035]

Click on it with your middle mouse button, then drag it. Alternatively you can select it, then Add select the MASH node, then right click on the slot and choose 'Connect'.

[@ianwaters6035]

Middle mouse drag, sorry I missed this comment!

[@ShaneCasserly]

Rory Lawson have the outliner open and the distribute selected. Middle mouse drag the text from the outliner to the distribute

[@japroject1]

Hello Ian, I have the 2016 version of maya with the extension that has mash on it. For some reason when I select the random node I get different settings than you. Also I can't keep the text mesh from pulling apart randomly before I move my falloff object.

[@ianwaters6035]

Hi James, I'm afraid this tutorial requires Maya 2017.

[@Gizmo1984ify]

Hello Ian, how do I export this into After Effects or Photoshop? I have a degree in Animation but didn't really learn this tool; can you tell me how? Or can you make a vid? ~Adam

[@ricwilliams9922]

Ian, When I add the explode node to the MASH network and reduce the strength to 0, Maya stops responding. When I restart Maya and turn on Scale to Zero, I can then reduce the strength to zero without problem. If I keep the explode strength at 1, add a falloff node, and turn off Scale to Zero, Maya stops responding. When it freezes, Maya is using 15% of my RAM and 22% of my CPU. Maya 2017 Windows 10 64-bit. There are 100 characters in the text, if that makes a difference. I haven't had problems doing your Merge Particles tutorial, so I'm thinking the problem is with the Explode node. Ric

[@ricwilliams9922]

Hmmm. Think I found what is going on. The explode node must be very computationally intensive. Maya stops responding, but if I let it run several minutes, CPU usage drops from 22% to 0 and Maya starts responding again. Am using Intel I7-5930 with 64gb RAM.

[@ianwaters6035]

Explode is super compute intensive, but this should not be happening to you. I'll log it for investigation. Thanks for letting me know.

[@MayaGuytutorials]

Same here using 2017 update 3

[@ianwaters6035]

We identified 2 crashing bugs. Really sorry about this chaps. We've missed the next Maya update, but we'll get them in the one after that. Super sorry about this.

[@MayaGuytutorials]

No problem - thanks for the update. Maya doesn't crash it just takes it's time with the explode node - nowhere near as fast as you are interacting with it in your scene above. We know you Mainframe chaps are busy - we can wait. Congrats on the full integration into Maya - its going to do wonders for us Maya folk.

[@Figster62]

I have been watching your tutorials, I greatly appreciate them. Is there a way to combine this with a bifrost liquid? I think having it explode looking like paint splatter would be cool. Thanks.

[@ianwaters6035]

It's just a mesh right? Have you tried turning it into a Bifrost emitter? I've not, but it might work :)

[@Figster62]

Yes. It doesn't explode with the mesh. It just falls down. I have tried adding a collision object to run through the liquid to make it look like an explosion.. but just does not match the mash explode.

[@habibasirag6012]

my MacBook doesn't have the option of dragging textmesh to the input mesh...

[@ianwaters6035]

Select the mesh, then the go to the MASH node you want (via the MASH Editor under the MASH menu) and then right click on the input mesh box, and click 'connect'. If you set Maya to two button mouse mode you can also hold the Command key and drag the mesh into the attribute editor that way.

[@ScytheZ]

At 4:06 when I open up MASH1_Distribute in the attribute editor most of those settings aren't there so I don't know how to carry on. I'm using Maya 2018 plz help

[@ianwaters6035]

Change the Distribution mode, that will reveal the other settings. In 2018 we're hiding things that aren't relevant to the mode you're in.

[@jameswilkinson150]

Bet it only works with 2017! :(

[@ussmaan]

when i explode my test is very rough not smooth as original

[@onito09]

i don't wanna go mr stark

[@FranuxuMusic12]

hate you

[@DonkeyHopper]

Great video! One problem though, I got the first word correctly exploded but when I do the same for second one, the mesh just falls to the ground and then comes back. I mean it doesn't appear from the front, instead it does from the ground as if the gravity is turned on. Any solutions?

[@ianwaters6035]

Sorry I don't quite follow... Fancy uploading a scene?

[@antonchristensen8565]

This was great. Just subscribed.

[@za88y]

hello ... in maya 2018 i cant use my RMB to move my objects i can only use the MMB ,, HELP!

[@ianwaters6035]

That's fine, I only use MMB to move objects...

[@iraklibeggi7385]

How can I save it as a video?

[@Lejteddy]

NIce! keep up the good work

[@adilshingre5943]

sir plz help me I am not that cube part understand its not coming on my text

[@beverlystandish1774]

That got me too. The secret for me was I missed the "flood mesh" check box Go to Mash Distribute, its under the input Mesh box. Also make sure your cube size is set to .100 rather than 100.

[@mozta69]

It's a very amazing tutorial! Is possible export this animation to unity 3D?

[@bkkdays]

you can export via alembic...I haven't tried it yet, please post your results. github.com/unity3d-jp/AlembicImporter

[@anaislake]

excellent!

[@vasanthkolanupaka1548]

Good tutorial

[@adilshingre5943]

sir ossom video sir one question how u have make background black plz help me

[@ianwaters6035]

Alt-b

[@adilshingre5943]

Ian Waters thank u sir thank so much Sir i have tried ur this tutorial to make But that cube is not parfectly coming on my text how to do it plz help me sir

[@abdoubelhadj3566]

Can I do this in Maya 2013 ?

[@antonchristensen8565]

No, I think it's new in 2017

[@ianwaters6035]

2017+ Only, sorry.

[@frassmicce]

great tutorial! but start learning Houdini ppl thats where the future is. Houdini an artists playground and you can try it for free!

[@hivetech4903]

BROKEN - As soon as you check "Enable Rotation" on the Explode node, the exploded shards move their POSITION and go into bizarre patterns. This is obviously wrong behavior, they should only change rotation. On the network's Random node even if you set all rotates to zero, select World, Local and/or Normalize, it has no effect - activating Rotation shouldn't affect Position.

[@rwdsgdlrwd]

thank you :)

[@VishalKumar-yt6me]

WHY YOU GUYS DONT PROVIDE MAYA FILE ALSO?

[@jeromeqgill9810]

your moving too fast