Introduction

In this lesson, I learned about MASH for the first time in Maya. MASH modifiers are used in Maya to create animations. MASH is a procedural toolset which can create 3D motion graphics that can be combined with 2D motion graphics in after effects.

Why MASH?

MASH is a versatile toolset for creating motion graphics animations with symmetry and looping animations – a good thing to show in portfolios as it shows a diversity of knowledge of motion graphics, not just using 2D vectors.

MASH is also useful for creating environments, as you can scatter objects like trees grass over a landscape in only a few clicks.

MASH Demo

Animation toolkit menuu

MASH now at top of screen

Create primitive cube

MASH > create MASH network

MASH > MASH editor (opens new window)

Under MASH 1 go to mash distribute (opens modifier settings in attribute editor)

change top number to 5 cubes and add distance between them

Go to MASH and create a MASH replicator

change replicants to 4

add another replicator change offset position to 0 on Z axis Y axis is 2 and replicants to 4

go to mash add dynamics

I then created this organic-like animation out of laying around with spheres and the world and randomness modifiers

I also made a logo-style animation with some cubes.

Conclusion

Over all, this was an interesting first time learning MASH – I can see the toolkit has many many uses for animation and is important to practise to add to my skills as a 3D animator/modeler.