Use MASH to create versatile motion design animations with procedural node networks. Customize all the effects from the Attribute Editor and Node Editor, and chain effects together for greater variation.
You can create a MASH network from one or more objects in the scene. You can add and remove objects from the MASH network as necessary via the Instancer or Repro node.
To create a MASH network
- If the MASH plug-in is not already loaded, go to and load the MASH plug-in.
- Go to either the Animation or FX menu set.
- (Optional) Select the objects in the scene you want to use as input objects.
- Select
or click the
Create MASH Network icon (
) in the
MASH or
Motion Graphics shelf.
Maya automatically hides any selected input objects and instead displays multiple instances of them arranged along a series of invisible points. It also populates a new MASH network with three start nodes:
- A Waiter node, which acts as a hub for the entire network. You can use this node to add additional nodes to the network or change the way it's displayed and processed.
- A Distribute node, which handles the initial number and arrangement of copies of the original objects.
- Additional nodes depending on the current Geometry Type (set via the MASH menu). By default, Maya creates fully-featured reproductions of the source objects, but you can manually change them to faster (but more limited) instances.
Once your initial MASH network has been created, you can view the new nodes in either the MASH Editor or the Outliner by using the MASH filter ( when DAG objects only is turned off).