Using Flocking in MASH for Maya

MASH is a procedural animation toolkit that provides the bridge for creating motion graphics elements in Autodesk Maya, similar to some of the tools found in Cinema 4D’s Mograph Module, leveraging Maya’s workflow.

Recently MASH has had a couple of updates, most notably a new version 3 of MASH supports Maya’s Viewport 2 features for its instanced tools, which can make creating flocking simulations easier by handling replicated objects in a Maya scene much more efficiently.

Using the Flight node to quickly create some basic flocking and crowd simulations

MASH isn’t just for creating motion graphics elements alone. It is more of a general purpose toolset that just makes handling animation much more effective in Maya, especially if you have to manage the animation of any number of objects in a reliable way. MASH for Maya offers a unique and easy approach to managing the animation for multiple objects.

As an example, Mainframe’s Ian Waters shows how easy it is to set up simple flocking and crowd simulations using MASH for Maya’s Flight Node. Back in version 2.1 MASH for Maya added the flight node, which allows you to create simple flocking, swarming and schooling effects, leveraging the MASH instancer and Maya’s Viewport technology.