The Motion Graphics Toolkit is a welcome addition to Maya for motion designers. Maya’s workhorse viewport, and integrated tools, really complements that type of workflow. When MASH added the ability to use Python, that also opened up a whole new avenue for motion designers. Take strange attractors as an example.
As an example, Ian Waters offers up a couple of quick and dirty examples using strange attractors with MASH, though of course, they Python node.
An attractor in mathematics is a set of values to which a system evolves. When system values get close to the attractor values will remain close to it, even if it is slightly disturbed.
An attractor can be a point, curve or manifold. If the attractor is a complicated set with a fractal structure, then it is known as a strange attractor.
If you want to try something similar, you can copy and paste the Python code from Ian’s post, Strange Attractors with MASH and Python.
With his example, Ian used the trails node that was set to “joint the dots” mode to create a tube shape between all the points in the effect.
By the way, Ian Waters has a blog!