3D Splanchnic shows how you can create an animate a Neuron Signal using MASH in Maya.

Expanding on a tutorial from Medical Artist and Animator Emily Holden, 3D Splanchnic makes a couple of efficiency changes. While the animating representation of electrical impulses can have a few solutions, both Holden and 3D Splanchnic use Maya’s motion graphics toolkit MASH.

Neuron Signal Animation.

The original tutorial showed how to animate Arnold Mesh Lights that represent the neurons firing in the scene. The light-objects animate along curves using a MASH Curve Node. 3D Splanchnic’s tutorial shows that you can use the curve node with more than one curve. 

No-Bake Mesh Light.

Another change to help keep things procedural and editable is not baking out the animation for the mesh lights in the scene. You can still have the lights work using the MASH Repro Node.