So maybe my machine doesn't really do anything, because there are no wires or switches that would turn on the lights with a pressure input, but it is pretty nice to look at. I wanted to make lightbulbs, and quickly realized that lights in Maya do not actually glow themselves. I used a surfaceShader to color the tungsten filiment, and that allowed me to have an "out glow color". So, I keyframed the filiment to become visible at about the same time as a ball lands near a light (falls in a box/hits the little side corner wall thing).

After rendering, we can see the filiment flickering a tiny bit, and I had no clue why, and no other feasible way to make a light, so I decided it's just a happy accident. Incandescent bulbs are pretty outdated, anyways. Maya probably prefers CFL bulbs and LEDs because, you know, climate change.

Two notes on textures: (1) the texture on the planes of my machine are made from Maya fractals, which give a surprisingly convincing marble pattern with little to no adjustment, and (2), the boards, boxes, gears, etc. are not just the default Lambert shader. They're actually an off-white Blinn with a lowered eccentricity, so, if they catch the light, they appear like a very glossy ceramic or some kind of lacquered surface.

Five (or more) Objects of the Machine