Embedded Files
Sam Hoffman - Project 5: Python Scripting - 11/19/2025
Final Animation
Final Animation
With added scenery, shading, and rendering that is not included in the script
Storyboard
There was not much planning to do on the animation side of things this time, but I knew I wanted the dominos to reveal the face of a Creeper from Minecraft since I thought the pixel art would look nice only displayed by domino faces.
Since Minecraft heads are perfect cubes, I wanted my grid to be a perfect square. I ended up using a 25 x 25 grid for 625 total dominos.
Images
The dominos were colored black from most views
Only the front faces were colored with the image so it was only revealed when they were knocked over
Scene set up for rendering - Minecraft dirt block added as table for dominos
Overhead view of final image displayed when all the dominos fall over
Domino black surfaces tutorial
Getting 5 of the 6 faces of the domino to be black and only having one face be colored with the image file proved to be a very difficult task. I was able to find a solution though, but it only works if you used the Arnold renderer (which I do not prefer to use).
Step 1
Step 1
Create 2 aiStandardSurface shaders. Use one to shade the 5 necessary faces black and use the other (set in any color) to shade the face you want the image file to be on.
Step 2
Step 2
Add the image file to the Color node in your MASH network using the code given by Dr. Davis in the "Tips for MASH" file on the class webpage. Set a plane as the UV mesh in the color node by following the "MASH Dominos" YouTube tutorial on the class webpage.
Step 3
Step 3
Follow the below YouTube tutorial to set the Export Vertex Colors attribute on and connect a User Color Data node to the Arnold Standard Surface shader you created for your image face of the domino.
YouTube tutorial
YouTube tutorial
This was the tutorial I followed to get the image file from the Color node in the MASH network to show in the Arnold renderer
Maya scripting can be tricky so here are the attribute names you need from the YouTube tutorial (your variable names may vary):
Step 4
Step 4
At this point, you should see your dominos as having 5 black sides and 1 gray (or whatever color you chose) side. Unfortunately, this solution only shows the image texture when the frame is rendered, so you won't see it in the viewport. Just render a frame with the Arnold renderer and you should see the file image!
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