Dominoes vs. Machines: Round VIII (w/

Dominoes vs. Machines makes its triumphant return for the 8th consecutive year as I take on possibly my toughest competition yet: DaksDominoes. In this head-to-head heavyweight fight, who will come out on top? Machines. Obviously...

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LINKS:
DaksDominoes:    / daksdominos  
Watch Rounds I - VII!    • Dominoes vs. Machines  
Extras/Slow-Motion Compilation:    • Dominoes vs. Machines: Round VIII - E...  

These are honestly some of the best screenlink clips I've made to date, and I hope you love them just as much as I do. I think there's a good mix of clever concepts, aesthetically pleasing motions, and acrobatic spectacle. A couple of things to note...
First, I'm really trying to push myself to expand beyond "track tricks" these days. Not that tricks can't involve track, of course, but the age-old formula of "track is used in Position A, then moves to Position B to get used again" is extremely limiting and repetitive. The track tricks in this video (the few that there are) have their main concept rooted in some other kind of motion (midair acrobatics, flexing parallelogram, centrifugal force, etc.) and don't strictly follow that boring old format. I've also tried to incorporate interesting pathing whenever I built a track-based trick. For instance, using the same ball throughout the whole trick in clips like Twisted Flexing Parallelogram, Centrifugal Curves, Flexing Trapezoid Track, and Midair Track Pirouette. I hope to continue to evolve my style and build more clips like Jacob's Ladder Zigzag Modules that involve lots of custom parts, and little to no track at all. I think chain reaction machines are at their most interesting when there's a large variety of parts and motions (gears rotating! balls bouncing! things flying through the air!) and I hope I did well to capture that variety in this screenlink.
Secondly, the fail counts on these clips are all surprisingly low. Swinging Gear Assembly was the sole outlier with 46 fails, and even that isn't a nightmare, not by a long shot. In total, I had 117 fails for this project, which averages out to only ~15 fails per clip! I guess that's just the result of ironing out most of the issues while building, but it's certainly been a hot minute since I've had a truly hellish experience getting a screenlink clip (or mini-machine) to work. I want to say the last time was the Newton's Cradle + Ball Launch mini-machine from Machine Fusion? I'll have to look into it...
Finally, if there's one thing I've noticed about my screenlink style, it's that I tend to make a lot of clips that center around one big burst of energy, so to speak. Some big motion that happens all in the blink of an eye that you need slow motion to fully appreciate. A solid half of the clips in this video almost require slow motion, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, these motions are surprising, and the clips are often fun to make, but if they're hard to understand in real speed, then maybe I'm not doing my job well. Definitely something I'll be thinking about going forward, but in the meantime, enjoy the slow motion compilation! (linked above)

CLIP LIST:
Twisted Flexing Parallelogram (0:46) - 12 fails, 2 days
Swinging Gear Assembly (0:54) - 47 fails, 4 days
Centrifugal Curves (1:02) - 2 fails, 4 days
Ball Transfer Gears (1:59) - 14 fails, 4 days
Flexing Trapezoid Track (2:16) - 8 fails, 2 days
Midair Track Pirouette (3:09) - 10 fails, 5 days
Double-Use Bounce Platforms (3:18) - 16 fails, 3 days
Jacob's Ladder Zigzag Modules (3:26) - 8 fails, 5 days

CLIP STATS:
Most fails: Swinging Gear Assembly (46 fails)
Fewest fails: Centrifugal Curves (2 fails)
Most frustrating: During building: Midair Track Pirouette, During testing: Ball Transfer Gears
Most fun: Jacob's Ladder Zigzag Modules
Favorite: Midair Track Pirouette (Centrifugal Curves & Swinging Gear Assembly deserve honorable mentions, they're a veeeeery close #2 and #3)
Longest Build Time: Midair Track Pirouette & Jacob's Ladder Zigzag Board Modules (both 5 days)
Quickest Build Time: Twisted Flexing Parallelogram & Flexing Trapezoid Track (both 2 days)

#DominoesVsMachines

MUSIC:
meganeko - Daydreamer
   • meganeko - Daydreamer  

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