Render the Animation

To render our animation just select on the top menu bar "Render" -> "Render Animation". It will take awhile, perhaps quite awhile. When the rendering is complete you can play back the animation with "Render" -> "Play Back Rendered Animation".

Duplicate the Stack

Now go back and load in the "unbaked" file. Select a view where you are looking at the dominos "edge on". Select all the dominos in the stack and duplicate. Move the new stack a little to the left or right on the screen. This is a good time to select the lower domino in the duplicate stack and straighten it out so the stack will not topple on its own. Make a duplicate of this new stack and move it a little way from the other stacks. We want the stacks to be close enough so that when the original stack collapses one or more dominos will hit the other stacks and cause them to collapse also. Test out the separation with the game engine until you like the way the stacks of dominos fall. Finally select one of the stacks, duplicate it and move it to a new location. When you like the falling action save the file.

Capture the new Animation Motion

Select "Record Game Physics To IPO" and start the game engine. When the action is complete save the file with a NEW name. This file will contain the motion of all the dominos.

Change Domino Reflection and Sky Color

Before rendering the action of the 4 stacks of dominos you can change the appearance of the dominos and the sky. We changed the sky in another tutorial so just follow that procedure until you have a sky that you like. Since we duplicate the domino stacks each corresponding domino in each stack will have the same material so you only have to change the materials in one stack to change them all. In other words, if you change the material of the top domino in any stack then all top dominos will change accordingly. As a suggestion turn on Ray Mirror for all of the dominos in one stack and set the reflection to something you like. To check the results of your changes use the up arrow to move to a frame in the motion that looks interesting and render that frame. When happy with the results save the file.

Final Animation Render

Rendering of the animation will take much longer with ray traceing and reflection active but the results will be much nicer. Start render the animation and leave your computer alone until its finished. Enjoy the render playback.