[Maya/Vray] - Grid fade away effect

I’m newer to this sort of “FX” work, but I’m looking for information on how to get started. I’d like to recreate the effect shown below (imagine an animated fade away of a shell). I have everything down as far as how to recreate this effect with the exception of the large red checkers in the mid section-


They are irregular to a point (within a threshold), but they have high levels of seemingly random contrast which isn’t something I’d be able to recreate with an animated ramp.

What would be the best way to approach this inside of Maya and rendered with vray? I almost need to apply a grid to the object, have an animated ramp sweep it, then when a randomized threshold in value is reached by the ramp (0=black 1=pure white) have it tick a grid square “on” like a boolean and then generate a random number within a range to apply that value of intensity to the square.

Any ideas? Not looking for hand-holding, but where I should start.

Best,
9k

Hey all. I ended up scripting up a solution in After Effects with expressions and then I plan on using the output sequence to drive the blending effect I’m looking for. Turned out nice, but I’m still really interested as to how one would approach this completely in Maya.

Still looks pretty cool-

maya 2017 introduced a bunch of motion graphics features, i haven’t mess with them personally, but they seem like they would be useful for these types of fx.

I need to get into MASH. Looks great, but 2017 is way too buggy right now even with the first update. Thanks though!