Who has time to waste making one of these?

I wanted to make another Marble Track after I made Marble Track 2, but it would be a waste of time. The Internet told me so:

wasted time 22.46 wasted time 23.19 wasted time 23.28 wasted time 24.14 wasted time 26.35 wasted time 26.45 wasted time 26.49 wasted time 27.28 wasted time 28.21 wasted time 28.50 wasted time 29.18 wasted time 29.27 wasted time 29.44 wasted time 30.36 wasted time 31.26 wasted time 32.18 wasted time 32.30 wasted time 24.37 wasted time 25.26 wasted time 29.36

Oh noooes! I wasted my life! But there were some people who liked it and asked how to make it!

awesome 26.47 awesome 28.12 awesome 28.29 awesome 28.39 awesome 29.49 awesome 30.21 awesome 30.57 awesome 32.29 awesome 32.38 awesome 32.57 awesome 33.16 awesome 33.49 awesome 34.29 awesome 34.57 awesome 36.22 awesome 29.14 awesome 35.33 awesome 35.51 awesome 28.02 awesome 26.35

How can I make another Marble Track without wasting time????

Well, I figured the perfect solution. Hire a team to make it for me.

Introducing…. Marble Track 3 Construction Crew

2018 nov marble track 3 construction crew

Back Row: Candy Mama, G Choppy, Reversible Guy, Squarehead, Mr McGlue
Front Row: Mr Greene, Pinky, Dr Sugar, Big Brother, Little Brother, Super Spoony

These guys are great! Just look at them go!

Now I can sit back and watch while they show everyone how to build a marble track. Plus, by the end, they will have finished Marble Track 3 for me! Two problems solved at once!


Back in the day, my brother and I used to play with Legos. We had a big bag that was actually a circular canvas circle with a drawstring around it. It held all our Legos and made the perfect mat to build and play. Over time, it collected a few other small toys, including marbles.

We used to use the Lego roof pieces as ramps, down which marbles would roll. Getting them to roll down quickly was easy. How slowly could we get the marbles to roll? Flat planks and ramps allowed us more creativity.

One day we saw a huge billiard ball track in a science museum in Tennessee. Something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh3AG8Xlh_U

I usually stream creation of Marble Track 3 live on Youtube on Tuesday and Friday mornings, Tokyo time. https://channel.marbletrack3.com

The latest videos can be seen as a YouTube playlist, available at https://mt3s.marbletrack3.com/

At this point, there is no audio in any of the videos in the above playlist. I am considering adding verbal narration to some of the videos. I do not yet know technically how to do it with the apps I have available, but I think it should be easy enough with Blender.

At the current rate, the final full video will be at least an hour long.

Marble Track 3 is a labor of love mishmash of two creative artforms:

kinetic sculpture

The marble track itself is a kinetic sculpture for marbles to run down every which way, and sometimes loose.

stop motion animation

The construction of Marble Track 3 is being painstakingly documented through stop motion animation.

This answers the frequently asked question about Marble Track 2: “how do you make a marble track?

but that’s not all

Just in case someone asks “how do you make a stop motion animation of the construction of a marble track?” The creation of the animation is being livestreamed, with over 250 hours broadcast as of this writing. Viewers are welcome to watch and vote as we discover questions within the construction.

in the future

Eventually I want to add audio to the animation… possibly music, dialogue, sound effects..

And I want to add CGI animation behind the animation by rendering something in place of the bluescreen background.