Inspired by the Hot Wheels Xylophone by 5MadMovieMakers, kinetic artist Mark Robbins of DoodleChaos created a very clever contraption that uses the principles of Beer Bong combined with a colorful kid’s xylophone to play music. In this example, 213 ping pong balls softly play the “Can-Can”, a classic Caberet song by Jacques Offenbach, which has a rich history of its own.
What do 213 ping pong balls and a kid’s toy xylophone have in common? Absolutely nothing. Nonetheless, I built a contraption that bounces them together to make music playing “Can-Can” by Offenbach … If you’re curious how I achieved this effect, I moved a mask to cover every single movement of every ball’s path by hand. Repeating and overlapping multiple layers became very complicated because the balls would cross paths. Once I learned tracks could be nested together I became more organized.