Procedural 3D modeling using geometry nodes in Blender : discover the professional usage of geometry nodes and develop a creative approach to a node-based workflow / Siemen Lens and Wouter Adriaensen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lens, Siemen, author.

Adriaensen, Wouter, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Blender (Computer file).

Computer graphics--Computer programs.

Computer graphics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (283 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), 2025.

Place of Publication:

Birmingham, UK : Packt Publishing, 2023.

System Details:

text file rdaft

Biography/History:

Lens Siemen: Siemen Lens is a CG Artist who excels at photorealism. He studies Multimedia in Antwerp. His specialty is to create abstract yet photorealistic renders using Geometry Nodes, Physics, Texturing, and various other techniques in Blender. He also uses other software like After Effects, Illustrator, and Vegas Pro. Siemen has worked as a product render designer in a Furniture company. He has also worked at PartydoosMedia, a Dutch digital graphic design agency. His goal is to create visually convincing CG Art that is pleasing to the eye. With this book, he aims to get you well versed with Geometry Nodes.

Summary:

For anyone working in the computer graphics industry, understanding how to use Blender's new geometry nodes tools to manipulate and generate 3D geometry in a node-based workflow is an essential skill. In this book, you'll learn how to use the basic and intermediate features of geometry nodes that are a crucial part of your Blender roadmap. You'll start by understanding the different node inputs and outputs followed by the basic nodes you'll need throughout your geometry nodes projects. The book will show you how the node system works and enable you to put your newfound knowledge to use through exercises that involve modifying curves, meshes, and more. You'll work on a range of interesting projects such as creating a procedural plant, where you'll use nodes to generate the intricate details and variations of a plant in a procedural manner, and a spiderweb generator to refine your skills of cleaning up a node tree. Finally, you'll build a procedural LED panel using geometry nodes to generate the look of an LED panel. By the end of this book, you'll be able to overcome any geometry node issue confidently and make complicated geometry node trees exactly how you need them.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright and Credits

Contributors

Table of Contents

Preface

Part 1 - Familiarizing Yourself with the Node System

Chapter 1 - An Introduction to Geometry Nodes

Technical requirements

Understanding the Geometry Node system

In what situations are Geometry Nodes applicable?

Understanding the Geometry Node editor

Exploring the standard Geometry Nodes blocks

The different node connections and how to use them

Exploring different shapes

Exploring different node connection colors

Multi-connection inputs

Exercise - accessing the Geometry Node system

Summary

Chapter 2 - Understanding the Functionality of Basic Nodes

What are basic nodes?

Exploring Mesh nodes

The Subdivision Surface node

The Join Geometry node

The Set Shade Smooth node

The Extrude Mesh node

Understanding how to manipulate Points

The Distribute Points on Faces node

The Mesh to Points node

The Instance on Points node

Instance nodes

Translating Instances

The Geometry to Instance node

The Realize Instances node

The Curve to Mesh node

The Mesh to Volume node

Volume to Mesh

Chapter 3 - Must-Have Add-ons for Building Node Trees

Exploring must-have add-ons

The Node Wrangler add-on

How to use the add-on

Shortcuts

The Node Arrange add-on

Exercise - how to install add-ons in Blender

Enabling add-ons

Part 2 - Creating a Mesh in the Geometry Node System

Chapter 4 - Making Use of Node Primitives

Introduction to Node Primitives

Why use Node Primitives?

Where can you find Node Primitives?

Mesh nodes

Where can you find Mesh Primitive Nodes?

The Cube Primitive Node

The Grid Primitive Node

The UV Sphere Primitive Node

The Ico Sphere Primitive Node

The Mesh Line Primitive Node.

The Cone and Cylinder Primitive Nodes

Curve nodes

Where can you find Curve Primitive Node?

The Curve Line Primitive Node

The Curve Circle Primitive Node

The Bezier Segment Primitive Node

The Star Primitive Node

The Spiral Primitive Node

Exercise - your first Geometry Nodes project

Chapter 5 - Distributing Instances onto a Mesh

Distributing the points on a Grid primitive

Exploring the nodes we will be using

Building up the node tree

Instancing objects on points

Randomizing instances

Experimenting with Group Inputs

How to utilize Group Inputs?

Exercise - creating a grassy field

Sketching the idea

The nodes we will need

Modeling the terrain

Modeling a blade of grass

Setting up your Geometry Node editor

Distributing and instancing the points

Randomizing the grass

Linking a material to your mesh

Cleaning up your node tree

Using Group Inputs to add sliders to the modifier

Chapter 6 - Working with the Spreadsheet in Blender

Introduction to the Spreadsheet

What does the Spreadsheet do?

Exploring the different datasets in Spreadsheet

Filtering items using the Spreadsheet

Demonstrating how the Spreadsheet can be useful

Introducing the nodes you'll need

Building the structure of the node tree

Exercise - creating a rotated tesseract cube

Sketching the basic idea

Building the node tree

Adding a material to your tesseract cube

Chapter 7 - Creating and Modifying Text in the Geometry Node Editor

Introducing strings

The various nodes we will use in this chapter

Where can you find String nodes?

Introducing you to the different String nodes

Converting strings into a usable mesh

The String to Curves node

The Fill Curve node

The Extrude Mesh node.

Exercise - making a procedural countdown

Exploring the nodes required to make a procedural countdown

Part 3 - Modifying Meshes and Curves in the Geometry Node System

Chapter 8 - Editing Curves with Nodes

Adding noise to your Curves

Offset by Random values

Offset by Noise Textures

Giving thickness to your Curves

Basic thickness control

Advanced thickness control

Exercise - making a simple lightning bolt

Making the node tree

Chapter 9 - Manipulating a Mesh Using Geometry Nodes

Extruding your mesh

Demonstrating the Extrude Mesh node

Using Booleans in your mesh

Demonstrating the Difference mode

Adding noise to your mesh

Demonstrating how to add noise to your mesh

Exercise - making a procedural tree

Part 4 - Hands-On Projects Involving Advanced Workflow Techniques

Chapter 10 - Creating a Procedural Plant Generator

Creating the node tree

Creating the stem

Creating the leaves

Utilizing group inputs

What inputs will we include?

Renaming the group inputs

Chapter 11 - Creating a Procedural Spiderweb Generator

Creating a scene in our Viewport

Creating our node tree

What's a convex hull?

Creating a convex hull around our objects

Making a wireframe from the convex hull

Adding detail and randomization

Group inputs

Organizing your node tree using Reroutes

Chapter 12 - Constructing a Procedural LED Panel

What are named attributes?

How do LED panels work?

Creating a single subpixel

Creating an array of pixels

Creating an array for every subpixel

Storing the RGB values in named attributes

Creating materials.

Linking the named attributes to the materials

Adding group inputs to the node tree

Part 5 - Best Practices to Improve Your Workflow

Chapter 13 - Tips and Tricks for the Geometry Node Editor

Converting a mesh to a wireframe

Remeshing in the Geometry Node editor

Using volumes to model in the editor

Aligning instanced objects along a normal

Linking weight paint with Geometry Nodes

Making use of geometry proximity

Manual calculation

Using the Geometry Proximity node

Exercise - making two meshes merge together

Chapter 14 - Troubleshooting the Most Common Problems in Geometry Nodes

Exploring the most common problems in Geometry Nodes

My shading behaves weirdly

My node tree is very slow

Common mistakes when working with Geometry Nodes

When the chosen material doesn't appear on the model

Applying a modifier makes parts of the mesh disappear

Appendix

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

9781804616079

1804616079

OCLC:

1374120115