Blender Intermediate: Geometry Nodes

Name: Blender Intermediate: Geometry Nodes
Author: Jay Grewall

Learn how object modifiers and geometry nodes can produce the illusion of newly created and modified objects in 3D space

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Course: On-Demand

Hello and welcome to Knowledge City's course on Intermediate Blender 3D. My name is Jay and today we will be learning about geometry nodes. Geometry nodes are one of Blender's many modifiers. Modifiers are given to 3D objects and affect the geometry in a non-destructive manner. This means the geometry is not actually modified. Let's first take a look at some of Blender's modifiers. I have here a default cube and I want to add beveled edges to it. Now I could go into my Edit mode and manually add a bevel to it, but I would be adding more geometry to it. Instead, with my cube selected, I'm going to click on this little wrench right here to go to my modifiers panel. I'm going to click on this drop-down called Add modifier and you'll see a panel that appears with a bunch of different modifiers that we can use. I'm going to add a bevel to this cube and you'll see that it now has bevels. I can edit the detail of this bevel simply by increasing the segments and the amount of bevel. The beauty behind using this method is that I have not added any more geometry to my object. If I go into Wireframe mode, it looks like I have, but I can simply disable this modifier by turning it off using these buttons over here and you'll see that no geometry has actually been added to my original cube. I have here a flattened cube and I want to create a whole bunch of them over my scene. I can go ahead and add the modifier called Array and you will see that it has extended a little bit. What Blender has done is it has added another flattened cube directly next to it. I can increase the number of copies by modifying the count and adjust the distance between each one by increasing its factor. Once again, it might look like I've added a bunch of geometry to my scene, but I haven't because when I disable this modifier, I see that I'm back to my original. By clicking on the drop-down menu here, I'm going to duplicate and you'll see it has done exactly what I gave the first parameters. Instead of having a factor of 1.32 in the X direction, I'm going to make them two in the Y direction. Now I've created an array of these flattened cubes. Watch what happens when I actually edit the geometry of the original flattened cube. I'm going to enter my edit mode and I'm simply going to make this face smaller. And look at what happened to the copies of the original geometry. I have another flattened cube here and I want to poke a whole directly through it. I've created this cylinder right here and with the cylinder in place, I'm going to select on the flattened cube and I'm going to add the modifier called Boolean. Boolean is in reference to True or False. I want this flattened cube to falsely represent this cylinder here. So I'm going to choose the object that I want to have be false. That is a cylinder. With the difference button selected, I can now turn off the cylinder and I see that I have a hole inside of this flattened cube. Let's suppose I'm not happy with the size of the position of this hole. I can always turn the cylinder back on, make it bigger and move it around, and when I turn it off, I can see that the hole has moved with it. Another cool effect we can do is give what's called wireframe. I created this sphere here and I'm going to go to add modifier and give it the wireframe modifier. Now it looks like a frame is being used to assemble this sphere. I can adjust the thickness of the wires and I can have the wires on top of the original sphere. One really popular modifier is the subdivision surface. It allows me to treat this cube right here almost like it is virtual clay. Let's see what I'm talking about. With the sphere selected, I'm going to add the modifier, subdivision the surface. And when I activate it, it has turned my cube into a very jagged sphere. I want a little bit more detail to this, so I'm going to increase the number from default of 1 to about 4. This number indicates how the viewport is going to display this modifier. If I want to actually use this when I render it, I would need to apply the same number here in the render field. When I enter edit mode, you can see that the original cube is around it, but because of the modifier, it has created a sphere on the inside. Now watch what happens when I start modifying all of the faces. I'm going to grab this face right here and I'm going to move it. I can scale it down and scale it up. I can also extrude it to create more geometry. I can inset the face and I can rotate it. I can move up this top face and I can start making some really interesting objects. One really cool feature by using this method is that I can extrude in either direction I want. If I want to extrude this face right here by going to the extrude tool, you will see that it goes up and down. Not exactly what I'm looking to do. But I can simply right click on the plane and go to extrude individual faces. And when I start dragging my mouse, it starts adding to the left and right individually. I can now inset these faces here and continue to extrude and create some interesting geometry. And when I deactivate the subdivision modifier, you'll see the original geometry. If I start editing the original geometry here and I reactivate my modifier, you will see that the changes have taken effect. Using our subdivision modifier, let's turn this flat plane into a desert landscape. I have subdivided this flat plane and given it a lot of geometry for us to work with. And I have applied a very simple sand texture to it. I'm going to enter edit mode and I want to create a sand dune right about here. If I simply grab a vertex and move it upward, only the vertex moves. It doesn't look very realistic. So I'm going to use what is called proportional editing. I'm going to click on this button at the very top center to activate proportional editing. And directly to the right of it is this drop down menu which will show me exactly how the proportional editing will work. I'm going to choose smooth and I'm going to click on this vertex right here and click and drag upward. And notice what's happening to the geometry. That vertex has been moved upwards, but all the surrounding vertices have also followed it. I'm going to add another sand dune right here. I'm going to click and drag upward, but this time I don't want it to be as big as the first one. So I'm going to click and drag on the arrow upward and you will see a gray circle around this area. This is the area of influence. I want this area of influence to be smaller, so with the mouse button pressed down, I'm going to press my page down button on my keyboard. And you will see that the area gets smaller. I'm going to do the same thing over here. I want this one to be a larger sand dune, so I'm going to press the page up button on my keyboard. Now when I go back to object mode, I can see all the geometry that has been edited. This is not exactly realistic. Now all I need to do is select on the object, go to add modifier, add the subdivision surface modifier and increase the detail from the default of 1 to 4. Now we have a very realistic desert landscape. And these are just a few of Blender's many modifiers used to give the illusion of added geometry to 3D objects. In the next lesson, we will learn how to model an airplane. Thank you very much for watching.

Intermediate Provider : Jay Grewall 8 Lessons · 48m in English

Course Description

In these lessons, you’ll explore Blender’s object modifiers. Modifiers are operations which can be applied to objects to produce specific effects. The benefit of modifiers is two-fold: They replace the need to manually create effects which would otherwise be time consuming, and they are nondestructive. Nondestructive modeling allows geometry to be added and modified onto 3D objects without affecting the underlying physical construction of the object.

The most powerful object modifier is Blender’s geometry nodes. Geometry nodes allow us to “plug” multiple modifiers into one another, thereby creating specific effects. We’ll show you how to model a toy airplane from a basic default cube, toggling the respective geometry nodes off and on to see the final results. Then we’ll move on to creating multiple copies, or “instances,” of a single default 3D object based on its original geometry. You’ll also be introduced to splines and learn how to modify their vertices, then discover how geometry nodes can be used to assemble different objects in your 3D scene.

What You'll Learn

Understand node-based, nondestructive modeling using Blender's object modifiers
Model a toy airplane from a default cube shape
Create multiple instances of a single default 3D object based on its original geometry
Build solid objects from edges and from splines
Modify spline vertices and arrange objects along a spline
Use geometry nodes to assemble different objects in a 3D scene

Key Takeaways

Modifiers are operations applied to objects to produce specific effects, replacing the need to manually create time-consuming effects.
Nondestructive modeling allows geometry to be added and modified onto 3D objects without affecting the object's underlying physical construction.
Geometry nodes are Blender's most powerful object modifier, letting you plug multiple modifiers into one another to create specific effects.
Geometry nodes can create instances, multiple copies of a single default 3D object based on its original geometry.
Geometry nodes can be used to assemble different objects within a 3D scene.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this course cover?

It explores Blender's object modifiers, focusing on geometry nodes for node-based, nondestructive modeling. You'll model a toy airplane from a default cube, create instances of a single 3D object, work with splines and their vertices, and use geometry nodes to assemble objects in a 3D scene.

What are geometry nodes in Blender?

Geometry nodes are Blender's most powerful object modifier. They allow you to plug multiple modifiers into one another to create specific effects, supporting node-based, nondestructive modeling.

What is nondestructive modeling?

Nondestructive modeling allows geometry to be added and modified onto 3D objects without affecting the underlying physical construction of the object.

How many lessons are in this course?

The course includes eight lessons: Overview of Geometry Nodes; Modeling an Airplane; Multiple Objects From One; Solid Objects From Edges; Solid Objects From Splines; Creating Object Instances (Part 1); Creating Object Instances (Part 2); and Objects Along Spline.

What skills will I gain?

You'll develop skills in 3D modeling, geometric modeling, geometric networks, geometry, solid modeling, and surface modeling.