An introduction to Raymarching

This tutorial guides you through the fundamentals of raymarching and space transformation, providing insight into the endless creative possibilities that this technique opens up.
Raymarching base: www.shadertoy.com/view/MfX3WH
Final shader: www.shadertoy.com/view/lcs3DH
You can now support me on Patreon!
• Patreon: / kishimisu
If you want to see more content related to computer graphics & shader coding:
• Instagram: / kishimisu (Digital Art)
• Twitter: / kishimisu (Computer Graphics, ML, Shaders..)
Resources presented in the video:
• Shadertoy: www.shadertoy.com/
• Raymarching in Raymarching: www.shadertoy.com/view/wlSGWy
• 3D signed distance functions: iquilezles.org/articles/distf...
• Color palette: iquilezles.org/articles/palet...
• How to rotate a vector - Freya Holmér: • How to rotate a vector
• Quaternions and 3d rotation - 3Blue1Brown - • Quaternions and 3d rot...
• Inigo Quilez's channel: @InigoQuilez
• The Art of Code's channel: @TheArtofCodeIsCool
Video editing: Premiere & After Effects
Animations: Manim Community and GLSL Shaders
Note that the voice-over has been generated using AI ! (platform: ElevensLab)
The primary reason for this choice is to ensure a cleaner audio quality. As English is not my first language, it can be difficult to keep this kind of content clear and concise. I believe that the generated voice enhances the educational quality of these tutorials. With that said, this is not a definitive choice.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:40 What’s Rasterization?
02:02 What’s Raymarching?
05:45 Shader start
08:37 Raymarching
12:35 Optimizations
15:50 Translation
17:50 Operators
19:10 Scaling
20:12 Rotation
22:10 Order of operations
22:53 Camera rotation
24:45 Space repetition
27:07 Getting Creative!
32:37 Final shader
Musics:
• massobeats - jasmine tea
• corbyn kites - dusk drive
• Music by | e s c p | escp-music.bandcamp.com

[@kishimisu]

I hope you'll find this tutorial to be a useful starting point for learning more about raymarching! On a personal note, I recently completed my masters degree in machine learning and plan to start working on my next video as soon as I find employment. If you or your company are seeking a creative mind in the fields of computer graphics, machine learning or computer vision, don't hesitate to send me an email! (available on my profile) You can also support these tutorials on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kishimisu See you in the next one!

[@SpiritBladeFox]

Your tutorials are so useful and inspiring thank you for teaching me so much!!

[@codeunited5905]

You are one hell of a talented person. Hope you find a good employment soon!

[@onetwothree2617]

Your tutorials are fantastic, thank you. I like the AI voice over.

[@Carlosdreaming]

These tutorials are amazing! Very well explained and with lots of visuals that help a lot! All the best!

[@likrecelineation]

Can you do a video on how to add lights, shadows, and specular reflections to the scene when you do?

[@psenej]

OMG THE RETURN !!

[@Kabodanki]

The algorithm choosed him

[@VerdASMR]

10/10, kishimisu you are a brilliant shader artist and an equally brilliant communicator of information. Please keep sharing that gift with us ❤🙏

[@danycorona6788]

A just became a supporter at patreon because of this video. I think you nailed the perfect balance giving just enough information to understand what’s going on without getting bogged with details while providing external resources to drill down. The visual explanations are great too. Looking forward to dig in with your next tutorials!

[@Lavamar]

Amazing tutorial once again! Your first video inspired me and many others to start experimenting with shader code. This video made basic 3d graphics easily understandable, previosuly to me a daunting task. I also love how you briefly explain several sub-concepts in their simplest forms, prompting a lot of creative exploration. Really appreciate your style, pacing and looking forward to your future videos.

[@MashJDW]

This is a fantastic introduction into Ray Marching. Wonderful video. I've started this journey myself a few months ago, and your visualizations will really help others conceptualize these seemingly complicated operations!

[@NeverduskX]

This video was so dense with information yet so well-explained. I'm going to rewatch this a few times just so I can absorb everything.

[@2_Elliot]

Man, talk about underrated! Here from your previous video, can’t wait for your next. Keep up the good work!

[@Darkensses]

Thank you kishimisu! you're a true inspiration for me! Shaders are a very complex topic but with your help, this kind of programming is begin become easier :)

[@krzysztofwolski9156]

Thanks a lot for this video. IT's great and easy to comprehend. I just spotted one mistake, so I'll share with people if they get stuck: 26:55 - When doing the time-dependent offset of the cubes the line q=fract(p) - 0.5; should be changed to q=fract(q) - 0.5;

[@benxtan]

I as just about to post this correction. Thanks!

[@jacobosaldarriaga4820]

Thank you! I was going really confused for a while, thougth of changing a bunch of stuff except that, makes sense.

[@grey8_]

Awesome video! I was occasionally checking your channel to see if you had a new video since you said you're working on a new video on Instagram. You did a really great job! Especially because it was a topic I wanted to checkout anyway. I'm looking forward to more raymarching and seeing your channel evolve, I think you'll succeed easily! Good luck! 🎉

[@sIippo]

Great video! You started small and worked up to some really cool demonstrations. Thank you for doing this all in shadertoy too, so I could quickly try it out for myself.

[@nathanlebon5813]

GOAT Tier learning material. Thank you a lot! I'm seriously thinking about subscribing to your Patreon after 2 tutorials.

[@PledgeBass]

Thank you so much for all of the effort put into this. I don't have time to dive into shaders right now but it's something I've been wanting to do for a while.

[@duhdiggitydan]

Fantastic video! Looking forward to more in this series. I'm a big fan of the 64K demoscene and the creative and technical uses of raymarching, but never could give myself a starting off point to try my hand at my own. You just unlocked a whole universe of exploration for me.

[@arnetriesyoutube]

I really like how much info even the description has!

[@hekuli]

You really have the best tutorials on the topic. Very well done explaining complex topics in easy to understand terms.

[@loriennasarre]

Dude I was really waiting for you to drop another video. I am getting into the world of 3D graphics and shaders and your insight is very appreciated!

[@randomystic218]

This is an absolute gem. Please keep making more of such videos

[@neokortexproductions3311]

Thank you! You inspired me to get back into coding and creating generative art, looking forward to future tutorials🤝

[@seanloughran6714]

Had to pause in the middle of the video and say, that Milky Way comparison was amazing, funny and instructional. This is an awesome video, well done!

[@JakeDownsWuzHere]

double thumbs up for the Quaternion videos you linked, they're invaluable in understanding what at first can be a very opaque and confusing construct

[@BarneyCodes]

Another great video! I've been meaning to explore raymarching for ages, so this might be the push I need to get started!

[@Veptis]

I am still working on my shader generation evaluation for language models, but your videos have been a great aid to help people explain what shadercode is and how you might interpret code as art.

[@Elmo-uu3cb]

Wow amazing! Thank you for sharing all those great lessons 😎🔥

[@puntig.1187]

I just decided to get into shaders, as a self-taught "creative coder". Your videos are absolutely stunning, highlighting an incredible production value. Be sure that I am going to follow your every move ;) I think you just convinced me to become a Patreon.

[@pekka8605]

10/10 Nothing to add. Very clear yet concise explanation and visualizations.

[@juanloutech2864]

Very, very interesting and very well explained! Thanks for this introduction to the huge world of shaders!

[@SuboptimalEng]

I wish this video existed when I started learning Ray Marching (earlier this year) because it would've saved me weeks of self-studying. Really amazing work!

[@motbus3]

This is absolutely amazing. Please keep doing it!

[@Nosikas]

Oh my gosh, you're back! These videos are phenomenal.

[@gdthatbigderp2375]

The legends said that some day, kishimisu will return!

[@Not_Even_Wrong]

Amazing, awaiting the next videos eagerly!

[@januskane1978]

I enjoy the AI voiceover, it's calm and to-the point! Very nice!

[@AlexMoreno-zj7po]

same, had no idea it was AI

[@najlitarvan921]

to be frank it is one of the better AI voices

[@Cigam_HFden]

Excellent run down of a lot of concepts and aspects of ray-marching. I have been experimenting with raymarching and SDF shapes in the godot engine. I am not sure how performant that will be, because I am still working at making the code for it. However, I will definitely be looking forward to your future videos. Cheers!

[@MrBerserkPoo]

im so glad you're making more content

[@4.0.4]

Absolutely amazing content. I can vouch for The Art of Code too, his videos are long but very easy to follow.

[@CathodeRayKobold]

The biggest flaw with ray marching, in my opinion, is that it can be difficult or tedious to design certain arbitrary structures purely with math. It's not a very artist-friendly technique.

[@MysteryPancake]

Fantastic!! I especially like the diagram at 25:18, it's a very interesting way to visualise it

[@rimonsade-jd3id]

That is beyond great content. Truly mesmerizing.

[@shinomitsu7798]

Thank you. Can't wait for the next video

[@marvinkruger4559]

Thank you so much for another wonderful video!!

[@michaelcheverie7579]

Just this afternoon I was messing around with applying rotation matrices to conic sections in the Desmos graphing calculator. Cool to see that technique used in shaders!

[@dumbo8260]

nicely done dude. can't wait for the volumetric tutorial

[@thepurplbanana]

Great video! I toyed with fragment shaders before, but this video made want to go back and properly learn some GLSL and create a couple shader programs! As a point of criticism, I think the code you provide would be easier to follow along and more readable if you were to use proper variable names for values you hardcoded -- using something like `scalingFactor` instead of 4., for example.

[@kimmyera174]

Yes. This is a general coding practice called magic numbers. Eventually, constants that never change or one off values, may need to be understood by anyone revisiting the code in the future... that also means yourself :p This was a good tip from professors when I went to college for programming. Also keep up the vids, I'm subscribed for the incredibly easy to follow, guided visual examples that help explain what's fundamentally going on, step-by-step. Keep it up ^^

[@foxxify1]

This is so cool. I love the exploration into noncartesian space. You can really do so much with just a few lines of code.

[@viezegast1305]

Absolute unit of a channel

[@augnix888]

Loved the tutorial!

[@migueldc6845]

Really enjoying your videos! And have recommended them in my developers circle (:

[@futurebypatrick]

Great video with great presenting format. Really appreciate. I am not coder at all, but really interested in this type of experimenting now. 😁😁

[@hordorsok]

Oh man, you are finaly here thax for video!

[@bloom945]

Absolutely legendary video. Subbed.

[@miyu1424]

Finally! I'm so excited!

[@vovos00]

It helped me a lot!! thank you so much.

[@10bokaj]

nice explination, one of the better I have seen

[@LuigiElettrico]

Simple yet amazing.

[@mlecz]

Fantastic Video !, The content of this material is so valuable that the participation of AI as an speaker completely does not bother me. Thank you for your work !

[@morqanic]

YESSSS ANOTHER VIDEO THANK YOU!!!!

[@ahsan2649]

The only raymarching tutorial I ever understood.

[@bengt-goranpersson5125]

Thank you kishimisu!

[@mercantilistic]

This is completely bananas thank you!

[@aref2268]

Aah shade, here we go again Now I have an awesome toy to procrastinate with. This tutorial is amazing🔥

[@redsprites5216]

'Now' I subscribe. Love this!

[@jazzhar]

I found it incredibly easy to understand, you expertly explained not only the goal but also what individual components did without making it confusing. Although it's not shader, but could you tackle cube marching? (Procedural generation) Havent found someone that could explain it well yet.

[@dacool_boe4071]

Your videos are amazing bro

[@somewhere-else]

ai voice or not the effort that went into this video is obvious and it’s top notch. honestly reminds me of robert penner’s work back in the flash days.

[@erikjohnson9112]

Great to have you back! Personally I would like to see WebGPU perhaps using wgpu (and engine that supports both desktop and web). Compute shaders & fragment shaders are my top topics (or more precisely areas).

[@kishimisu]

I might create a video about webgpu in the future to introduce compute shaders. However it may be difficult to fit on the screen nicely as wgsl is more verbose than glsl!

[@JimmyBrandZ]

Wooooow!... Just the thing i've been looking for. 😲

[@bitblit]

Never thought I'd learn how to become a lightbender, but this video made it so easy! Universes beware.

[@erevanayen]

My guy is literally teaching magic and asks nothing for it. The production and information value of this video is insane. I'm making a patreon account just to support you.

[@RemoteAnimations]

This is amazing

[@sleepymushroom9403]

Funnily enough I was looking for a video to explain raymarching to me, been thinking of implementing in a project lately.

[@raulcasquinha]

This is so cool thank you

[@leonardvanduuren8708]

Grandmaster ! The best out here !

[@simonviit4982]

Thank you, I hope you might consider produce "An introduction to RayTracing" in future.

[@someguy1428]

Ray marching is such a beautiful technique. Infinite objects with mathematical operations with low computational power.

[@aimkata]

🔥 Next amazing video please!

[@cyberbemon]

Lol this video would have helped me a lot about 2 years ago when I did my computer graphics module. I was struggling to find a good video that broke down Raymarching. Still better late than never, I can use this to revise that shit properly now!

[@ethanwimsett]

Brilliant!

[@ivanmoltini926]

Babe wake up, Kishimisu dropped a new video!

[@Fikretov]

Pure gold.

[@eli123ry]

Amazing Video

[@Jellyjam14blas]

That is awesome! :D

[@prathampatel6357]

Nice work

[@absence9443]

THANK you!

[@mybdretaemch3409]

Man, I'd love to see a video series of you teaching GLSL from basics. You explain things very nicely!

[@aleksej-skrypnik]

Great content! I especially enjoyed the visualizations of every step. However, the music can be a bit unpleasant when watching at a higher playback speed.

[@user-nq5un4zn8e]

Great content

[@JunicoNRC]

goh damn my new shaders course

[@lkhprime]

Very Clear

[@andreicn0]

wow you're back

[@isma.noether]

Incredible tutorial ! Thanks a lot ! Just one question, is it normal that your cartesian coordinates system at 7:01 is left-handed ? It seems a bit odd since, as I thought, the convention was right-handed cartesian coordinates system.

[@BlueDog15391]

Thanks to you I may finally be able to find a hobby I can commit to

[@Psychx_]

TYVM. I subbed!

[@thomasmeslin8399]

OMG xDD that's so amazing 🎉

[@a1000joys]

This is magic.

[@grayliar147]

I'm looking forward to other shader lecture

[@Nico6664blood]

awesome!

[@ottobyte]

This is so awesome 🤩 thank you so much for sharing this information. I struggle terribly with math but I think I can follow a lot of this. I see that Shadertoy is used as an editor/visualisation tool. Is there an application that runs locally for when I’m not online?

[@DankSauce-lh8zk]

Anything that supports glsl like game engines such as unity/godot should work fine! If you use microsoft tools with intellisense you should have some decent offline help as well

[@briansheldon9401]

Incredible video. Could someone please explain why at 7:27 the ray direction is given as normalize(vec3(uv, 1)) and not normalize(vec3(uv, 3)) for a camera 3 units from the screen? Shouldn't the direction be normalize(vec3(uv, distanceFromScreen)) for this setup?