How to make an LED sign in Blender

Blender tutorial showing you how to use geometry nodes to create an LED ticker screen. Perfect for virtual subways!
Links:
Pop Warner Font: www.dafont.com/pop-warner.font
Download the final .blend: www.dropbox.com/s/oqnb0nc7sky...
Poliigon: www.poliigon.com/?...
Hand Smudges texture: www.poliigon.com/texture/hand...
Scratches texture: www.poliigon.com/texture/scra...
Watch BlenderBrit's RGB LED Tutorial: • How to make a large LE...
Chapter marks:
0:00 Creating the board
2:26 Instancing LEDs
4:33 LED bulb materials
6:41 Using text to drive the LEDs
11:25 The problem with keyframe animations
12:59 Creating animations with geometry nodes
14:21 Snapping the animation to LEDs
18:38 Improving the text
20:44 Improving the usability
26:40 Final Node Setup
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[@sahdsalmi3935]

*Let me just say, we need a walkthrough/tutorial of that beautiful train scene you made.... please*

[@FaithlessFlight]

Yes please @blenderguru!

[@sahdsalmi3935]

@@DanyaButler I know, but there are some tips and tricks he uses for making that render realistic.I mean look at that surface imperfections, Bokeh, highlights, hardly any blotchy denoising issues.... That's why!!! You gotta learn even if you are an expert 😜

[@Chlrintruc]

That’s too much work. I doubt he would do it.

[@blenderguru]

Credit for that goes to my coworker Mateusz Wielgus who was nice enough to let me use it for the intro 😁

[@pbxrohan]

Yo why you need a tutorial if you are a beginner and if you completed 🍩 tutorial series so you can try creating yourself like try to learn thing your self like take references of it and check things and try to create your things your self you can make the train interior design by your self. I checked this and i wanted to make that scene too and I'm trying to create it by myself like different design etc. I almost created the train. For example you can make a short film of LED Lights with a unique story. Try to understand me.

[@JaredOwen]

Love these kinds of tutorials - thank you Andrew!

[@quasibiased]

Hey jared a big fan of ur vids!

[@MVARTZ]

I appreciate how you added the part on how to make it user-friendly. It's good that artists learn not to do everything from scratch all the time, and this helps tremendous with setting up a system you could use in future projects again and again👍😁

[@vjspectron]

A month-and-a-half ago when I started Blender by watching your 3.0 donut tutorial I never thought I'd know WTF you were doing in the Geo nodes section, but now I'm actually able to somewhat anticipate what you're doing and follow along! THANKS BLENDER GURU!!!

[@noobcaekk]

This is awesome! Glad to see some more fantastic content from our very own Blender Guru. The way you talk out the steps and describe what is going on feels lost in many other tutorials I watch. You're a natural teacher and we are lucky to have you!

[@ChrisStillLives]

I really like your more in-depth tutorials. You somehow manage to make this feel just like the older anvil or chair videos even though years passed by now. Thanks

[@CraigTravis]

Just got access to a huge LED AR setup and I've been learning blender from you for the past fortnight to be able to use it. Just saw this title and thought "Wow, didn't take long for that to come full circle..." Thanks for all you do! If you're ever in Manchester UK, come play with the wall and motion tracking rig.

[@simoncodrington]

Haven't seen a tutorial like this in ages. Great to see these in-depth examples from you mate. Great work!

[@saif0316]

I appreciate how you walked it through like, "and now its almost perfect" and then had the solution right after 😁

[@zboy303]

At least 0.5% of Blender users know how to use that spreadsheet.

[@davidscherp7514]

20:25 Press crtl+ tab on the timeline and it gets to the graph editor immediately

[@blenderguru]

THANK YOU! I knew there had to be a faster way.

[@porkminer]

@@blenderguru you can also just press "T" on the timeline to change the interpolation directly.

[@b_bobsch6785]

@@blenderguru And you can use multiple instances of the "Group Input" node. Helps a lot with the overview.

[@falxonPSN]

Hey, I'm the one that added those Rounding nodes to Geometry Nodes a couple of releases ago! Always cool to see people finding them useful.

[@CGI-TUTORIALS]

Olden days are back blender guru tutorial series 😄😄

[@Mmesi737]

Helpline 📲📩 QUESTIONS CAN COME IN ☝️☝️..

[@leighbee1764]

i have been going through quite a few tutorials and you are still my fav teacher, take my money sempi, you are the only one that looks to make things unique and functional, BIGGER THAN LIFE. I do wish you were the one to teach me add single vert as it's how i have worked on like CAD and Sketchup n such in the past but nodes are still my most fav thing ever and you taught me this mess so LET's GOOOOOO yay new tutorial

[@GiulianoGarau]

After hundreds of videos you still haven't lost your sense of humor. Always fun to watch even if I don't need to use the particular technique.

[@hina_mikan2079]

Amazing tips ! His tutorial never let me down.

[@nikunjgajjar6905]

Video starts n andrew jumps straight to the point without wasting a mili second, crazy how time changes

[@crystolz5538]

I've been itching for a blender guru tutorial for a while now😂😂😂...glad this came at this time because I have rewatched the abundoned house tutorial 7 times already.

[@thedistinguished5255]

Thank you for not making the polygon ad too long, i didnt even have to skip it! Please keep it non-annoying like this if you can

[@iMacJames]

Straight to the point. Awesome job!

[@jonasabdelmonem1171]

Dude, I havent really watched a Blender Guru tutorial since I finished the donut tutorial like 1 year ago. I am so excited to come back and learn from this guy again haha

[@ChrisSeilerLFD]

As always, well explained and easy to understand. Thanks for that.

[@MichaelHickman3D]

Wonderful video!!! You always manage to inspire!!! Keep up the good work!!!

[@greeniegringolrg6576]

I love these walkthrough tutorials

[@emiliorajme4352]

This tutorial was simply awesome. Thanks!

[@curhob]

10:20 You can always decrease the resolution of text objects if that's kind of obscuring the bulbs underneath. Just go to the text tab (4 t words in a row!) and change Resolution Preview U or whatever it's called.

[@mjones410]

brilliant, and love the pace of your tutorials Andrew :)

[@creativestudio4873]

Its about time we got a tutorial! Hope we see more in the near future . I feel like its a drought and waiting for the rain lol.

[@user-hn2wc3fy7y]

thanks for this! learned a lot about geonodes just from going through this. you can do interpolation mode the same way from timeline though, and you can also set your default mode to linear in the settings. I did that because I use a bunch of modes for my graphics, but like to start with linear while I work. it’s a much better baseline imo

[@blenderfox_foxwastaken]

Thx for the tutorial! I always wanted to make realistic LED screens!

[@tristan8326]

Thank you so much for these tutorials truly the best out there

[@MedicinalMJ]

Beautiful tutorial! Please keep making more.

[@mohamedaymanennachet8490]

i really love your tutorials, thank you

[@openhandgames]

You have been always the best teacher. I missed your tutorials. Also i can make more simple LED signs, I mean actually I dont need LED sign tutorial but I learned a lot of different things from this video. Thanks much.

[@AmongUs-le7ce]

Right in time I was thinking about Making a led sign in blender this came out thanks Andrew!

[@Proxoor]

Absolutely incredible tutorial! Very informative and easy to understand))

[@ilmanti]

"Is Hit" in the Raycast node returns "true" or "false", hence why the connection is pink. When you plug a boolean connection into a number connection (i.e. instance index) it converts true/false into a number: 0 for false, 1 for true. Because arrays (like the collection) are zero-based, the first element is at position 0, second element at position 1, third element at position 2, etc. So whatever element you want to show when there's a hit, needs to be at position 1 (2nd element in the collection) as that's what "true" is converted into.

[@Glowbox3D]

Great tutorial as always Andrew! Thanks!

[@pete3d408]

Amazing! Love your tutorials 🤩

[@delapazfanfiction314]

thank you so much, this is the first time a tutorial actually works !

[@oneaspiringartist5822]

Heck yeah I spent 3 days figuring this out. Thanks Andrew👍. I'm gonna use it in a short

[@35milesoflead]

Andrew thank you! Been needing something like this for months for a project. Edit:- Think I will return to this repeatedly.

[@MTHALO.]

Finally new tutorial i was starving for it.

[@mcglk]

That was excellent. Thanks, Andrew.

[@rewindcat7927]

OMG. Brilliant tutorial thank you 🙏

[@KaizenTutorials]

Haha loved that sly smile when you said you had no idea how to use the spreadsheet! I've made quite a few GeoNodes tutorials, but... the spreadsheet.. yeah I don't know about that! Great video and loved the result.

[@snofixart]

I definitely prefer quality over quantity. But I can't get enough of your tutorials.

[@kaanaktan3186]

intro looks amazing

[@GreenTea-pd2mk]

I'm just happy you got me into blender, sir 🥺❤️

[@CuteHoodedCat]

I just recently got blender, I gotta say your help is amazing!! I give thanks to you for giving us tips. :)

[@CuteHoodedCat]

All I really need help on is making a vtubing model. :/

[@harryg.9481]

You really made me very, very, very hyped for GeoNodes!

[@gines6234]

Thanks a lot for the contribution! Have a nice day Andrew Price! Love from Poland❤️

[@alexsender4986]

i appreciate how you jumped streight to the buisness after intro pls keep it this way!!!

[@moano3271]

Brilliant as always 👍

[@shivendrapawar9618]

Never miss blenderguru tutorials...

[@notac00kie]

Thank you so much for this! I've used your account alot for my games design course at college! legit lifesaver

[@NiTye357]

Amazing tutorial (as usual)

[@josepestranycantallops5572]

thank you soo much very direct link n works for me love the way you expressed the installation .

[@wx11_c]

i actually love the opening.

[@saif0316]

Dis so cool! And a good watch after your Geometry Nodes tutorial 😌

[@ianmcglasham]

Great stuff. Very clear. Very useful.

[@lowey37]

intro looks so cool!

[@aminjl_art]

Thanks for your Tuts, the reason i started 3d

[@adsguadsgu1799]

cool video it helped out a ton with starting out and composing my first soft

[@RyanKingArt]

Cool! 👍

[@pingchung6293]

This is super cool!

[@ibtasaamehsan]

superb tutorial

[@Mr.Doruko]

Thanks, this tutorial was very helpful.

[@jointhemasquerade]

Great tutorial as usual. I tried this with a dot matrix font. It opened a passage to another dimension.

[@gsriram5013]

coolest guy... coolest ideas with coolest donut😊

[@infintiyward]

9:05 there is actually a simple reason it is illuminating a block of bulbs here. Ray direction is by default set to -1 in the z direction (as you can see on your node) this means that each bulb will cast a ray straight down in the z direction, so you can imagine any text below a bulb will be a hit, causing a block of bulbs to be illuminated.

[@DrunkenUFOPilot]

Fantastic! Last time I tried a scrolling LED sign like this, was in 2014, 2015. Very tricky! With Geometry Nodes, is "easy" depending on your definition of easy. Once the key principle is in place, the RayCast an InstanceOnPoints, it's all fussing with details. In addition to the X position I added an X Nudge value, to move the pattern of glow fractionally, 0 to 1 from any column to the next. Allows choice of how the text (or whatever shape) gets digitized. Then when the text slides across, it's the same desirable stable pattern.

[@dead0barbie]

superb! thank you!

[@woosix7735]

awsome tutorial!

[@gabagoul67]

What a jolly good fellow this guy is

[@ToDAL3D]

Very nice ~~~~ Thank you! my Guru!!! 😍

[@TheOriginalRedgo]

I really needed this video.

[@CmanXP]

I missed you, man! Good to see you again

[@lostmusic8536]

The definition of GURU is made for you ❤

[@MirceaKitsune]

Very useful and interesting, thanks for sharing! Will probably be tempted to try something like this but without geometry nodes necessarily: Will be interesting to see what alternative implementations are possible.

[@DKP3000]

Excellent! Thank you!

[@kazes]

Oooh Raycast node, thank you. Will be very useful for my fence with pilars geonode.

[@souvikbiswas8611]

I know how to do this. Its been 7 years since I have watched this man's tutorial and learnt a lot from it. I know how to do this before even watching this whole video but I am still gonna watch it because I started with this. THANKS

[@michaelvaughan2888]

that scene looks cool!

[@Mmesi737]

Helpline 📲📩 QUESTIONS CAN COME IN ☝️☝️..

[@amagostartdatbigfirekickba9865]

awesome, I actually need this rn this really comes in handy ♥

[@inventoruz]

Super future of Blender is Geometry node ! Yeah I enjoyed from tutorial ! Thank you very much !

[@gossher]

Great tutorial, tnks!

[@Taki7o7]

Great video to deep into more advanced stuff ^^ Many thanks!

[@Baskemtball]

The video isn’t even over??

[@AseemSehmi]

NO one can do better than you. Love from India

[@gobadri]

Back to tutorials.. We've missed you dude

[@hutcheson3D]

Very useful. Thanks!

[@kidscartoonhindi262]

Nice tutorial.... Very helpful

[@rklauco]

27 minute video - I'll spend 3-4 weeks trying to repeat this ;) Thanks, btw!

[@raytraced1415]

That is some complex node setup right there, I'm still trying to figure out a use case thou for this in one of my videos. 🤔

[@soj_afk]

I miss your tutorials!

[@tarxandercage2621]

love it, trying to figure out how to animate between 2 different instances to do a picture change on the led board without scrolling.

[@nafay3d]

absolute legend

[@wxter1574]

Holy shi- I was just thinking about this yesterday.tysm!!

[@lordmonke-thegoat]

TNice tutorials video really helped! Thank you ❤

[@Mmesi737]

Helpline 📲📩 QUESTIONS CAN COME IN ☝️☝️..

[@oodoodoopoopoo]

Can't wait to get started on my LED donut sign!