Blender 3.3: Point Projection for Making Scales, Petals, Sequins, and the Like

[@sennabullet]

Amazing video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@jonwoods6745]

This type of tutorial is so helpful! Thank you for sharing this idea and explaining it so clearly.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

You’re very welcome!

[@monkmichel9477]

I tried raycasting curves as points onto other surfaces and turning them back into curves once they are projected (repositioning the original curve points to the new raycasted positions), so I can extrude a mesh along that curve. The idea was a ship hull (pirateship) where I can project lines onto it and they become the wooden planks and those planks inherit the rotation via the normals of the hull mesh, so they follow the form. Same with cannon openings and windows etc. The idea was that this would be somewhat of a procedural hull as changing the simple low poly hull mesh automatically repositions all the wooden planks and windows etc so I dont have to hard surface modell all the detail, just array that one curve down the Z axis and all of the get projected to one side of the hull next to it. Not sure why I mention it here or if that even was a good idea or not, it kinda worked more or less. Had some trouble with the resolution of the curve and how the mesh was aligned on that surface here and there. Anyway, love these videos!

[@motionbones]

Thank you! - a million use-cases.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Glad it was helpful!

[@klever-kenneth]

Love this approach. I tried various methods to get instance tiles on a sloping mansard roof but wasn't impressed with my end results. This method seems most promising!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Yeah, roofs and tiles were some of my usage ideas.

[@MrMygh543]

Really cool approach! Been trying out a way to generate chainmail out of complex meshes like clothes, that involves setting the position to the UV map, then instance projecting a grid onto the surface of the mesh, then putting it back together again, which works kinda similar.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Yeah, that could be tough. Good idea!

[@ZeroDean]

That's a very interesting approach. I definitely see some utility to this kind of setup. Thanks for explaining it so well as always.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

I’ve already started building several versions of the node. With cylinders, boxes, spheres, etc. I need to make a follow up with more examples.

[@ZeroDean]

@@JohnnyMatthews Nice! It seems like it would lend itself to many scenarios. I wonder if you could get it to work on an editable extruded curve (think bendy tube/snake). 🤔

[@ZeroDean]

@@JohnnyMatthews Thinking of adding a layer of items from a collection randomly on top of the surface of another object (think pebbles on an uneven surface). Not full coverage, just a few items randomly dispersed. Would it be possibly with this system?

[@yohomes5]

Thanks so much for this video, it's great. Though why does not much show up on the ear?

[@3d-illusions]

Maybe polka dot texture to points would be good to ensure even distribution based on uv position. Would also work regardless of topology, and would allow for different patterns and full coverage rather than the gaps this method leaves on the occluded areas such as the ear. Haven’t used geo nodes for a year or more, but perhaps we can distribute points across a surface’s uv’s without the need for a texture?

[@craigbaker6382]

Awesome dude, thanks. I just keep finding more and more really good Blender tutorial makers on KZbin. How many can there be?!! This is nice and clean and a good size/duration. I would love to see some results from experimenting with this techniques for adding leaves and other organic treatments to surfaces. I am still a noob. Is there a way to subtley add some random imperfection to the placement of the instances so that they appear more "hand made" ? I would want to know I could use this to "decorate" an object in a way that the instances of[whatever] appear as though a NON-machine applied them to the surface? Your shapes are inspiring but could they be made to appear less geometrically perfect and thus MORE realistic? I do not know geo-nodes well enough to know WHERE to inject a noise into the placing of the instances so that they don't look too impossibly perfectly even in spacing. I can imagine animating the instances I can see waves of wind in blades of grass or leaves in a tree for example. If someone knows a way to introduce such a randomness and where in the node tree to do it I would love if they could share that knowledge.

[@burnaboyb8821]

WOW! thanks Johnny, this is amazing and very useful!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Glad it was helpful! Hope you make something awesome with it!

[@Kram1032]

simple and effective, nice

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@zboy303]

Great idea, love it.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@hartdr8074]

I love you. Thanks for making this tutorial.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

😊😊😊

[@patriciocalvelo1839]

Awesome Johnny thanks for this is very useful!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

My pleasure!

[@ArtInMotionStudios]

is there an updated version of this as Transfer attribute is not longer available?

[@JavierSam_Uy]

very interesting technique!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

I thought it was kinda interesting

[@osipenkovarts]

Thank you so much!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

You’re welcome

[@maxwellshoroye9247]

Could you draw the curve to create points? Like a pen tool?

[@JohnnyMatthews]

When you are editing curves, there is a draw curves tool. You could try that.

[@blendercomp]

Awesomely awesome! :)

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Thanks 😊

[@anicapalini]

Very nice and well explained as usual, thank you for that 🙂. I noticed there is always a projected object or 2 at the origin point of the raycast object, in your example a torus or two at the origin point of Suzanne. I made some hair with Leaves on Suzanne's Head using a plane to have it where I want, nice result but those few leaves in the middle of the Head are not too Welcome 🤔. Do you have this too and if yes, is there a solution to avoid it? Hope you understand me, my english is not good at all... 😶

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Create a weight map on suzanne. Then transfer that value over. Use that value to delete the ones you don't want. I may do a video on that.

[@anicapalini]

@@JohnnyMatthews Thanks a lot 🙂 and Yes it would be very nice to have a video on this Topic but for now I will try that on my side.

[@anicapalini]

@@JohnnyMatthews I think I'll wait a video that explain it 🙄. I made a vertex group with a weight of 0 in Suzanne Object and transfer it thru an input in the node tree but then there is nothing to weight paint on in the middle of the Head, no Face, no Vertex, except that is the origin place, it is an empty place... maybe a bit like in my head 😼, anyway for now I could not get rid of this projected point in the middle of nothing 😉 Again thank you for all your work and taking time to answer questions.

[@Hitsujioyaji]

@@JohnnyMatthews please do a video on this!

[@JoseMartinez-iq3xq]

Excelent

[@allaze-eroler]

Possible to do the same as material instead of geometry nodes? Anyway, that is awesome!

[@Cyber_Ronin-777]

In Blender 3.5 they changed the transfer attribute node into a set of different nodes. How would you recommend to proceed using this method?

[@MrJoaquintexas]

I can't find the Transfer Attributes, can you help me? Thanks

[@ShiroiAkumaSama]

I wish we could average the distance to each point. So they are distributed more evenly.

[@deiniou]

I recently was asked how to add sequins in simulated cloth, but the sequins must be aligned, so particle systems were aout fo the question. I Must try this, but I think this solves everything.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Cool, give it a try!

[@MaMa-km2do]

Everything stops working for me from the very beginning. I load my object (dress), then do the lesson, connect the cylinder, and nothing appears. why can this happen? polygons square on the dress

[@dainjah]

I'm using 3.4 beta and there's no "transfer attribute" node anymore.. How can I get the face normals of an object now?

[@JohnnyMatthews]

It’s been split into sample nearest, sample index and one other that I can’t think of off the top of my head.

[@dainjah]

@@JohnnyMatthews just when I thought Im beginning to understand some of the nodes.. we get more nodes 😂

[@JohnnyMatthews]

It’s the same functionality, but the 3 new nodes are just the modes of the old node.

[@yaiiaj]

Hello dear Johnny. Transfer attribute node has changed :(

[@Omobsterrrr]

I’m having trouble since blender 3.4 got rid of transfer attribute node… does anyone know the fix?

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Yes it was split into 3 nodes. Sample index, sample nearest and sample nearest surface.

[@yohomes5]

@@JohnnyMatthews Which should we use?

[@renthokstu]

Can this be used with planes projected onto any object and script merge closest vertices to get a QUAD Topo? I'm sure it needs lot more than this but is it possible tho?

[@hartdr8074]

My whole mouth watching this tutorial: 🤔😮😲🥹

[@JohnnyMatthews]

🤣Glad it was so exciting