Blender Geometry Nodes Tutorial - Mesmerizing Plexus Effect

In this geometry nodes tutorial, learn to make this captivating plexus effect in Blender! We'll approach the design one problem at a time. You'll learn how to use Repeat Zone node, make adjustable value inputs, how to capture attributes to use in the shader, and more. Let's go!
Update: Since making this video, some viewers have pointed out that Repeat Zone was specifically designed as a serial loop (thanks for the details!). Meaning, it has to do a single calculation instead of many calculations at a time. When using Repeat Zone in this case, as the number of points in the point cloud grows, playback will get really really slow.
‪@Entagma‬ shared a plexus video where they are able to use a more complex setup which avoids the use of Repeat Zone so the calculations can be done in parallel. It took me a bit to understand, but after study and practice the concept finally clicked, and playback is sooo smooth, even with a significantly larger point cloud.
I think the concepts in this video are a great foundation. As you gain more practice and experience, I can recommend viewing Entagma's video as well to understand a more optimized approach for the point cloud calculations. Link: • Blender Tutorial: Conn...
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⭐️ Download the .blend file [FREE] here 👉: tifidesign.gumroad.com/l/plex...
Chapters 📚
0:00 - Intro
0:13 - Point Cloud
1:20 - Connecting One Point
2:18 - Repeat Zone
4:50 - Calculating Distance
6:29 - Point Offset
9:17 - Loop Within A Loop
12:13 - Minimum Distance Input
12:53 - Debugging Logic
14:33 - Convert to Geometry
16:38 - Organize Node Graph
17:45 - Shading
19:42 - Set Color Palette
21:38 - Store Color Attributes
24:28 - Design Tweaks
26:20 - Finito!
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#blender3d #geometrynodes #howto #tutorial

[@TiFiDesign]

Heads up, some viewers wondered why Cycles doesn't work to render the lines. Oddly, the orbs had color in Cycles, but the lines didn't. While investigating, I promoted the Orbs from Instances to Mesh using Realize Instances, changed the Orb shader to read the 'color' attribute from Geometry instead of Instancer, and it BROKE in Cycles. Quick web search reveals there is an open bug in Blender that renders colors black in Cycles when the attribute name 'color' is used on vertices. I've updated the Gumroad file, but if you want to fix your own project, the fix is to change everywhere you have 'color' as an attribute name to something else, even 'colour'. Cycles will work after (though you'll probably want to add some Glare in the compositor). Cheers.

[@techlab9448]

For all those using Blender 4.2 (or higher) you cant use the "Bloom" effect in the Render Settings. Go to Compositing -> click use nodes -> and set a glare node between the two nodes -> set the menu from streaks to Bloom -> I recommend to set the mix to -0.9 to get the old fancy bloom look.

[@TiFiDesign]

Thanks a ton for taking the time to share this with us!

[@ivanmartino1381]

You rock! Love this effect and you explained everything so well. Highly enjoyed learning with you and hope you keep making more tutorials like this!

[@TiFiDesign]

Thanks for the great compliment! I’m happy you enjoyed the tutorial!

[@mord500]

This was fantastic, thank you for sharing. Liked & subscribed.

[@TiFiDesign]

Thank you very much!

[@giovannifigueira2998]

Really good tutorial and explanation, subscribing now.

[@TiFiDesign]

Thank you very much!

[@cyborganic]

Such a great tutorial thank you for sharing this. Commenting about your question at the end: I get overwhelmed learning geometry nodes sometimes because I learn so many new nodes all at the same time and even though I can reach the result I don't think I'm really grasping the understanding about what I'm doing. These detailed in depth walk throughs are really helpful!

[@TiFiDesign]

I'm glad this was helpful. And thanks for sharing your experience. I know the feeling-I've definitely followed tutorials in the past and felt overwhelmed. Many show the how but not the why. I'll keep your comment in mind as I make more tutorials for everyone.

[@Dragzity]

such a good and clean tutorial. subscribed😃

[@TiFiDesign]

Thanks for the compliment and the sub! Welcome to the community. :)

[@nicolanarracci]

the tutorial is fantastik, the resolution scale is better. thank you (maybe only a little bit more zoom on the nodes, but it's already readable like this, thanks.)

[@TiFiDesign]

Thank you, I’m glad it was a better scale. I’ll see what a 1.3 scale would look like as well since this was 1.2.

[@WtfQuenombrepongo]

Really really good tutorial and explanation, i learned a lot about geometric nodes and made my understanding about it a lot better, thank you a lot

[@TiFiDesign]

Thank you. Glad to hear it was helpful. With all the videos you could have watched, I genuinely wanted to say thank you for taking the time to watch this one. And especially for taking the time to leave me a comment. I really appreciate it.

[@tobenracicot]

this was great. so helpful

[@lasagnadevy]

thx bro

[@TiFiDesign]

Thanks dude, hope it was helpful.

[@Cartoonlok420]

How to Laser impact geometry node

[@TiFiDesign]

This is something I plan on playing with and sharing as well.

[@trymruud2386]

Great tutorial! The fact that you sound like Elon Musk makes this tutorial feel 10x smarter as well

[@TiFiDesign]

Thank you! 😊 I’m glad you enjoyed the tutorial.

[@nonprofit7163]

nice man

[@TiFiDesign]

Thank you!

[@Kolibril]

Awesome content! Are you on the Blender Science Discord server? A few days back, we had a conversation in the #geometry-nodes channel about exactly this idea, and I think you came up with a great solution to it!

[@TiFiDesign]

Heh, that's good timing! No, I'm not on the discord, so the timing was totally coincidental. Be sure to share the video in the channel! I'd be interested to hear how others improve and iterate on it.

[@karthikditya4297]

Did they add the repeat zone in the latest version coz I haven't heard of that node yet

[@TiFiDesign]

It's pretty neat! Looks like it goes back as far as 4.0.

[@julesthomassian9053]

thank you for this insane tutorial. Could you explain why it seems to does'nt work in cycle for lines ?

[@TiFiDesign]

Hmm I wonder if the radius is too small and the lines are too thin. Have you tried increasing the radius of the Circle Curve?

[@julesthomassian9053]

@@TiFiDesign yes i did it but nothing change. i downloaded your file to compare and same probleme. Is it from main setting in blender?

[@TiFiDesign]

This is really strange. EEVEE works fine, and the orbs work in Cycles. Somehow the lines go black in Cycles. Disabling the Set Material on the orbs, the scene is completely black. I'm still trying to debug (will be a good learning lesson for me). Still scratching my head on this one.

[@TiFiDesign]

OK, I cracked it! Check the pinned comment for the fix!

[@DarkGT]

Hello sir, thank you making this tutorial. I have a question as a beginner. If I wanted to make the random shape turn into a precisely a cube or a sphere (wireframe alike), what I would need to do? Anyone is free to point me to the correct docs or videos on the topic.

[@TiFiDesign]

Hmm if you mean how to turn the plexus into an organized shape, that I’m not sure how to do really easily. If you had a cube to begin with you could use a set position node, take a Position input and plug it into a mix vector node, then plug a random value into the other vector input. The slider then would shift between the cube and the random points. That could be a good place to start.

[@DarkGT]

@@TiFiDesign Thank you so much for spending time thinking about it. I will give it a go as soon as I can. Thanks again.

[@Anor-Londo-17]

Thank you for the guide! But I can't implement the line color in Cycles. It only works in EEVEE. Can you give me some advice?

[@TiFiDesign]

My first guess is the Curve Circle radius may need to be increased as it may be too thin.

[@Anor-Londo-17]

@@TiFiDesign Increasing the radius didn't affect anything. The issue lies elsewhere. (4.2)

[@TiFiDesign]

Another viewer is having the same issue. I replied, "This is really strange. EEVEE works fine, and the orbs work in Cycles. Somehow the lines go black in Cycles. Disabling the Set Material on the orbs, the scene is completely black. I'm still trying to debug (will be a good learning lesson for me). Still scratching my head on this one." Will keep you posted.

[@TiFiDesign]

OK, I cracked it. Check the pinned comment for the fix!

[@Anor-Londo-17]

@@TiFiDesign TY 4 help! The downloaded file works in Cycles!