Fish Scales in Blender: How to Cover Any Object With Scales (Geometry Nodes)

[@drawcanoe]

To anyone following this tutorial in latest Blender version which doesn't have the "Transfer Attribute" node: 19:45 Use the "Sample Nearest" node set to "Face" instead of the "Transfer Attribute" node. In that node 'sample position' will be plugged into "Normal"

[@Algrymm]

Thank you very much

[@_evildoer]

You can also use the "mesh to points" node to get the face centers

[@gordonbrinkmann]

Just what I thought 👍 Much easier with less nodes and not so much to think about.

[@johannesheller7068]

Do u tried it? I think it does not work because there is no vertex point generated by the overlapping edges

[@hyruleorchestra4339]

@@johannesheller7068 it does work. When you plug the grid into a mesh to points and then set it to faces, you get the center point of each face. Join that with the original grid and you get the classic honeycomb array

[@raedinsmore7732]

@@hyruleorchestra4339 Can you say at what step in the video you instead did the mesh to points?

[@CertifiedDoc]

@@hyruleorchestra4339 This incedentally ends up being an order of magnitude faster for a complex mesh. For my project it takes 30 ms to triangulate and separate edges. Using "mesh to points" for both faces and vertices takes 2 ms.

[@jjmartin6422]

Any easy workarounds for Transfer Attribute nodes (19:40) not included with newer versions of blender? The explanations and instructions have been very clear and appreciated. I've tinkered around with Sample Index and Sample Nearest Subsurface nodes, but I'm still new to blender.

[@jjmartin6422]

Ok. Instead of Transfer Attribute I used the Sample Index node. Took the same Mesh input from Triangulate and fed it into the Geometry of the Sample Index, Plugged Normal into the Index of the Sample Index, then plugged Sample Index value into the Align Euler to Vector node. It *looks* like the same result, but if anybody with more blender experience can verify that it will also behave the same that would be appreciated.

[@shichaolee7868]

@@jjmartin6422 Please teach me

[@matthiasarnold7257]

@@jjmartin6422 I've been succesful using the Sample Nearest Surface Node set to Vector with the Normal plugged to the Value Input.

[@CaptSanchez]

I love your tutorials. You not only show how to do something, you also explain why you are doing it that way. I learn more from the "why" than the "how" (though they are both imoortant!) Great work as always!

[@Layston]

Would really love a followup tutorial on how to scale the 'scales' to each face like mentioned in the video. I feel like that'd be useful for adding scales to characters

[@CertifiedDoc]

There's a Face Area attribute for meshes. You can insert a Capture Attribute node before you convert your mesh to points. Set its options to Vector and Face. Connect a Face Area node to the value input, and connect the attribute output to the scale input on the Instance on Points node. Depending on your mesh, the value of Face Area may be extremely small. It's in Blender units as far as I know, and a 0.01x0.01 face does have an area of 0.0001. I had to multiply the scale by 2000 to get reasonably sized instances. You may also end up with issues if your mesh has particularly narrow faces. Edge loops, for example, could pose a problem.

[@garrysalisbury211]

Thanks for this. At 6:10 in the video, why not use the 'merge by distance' node after Join Geometry? That gets rid of extra vertices from the join.

[@rubbishbin233]

Yeah but it wouldn't create a point at the intersection

[@blackvertigoion36]

the index explanation is the mvp of this video. I've been avoiding using selections in geometry nodes but this helped me take a step in the right direction. thank you.

[@husainmadraswala14]

Chris Bailey - The man of the hour!! Always coming up with the most beautiful tutorials. You've been a great teacher. I've learnt a lot from you and I thank you. This was a masterclass. Some advanced stuff, keep it coming. Love your work!! Truly!!

[@CertifiedDoc]

11:42 There's now a Domain Size node that includes the total count for points, edges, faces, and face corners.

[@zacharyjohnkline]

I KNOW YOU! Zach Kline here. SO COOL to see you through the internet. Thanks for the tutorial.

[@nystemy]

It would be so wonderful if any modifier that created new geometry data could have two optional outputs. (New indexes, old indexes) Since then we could just take the split geometry node and feed in the "new indexes" output into its selection. Not that the attribute statistics node isn't a powerful tool in its own right. But in a lot of situations one just wants to select the "new" geometry a node has just created. And yes, it would have been wonderful if a lot of these "attribute" nodes had a "geometry" input. Leave the input empty and it will do what it currently does and simply work it out itself. Or input a geometry and it will work with that instead. 19:00 (ie, cram in the transfer attribute node into the attribute node itself, saves a few clicks each time one needs to do this.)

[@wilhelmeniabilliedoherty5917]

Would this work well on an animated mesh? A fish swimming or a snake... snaking? Or would they go all crazy

[@abdulshabazz8597]

Demonstrating the Why and Why Not. Clear and concise. As if a master in software and the semantics of superior code design, or a master in mathematics and the art of theorem proving. Instant Subscribe.

[@adorago6192]

LOVE the way the content is presented and the attention to proper explanation. I am looking for a way to integrate a driver for the denseity of the scales, preferrably with pictures to make it a halftone effect?

[@jeffg4686]

Really cool. Was thinking about how the scales would be applied to actual fish. Is there any way to apply geometry node output to a vertex group only? Some way to merge with a portion of another model? or would that part best just be done by-hand.

[@吉刘-w4u]

There is no transfer attribute node, I am using Blender4.0

[@drawcanoe]

19:45 Use the "Sample Nearest" node set to "Face" instead of the "Transfer Attribute" node. In that node 'sample position' will be plugged into "Normal". Rest is the same.

[@StephenJK1]

Thank you so much I’ve been trying to do this for weeks 😂

[@JoeyGonzales-n2l]

We don't have TA Node in 3.5 anymore. What do we replace it with?

[@drawcanoe]

19:45 Use the "Sample Nearest" node set to "Face" instead of the "Transfer Attribute" node. In that node 'sample position' will be plugged into "Normal"

[@jr-hc2iv]

thanks so much for this tutorial! Could this be used on a sculpt I plan to 3d print or is this only a visual effect?

[@stephenpauljones]

this would be a cool solution for a roof tile system too!

[@lenas4563]

If your latest Blender version doesn't have the Transfer Attribute node 19:45. Download Blender 3.1. Only thing that worked for me.

[@wuxianchunjie]

very cool node skill !! Thumbs for U !

[@MarieCummings-d6k]

Great tutorial! Do you have a screen shot of all of the nodes in their final locations and values? Tried following but somehow got out of order. I would love a full screen view of all of the nodes and where to place them.

[@simoneiorio9703]

Very instructive for geonodes and more.

[@Deyuu]

wow dude i love u, it works!

[@dalajlampa1170]

hi. I am following each step and at the 9:42, I have 6 indexes and you have 4, is there any advice before I eat my keyboard? Thanks

[@burtveracruz]

How would I get this to work with curves? For example, instead of using a cylinder for a mesh primitive, could I use a curve line with a circle radius?

[@philhojnacki9988]

I second this

[@PlantGothKira]

Thank you! Perfect timing for MerMay!

[@PPatchen]

Fantastic! Thanks!

[@bobcatdreams]

Transfer attribute is gone in 3.4+ how would you align to face with out it now?

[@drawcanoe]

19:45 Use the "Sample Nearest" node set to "Face" instead of the "Transfer Attribute" node. In that node 'sample position' will be plugged into "Normal"

[@tweak_squeak]

Setting the scale based on the distance between points is actually exactly what I want to know 😬So if I apply it to a fish/snake/dragon basemesh the scales will be sized to to fit each face. Do you cover how to do that in another tutorial?

[@Omobsterrrr]

Yh this is what I was gonna ask. I have no clue how to go about doing that. I tried randomising scale and it just doesnt look as good

[@alexphillips3074]

Hey, try this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKfFoaOjiZV8grs About where he's talking about capturing attributes I think - he talks about using math - square root to do that. Hope this helps.

[@tweak_squeak]

@@alexphillips3074 Thank you 😍 I will check it out!

[@xaviervicens5217]

Great, I learned a lot. thanks...amazing use position in selection to move vertices...

[@rusticagenerica]

Fabulous tutorial !! Watched all of it in 2x and understood. Now is time to practice !

[@cg_cookie]

Hooray!

[@alexrogers9086]

@@cg_cookieneed an updated tutorial

[@atlas8528]

damn calling out right now. Hey, when you're passionate about sotNice tutorialng it makes you actually want to study it!

[@KD9-37]

this was epic! thankyou !

[@Adrian-mu8gg]

i added a [Rotate Euler] between [Align Euler to Vector ] and [Instance on Points], tried to "comb" the direction of how the scales are pointing at but it's still looks weird. is there a away to "comb" how the scales are point towards?

[@CGRB]

Thank you for this video

[@AhmedNassef]

Interesting and cool!

[@thethirdd352]

Is there and updated version of this to create a snake tail? With Blender now at 3.6 (for me at least) it will be appreciated to know what needs to be changed. I thought of using a cylinder with part of it removed so the scales only cover the top half and then I can create the underbelly separately. Then attach the tail to a human figure.

[@MrTunebeast]

Hey hey :) I have rebuilt it, but I can't find the transfer attribute node. is there an alternative node?

[@drawcanoe]

19:45 Use the "Sample Nearest" node set to "Face" instead of the "Transfer Attribute" node. In that node 'sample position' will be plugged into "Normal"

[@aleksanderk5695]

What about Dual Mesh node - faces to points - so it is done without all this introduction?

[@chedagoz7145]

Thank you very much for sharing something so useful.

[@FurlowT]

I'm trying add these type scales onto a chest plate for a character. They got plates down chest and up between legs and down the length of the tail. I'm wondering, how hard is it to add these scales to each of the plates and how to turn it into Normals map, if it'll bake into one even. I'm especially wondering how might look for parts that taper pretty thin.

[@brunodemasi381]

Could you use "poke face"?

[@davidmaurer916]

Is there a way to apply different materials to different parts of the scales? thanks already:)

[@SaintMatthieuSimard]

Is there a way to... First... Inset a vertex group... Also... To disable vertices before joining them in the Join Geometry node, by vertex group? I'm trying to make a modular blockouting basemesh and I'd need to delete certain joints, the invisible faces... A bit like in minecraft... And the join mesh operation leaves some residual shapes inside the generated mesh... So... IDK I'm looking for a solution there.

[@aaronbarringer4913]

Followed this to the letter and everything worked. Then I tried to place it over a coiled snake body, and besides my computer catching fire and dying, the scales had really weird orientations on the tail tip. My attempts to clean it up have so far failed, mostly hindered by my hardware starting to melt. Still a great tutorial though.

[@palpytine]

That seems a very roundabout way to duplicate the behaviour of "dual mesh"

[@GooDogProductions]

Does the geometric node affect only the texture/mateiral or the actual geometry?

[@mickyr171]

Its the actual geometry thats modified

[@XDeminox]

they must have updated blender because I don't have a geometry node editor in that drop down

[@Kamil_O]

I am getting good at the blender, from the start I knew he will be deleting that cube.

[@eriknelson2461]

Thank you. I learned a lot from this but I am not there yet. In general I am having a very hard time making instances of flat objects tile on a surface. I can't get the normal rignt and I do not know wha tI am doing wrong.

[@nxone9903]

Where can i find your blend files? Would be really nice to have them and play around

[@Dozer456123]

Great tutorial! My only critique is that "Euler" is pronounced `oy-ler`

[@myztazynizta]

on a freeform object like a snake or a fish, this technique doesn't always keep the scales flowing in a consistent direction for the full length of the body.

[@venraikov]

very nice

[@Jutsuss]

would it be possible to get a screenshot from your nodes? I just cant get the scales to run on the surface, they keep just facing outwards on my objects.

[@TheEpicknives]

How do you get the transfer attribute? I can't find it and Google doesn't seem to be much help

[@TheEpicknives]

I don't think I even have the option for that node

[@drawcanoe]

19:45 Use the "Sample Nearest" node set to "Face" instead of the "Transfer Attribute" node. In that node 'sample position' will be plugged into "Normal"

[@nilfae]

good!

[@neerajbhatt3368]

Cannot understand the " Drag this all the way up" instruction at 26.12. Please help

[@esphilee]

Dang! Now teach us how to draw a snake.

[@cg_cookie]

Sorry that's too advanced.

[@samuelsantos-s5m]

how to solve the normal problem in 3.6, blender updated and removed some nodes that are in this tutorial.

[@drawcanoe]

19:45 Use the "Sample Nearest" node set to "Face" instead of the "Transfer Attribute" node. In that node 'sample position' will be plugged into "Normal"

[@thewave5536]

Epic

[@bobo9159]

because 11 has superpowers

[@beansze4940]

Hey can someone tell me what is "Capture attribute" I am little bit confuse on it

[@hoshigamesofficial]

22:23 🤓☝

[@gerdsfargen6687]

What ?? No way! Thats insane! Insane but great 😲. Could this be adapted to form reptilian scales?

[@abysmalodin]

Can you convert this into Geometry after ?

[@Casrion]

To anyone following along: this doesn't work in the latest version.

[@papacci20]

So no Blender 4 and above?

[@Rune-l0rd]

​@@papacci20 I haven't had a chance to follow along but I'm certain this will work in 4.0 and most likely the issue is something like a node being renamed or setting moved to somewhere different.

[@jessicakiely2556]

20:21 minutes in and I’ve just realised a node has been renamed and I have no idea what to do next 🫠🤦🏼‍♀️

[@drawcanoe]

19:45 Use the "Sample Nearest" node set to "Face" instead of the "Transfer Attribute" node. In that node 'sample position' will be plugged into "Normal". Rest is the same.

[@ivytran1630]

@@drawcanoe the way i luv u omg

[@GloriaTheAnimator]

i cant get the right rotation, did i do something wrong? i doubled checked everything my nodes are identical

[@totochandelier]

clever

[@mid-knight6528]

So I have an issue. Every time I try to apply the modifier, my mesh disappears completely. Is there any way to fix this??

[@ydoucare55]

This is an awesome tutorial, but sadly it is mostly useless because Blender devs removed the "transfer attribute" node and replaced it with several other nodes. It is not clear how exactly one could finish this tutorial from that point on using the new nodes. It would be really great if you could drop a comment on how this might be done.

[@drawcanoe]

19:45 Use the "Sample Nearest" node set to "Face" instead of the "Transfer Attribute" node. In that node 'sample position' will be plugged into "Normal"

[@sergeantstrawberry]

Anyone know why my object disappears after I apply geomtry nodes to it? It reappears if I take them off of the object Edit: In case anyone else has this problem, I had the X variable set to 0 by default when I created an object

[@Cultoffreak]

this is so beginner tutorial :D

[@SjonSjine]

Tried the scales on a displaced mesh but then they are popping up and away randomly???? Help!

[@eliasmedina9060]

Can you make Reptilian scales.

[@mk-ul5tv]

My brain hurts, so much

[@xDaShaanx]

Amazing. Thanks for this.

[@mmo4754]

Isn't your offset pattern literally just some squares turned sideways? I'm guessing there are other reasons you went through the trouble of doing it this way though

[@thomasdepraetere2641]

The reason the scales work strange for circles, but look good on torusses is because of the Hairy Ball Theorem. So no math will ever make it work as math has proven it doesn't work.

[@21Liberdade]

I hate when this happens: add the exact same nodes as the video, with the exact same values and still end up with a different result. At min 12, when I plug the 2nd index to the Attribute Statistic, I do not get the same result.

[@satriyow.asmorojati4147]

it didn't work for me. the pattern was only a mess and wasn't the offset pattern i was hoping

[@Some_Guy_Called_Raven]

12 minutes in and I'm more confused than at the start.

[@mickyr171]

Lol, no kidding, was just trying to do this for a pine cone like 10 minutes ago and couldn't figure it out so quit blender, get on youtube and this is in my recommends

[@kubilaykafkasli]

Thanks for the tutorial i'm stuck on one thing kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJ6np2tnmbKEbMU Transfer Attribute Node I couldn't find the equivalent in version 3.4

[@shichaolee7868]

!!!!!!How did you solve it ? Please teach me

[@jameshayward7253]

@@shichaolee7868 stuck at the same point...the transfer attribute node doest exist

[@drawcanoe]

19:45 Use the "Sample Nearest" node set to "Face" instead of the "Transfer Attribute" node. In that node 'sample position' will be plugged into "Normal"

[@garrithgill6692]

Thank you!

[@mikellemyers]

Transfer attribute isn’t a thing anymore

[@synapse349]

Id have just use two grids, offset to each other

[@drifter3001]

Great tutorial, thanks! Also, FIRSTTTTTT

[@World_Theory]

These are really good, but unfortunately not what I want. I am looking for a way to make scales with random slight imperfections, but more importantly, scales that have a higher density according to the spot color values of a grayscale image texture, or some other highly flexible and easy to generate method of creating a freeform gradient. The math explanation is nice, though a lot went over my head due to a lack of math education. I never learned about indexes, but I guess I will learn in time, if I run into them often enough. (I'm sure I'll run into them again if I play with geometry node more. So I will, because geometry nodes are awesome.)

[@World_Theory]

P.S. - I think that making the scales I want will involve some kind of iterative clustering algorithm to look natural, given the highly variable size and density of the scales I wish to recreate.

[@petertremblay3725]

I was shock to see cg cookie force indie developers to get a full year subscription instead of monthly subscription! Do you guy's think we all have that kind of money just to get a few tutorials? Indie devs are the most exploited people in the industry and they are often broke barely making it from month to month!

[@billisaacs702]

Why not just Poke Faces? Wouldn't that have saved you 15 minutes?

[@tonsab.assist.master]

There is no node for poke face?

[@billisaacs702]

@@tonsab.assist.master I guess I'm just not seeing the whole node thing for this. It's brilliant to have geometry nodes, but in this application I'm just not seeing it. Of course, I never use geometry nodes so maybe I'm just not letting it the whole thing sink in. This example just seems to me to be a little bit like using the buttons on your cruise control to negotiate rush hour traffic.

[@TruthSurge]

he said "isosphere". Is ico pronounced "iso"? What does ico even stand for? I thought it was pronounced "eye koe sphere".

[@Grimeaper]

Def does not work for shingles. Well universal shingles norm changes too much but cheatsy is possible. Though I do have a lot of excess danglies.

[@mastart4971]

You should have wayyyyy more clicks.... thank you for what you do!!! Geometry Nodes are very interesting... If you set "Separate Geometry" on "point" one edge is missing... makes no sense at all to me... this is all witchcraft.... Why do I have (with the exact same settings) 9Vertex/12Edges/4Faces/16Face Corners like you but only an index of 8 and not eleven Rows:9 | Columns: 1 tell you, witchcraft ;-)

[@RTJ3DCosplay]

nope, u know what fuc ku ... i spent all day yesterday and half a day today modelling (not sculpting) scales for a client and you just come along with the geometry nodes and do it in a minute... why do u hate me lol

[@cg_cookie]

It's not personal I swear.

[@RTJ3DCosplay]

@@cg_cookie lol i know thanks for being a good sport just epic timing lol

[@sudd3660]

Geometry Nodes just kills the joy of making meshes and models, i want to create stuff, not program stuff. its have uses for substituting particle systems and stuff like that.

[@sabinepiter5470]

No need to use it :) You are completely free to use Blender in any way you want and if Geometry nodes are not for you, ditch 'em.

[@sudd3660]

@@sabinepiter5470 if i only spoke for myself i would not comment at all. dont you see the movement towards non creative methods of creating things? look how stupid when you compare making a simple table with geometry nodes, vs normal mesh editing.

[@MikeCore]

oOoooooooOOooOOoooOOoo