Geometry Nodes Align Rotation To Vector - Blender Tutorial

[@CaseyJScalf]

This is so helpful! It is very confusing to begin with and now all of the old videos are out of date. Finally a clear video on it!

[@PhotiniByDesign]

That is great, I am really glad you found it useful. Stay sharp, have a great day and level up!

[@jhgvfdfgkig]

god thank u so much i was having so much trouble cause all the other tutorials were the older version of blender. Thank u thank u!!!

[@PhotiniByDesign]

You're very welcome and I am glad I could help. Stay sharp, have a great day and level up :-)

[@harpoonlobotomy]

I really enjoy your presentation style, but the flickering logo in the corner is incredibly distracting to the degree that the video is hard to watch, at least for me personally. It's quite beautiful, but maybe consider switching it for a static logo once the video has gotten started?

[@PhotiniByDesign]

Noted! I will mellow it out on the next upload. The main reason why it is animated is to stop people from copying my content and removing the watermark with AI.

[@harpoonlobotomy]

@@PhotiniByDesign Maybe a slower or more subdued animation would still work without drawing the eye so sharply? I fully support you taking the necessary steps to protect your work, best of luck to you!

[@loishunt2859]

Nice tutorial, thank you.

[@PhotiniByDesign]

I am glad you enjoyed it, have a nice day and level up 😀

[@stibbits7087]

Map Range doesn't need a colour ramp after it, just reverse the 'To Max' and 'To Min' fields, i.e. set 'To Min' to 1 and 'To Max' to 0 (or if you want a non-linear mapping use a float curve). Makes more sense than converting a float to a colour and back to a float. Oh, BTW Euler is pronounced "Oiler", dude helped invent calculus and was the one who popularised the term pi for the ratio of radius : diameter, he deserves us getting his name right.

[@PhotiniByDesign]

Yup, that is correct, the map range node is a pretty simple node to get your head around, I always tend to add a colour ramp just to serve as a visual cue when I revisit a node tree later down the line. Thank you for providing the correct pronunciation for "Euler" It's a word I have struggled pronouncing since I first encountered it, I am verbally challenged and struggle to pronounce even some of the most basic words lol, but "Oiler" is easy enough so I will remember that for future tutorials.

[@stibbits7087]

@@PhotiniByDesign for me I find that a colour gradient isn't the best representation of a curve. Human colour perception is very non-linear, so if I need to see the input/output relationship clearly a Float Curve node explains it much better.

[@CaseyJScalf]

What happens if you don't use the "Distribute Points on Faces" node? Most others do not have a normal to pull from and the plain "Normal" node does't do anything?

[@PhotiniByDesign]

The main reason for using the distribute points on faces node is so that it gives you the option to randomize the distribution and control the proximity of each point.

[@OGPatriot03]

It's probably simple, but I'm making a really basic curve node which just gives me an arrow pointer. I'm instancing an end cap, the arrow point at the end of the curve ===> but I can't get the rotation to perfectly align with the curve's complex rotation. From a 2d Perspective it works fine but as the curve rotates (for example a spiral shape) it quickly becomes unaligned. Any tips?

[@PhotiniByDesign]

Calculating normals on curves is different from calculating normals on a mesh. I am not in the studio until Monday, but off the top of my head, you might be able to swap the position node with a tangent node. The reasoning behind this is because curves use tangents and mesh objects use normals. If you are still having problems, let me know and I will figure out a workaround for you as soon as I am back in the studio.

[@unnilong]

Instead of going from Normal-Align Euler to vector- rotation, why can't we directly plug rotation of the point to rotation of the instances?

[@PhotiniByDesign]

You can plug the rotation socket from the "distribute points on faces" node directly into the rotation socket on the "instances on points" node. But the reason I prefere this method is so that I can have manual control over the rotation "Face Normal" factor.