Shortest Path Node CIRCUIT | Blender Tutorial

what is up people of YouTube Welcome to yet another episode of blender's side quest in today's episode we are going to make some circuitry using the shortest Edge path note now this node has already been discussed in a previous video in detail so if this topic deserves an entire video I don't know but what do I have to lose so again the project files for this and various other projects have been on my patreon for really long time if you want access to these fun project files as well make sure to check out my patreon And subscribe to the channel so without any further Ado let's get started okay so here we are in a fresh new scene of blender the first thing that I'm going to add is a mesh plane this will act as our motherboard motherboards are not always Square well ITX are but I guess ATX motherboards are more like rectangular so let's give it a dimension of three and 2.5 this looks uh more like a motherboard let's add some subdivisions by pressing Ctrl 5 let's head on over to modifiers Tab and set it to simple and let's apply now that we have a lot of subdivisions we can see in edit mode we're going to use these vertices to set our vertex groups which are then going to drive the shortest path inputs so let's head on over to the center of our plane and let's select a couple vertices and let's go to the object data properties and add a Vertex Loop let's call it start YT star effect so let's start let's assign these word six word six overseas let's sign these word C's to the start what is group so first of all I'm going to select some of the vertex groups that I really want which are a couple of the same from the edges next I'm going to go to select and select random this is now going to select some random word C's from the center of our motherboard and you can control the selection with this probability and Seed value I'm going to keep it low because I don't really need as many vertices and that looks fine to me I'm going to add a new vertex group and I'm going to call it end I'm to assign these vertices to the new vertex group let's go back to the object mode let's head on over to Geometry nodes and this is where all the magic is going to happen now let's create a new geometry note first thing that I'm going to do is create some variation in the mesh and add some beautiful Pathways for the shortest path node to follow so for that I'm going to first add a separate geometry node I'm going to set it to faces and for the selection I'm going to use a random value node set to Boolean you can choose the probability to select the random faces I'm going to keep it low for right now you can change it later but right now I'm going to keep it low next thing that I need is a subdivide mesh node and keep the level at one now I'm going to need a joint geometry note it's going to join the subdivided mesh with the inverted unsub-divided mesh to select all these and press Ctrl G and add them to a note Loop now I'm also going to set this probability into the group input so we have accessibility of this probability in our main node I'm going to mute it right now I'm also going to add a triangulate node I'm going to add a random value node to it as well do select them and press Ctrl G and set this probability in the group input and we have these two nodes which are just there for adding some variation to the shortest path I'm going to mute them for now and we'll enable them to see what effect they have on our final you know result next thing that we need is a shortest path node and also the edge path to Curves node I'm going to connect the next vertex index to next vertex index M2 plug the end vertex into the group input I'm going to plug the start Works vertex into the group input to press this button on the start vertices and select the start vertex group I'm going to press this button on the end vertices I'm going to select the end vertex group and nothing happens well something happens but nothing good actually happens now this is because the shortest Edge path node in blender currently works by generating the path from every start point to the nearest end point whereas the shortest Edge path node in Houdini has all these options where it can start from any Star to any end from any start to each end from each start to any end from each start to corresponding end now back in blender we don't really have this luxury or ability to use these options currently but maybe in future we do so right now we have to find a workaround now one workaround could be that we create multiple start points and multiple endpoints and we create these iterations of shortest Edge path node where all those start points are given to one particular group of short such path group and then it creates multiple pathways now that would be very tedious but there's a simpler workaround we could just flip these we could set the end vertex group to the start vertex group and the start vertex group to the end vertex group and there we go it does exactly the same it selects all the start points which are actually the end points as per our selection and it generates a shortest path to the nearest end point which is actually your start Point as per the selection if I don't know if what I'm saying makes sense but if you can understand what I'm saying it's pretty easy now now that we have our Edge path to Curves and shortest Edge path next thing that we need is to introduce some noise into it let's just add a varoni texture and there we go we have some sort of circuitry it just doesn't look as good so the first thing I'm going to do is enable the subdivision model that we made a subdivision node group that we made and let's just press M and we instantly have some better looking paths let's increase the probability so that we have less faces that are subdivided or actually more most faces that are subdivided and let's unmute the triangulation node and this looks pretty much like a circuit board yeah you can change the probability of the faces that are getting triangulated more looks better in this case if you want less subdivisions or less details you could just decrease the probability of there we go we have less subdivisions I like it at moral right now you can play with the veronite texture and you can actually see the overnight textures growing and affecting our shortest path but I like it where it is that's a happy accident because the next thing that I'm going to do is add a join geometry node and I'm going to join the original plane okay so here's our motherboard with the circuited on top which is still curves by the way we need to convert it from curve into a mesh after the edge path to Curves node let's add a curve to mesh note for the profile curve I'm going to use a curve Circle and it has a resolution 32 I'm going to use a resolution of 4 radius of 0.001 and there we have it I could also add a transform node and flatten it in yep in y okay so next thing that we need in our scene is a CPU which I have already downloaded from the internet it is looks pretty cool I think I got it from grabcad in a render settings let's enable ambient occlusion let's enable bloom next thing that we need is to animate the circuitry for that I'm going to head back into geometry notes and before my curve to mention after my H path to Curves I'm going to add a trim curve note and to add a value node to our start value and I'm going to add a math node after my value node set it to divide I guess I'll divide it by 100 now when I increase the start value path progresses and you if you do the same with the end value the paths will start disappearing so I guess that's it for this episode guys again special thanks to my patrons for being so supportive past couple months if you like the video drop a like subscribe to the channel thanks for watching until next time goodbye

Channel: Anurag Raturi

Views: 9,689

Keywords: shortest path, geometry nodes, single source shortest path, blender 3.4 new features, shortest path blender, houdini shortest path, geonodes, procedural, generative art, generative design, edge path node, animation node, modifier magic, midge sinnaeve, blender alpha, dijkstra algorithm, latest blender tutorial, best blender projects for beginners, Shortest path circuitry, blender procedural circuit, shortest path node, blender vfx, blender tutorial, blender 3d

Id: l86IPNcI46Q

Length: 9min 22sec (562 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 30 2022