You don't need geometry nodes! Master this instead

if you've seen my previous videos on  weaving baskets in blender you might   think that geometry nodes would be  a great way to create a texture like   this but the truth is all of that geometry  requires a lot of memory which is going to   put a lot of strain on your computer  when you go to render out the final results so today I'm going to show you  a much better approach to woven textures   like this one hopefully by the end of this  video you'll pick up some techniques that   you can use on your next project but  at the very least you'll have a pretty   versatile node group that you can use on  a number of other materials so let's get started let's switch over to our shading workspace  switch to the rendered view going to get rid of   our default Cube and bring in a mesh plane drag  this up here so you can see better and we're going   to switch to top view start a new material I'll  bring in a texture coordinate and we're going to   use the UV coordinates for this so I'll take our  UV to a scale node and then this is going to be a   repeating pattern so we'll go to a fraction node  shift click on that so you can see if we change   this to two we're going to get two repeats across  that change this back to one now before we go any   further I just want to take a look at the node  group that we're trying to create because I think   it's going to be a lot easier to follow what's  going on once we take a look at that you can see   the inputs over here we've got the width which is  going to control the overall width of that woven   section we've got our coverage which is going to  influence how much of that area is covered by the   strips and our count which is obviously going to  control how many of those strips we have and the   outputs this is a height map which is what you're  seeing there we also have a coordinate system   which we're going to use for texturing these and  a position which we're going to need to identify   each one of those strips now the first step to  this process is just going to be to create a   coordinate system and those coordinates are going  to go from 0.5 over here to one at the center of   the first strip two at the center of the second  three at the center of the third and then 3.5 at   the Far Point and it's going to be the same for  the y- axis and also if we change the count it's   going to change from 0.5 to 1 to 2 to 2.5 at the  end so with that in mind let's hit Control G on   this fraction node and go into the node group  drag our output over here drag our input over   bring out the side panel I'm going to add in our  inputs here so our first input will be our width   we're going to leave that as a float and we're  going to change the subtype to factor it's going   to go from zero up to one and then let's add in  another we're going to do coverage that's also   going to be a float and we're going to make this  a factor as well this one we're going to go from   0.001 up to 0.999 that's just because zero and  one are going to screw up the math somewhere in   this node group we'll do one more input that'll be  our count and ideally this would be an integer but   there's no integer type here so we're going to  leave that as float with none as a subtype but   we will change this minimum to one now the next  thing we're going to do we need to find the width   from the center point of that left strip to the  center point of the Right strip so to do that we   bring in a truncate node then we can subtract  one from that because we're subtracting half   of a strip from either side so we'll change  this to one and then we can divide that by   our original count now we can take our width and  multiply that by the factor that we just created   now we basically want to find where each of those  Center points is relative to the halfway point so   we're going to divide this by two and then we're  going to take that and subtract it from 0.5 make   sure you switch this so you're subtracting from  0.5 and then we can add this to 0.5 now we're   going to bring in a series of map range nodes  so let's connect our first map range and this   map range is going to go from zero to our first  center point and we want that to go from 0.5 up   to 1 duplicate this map range and this one is  going to go from our first Center Point connect   this Vector we'll go from our first center point  to our second Center Point and this one we want   to go from zero to our count minus one and we're  going to add that on top of this so it's going   to be one higher so then we'll duplicate this one  more time connect our input vector and this one is   going to go from our second Center Point to one  and we need this to go from 0 up to 0.5 now we   just need to add these map ranges together so I'm  going to add our top map range to our bottom map   range and then we need these to increment up one  every time this pattern repeats so to do that I'm   going to bring it in our group input again we're  going to take this Vector to a Floor node we can   take our count to a truncate and multiply these  two together and that will step up by one every   time the pattern repeats so we'll take this add  it to our middle map range and then we will add   that to the other two map ranges and that should  give us our coordinate system just so we can see   what that looks like bring in a separate XYZ node  and we'll bring in a bring in a math node set this   to snap and I'm going to change this increment to  one and then just so this is easier to see let's   bring in White Noise texture and I'm going to tab  back out of our node group all these defaulted to   zero so I'm going to switch our width to 0.4 our  coverage isn't hooked up yet but I'm going to set   that to 0.8 we're going to use that later and  our count I'll just change to three so now you   can see we've got our three Center points marked  out here and we're going from 0.5 at this side   to 1 2 3 and then up to 3.5 and at this point we  can change our count and we can also change our   width so let's tab back into to our node group  I'm going to get rid of these three then we can   take all of this put that in a frame and I'm going  to rename that to coordinates now we can take the   coordinates that we created and turn that into a  height map we're going to take the output from our   coordinates down to a scale node and we're going  to multiply our coordinates by pi and then connect   that to a cosine node and that's just giving  us a smooth cosine wave but we need to flip   alternating strips and we're going to do that  by using the sign from our X and Y coordinates   so whenever X is positive we're going to flip y  whenever Y is negative we're going to flip X so   we can take our cosine to a separate XYZ node  take our x connect that to a sign and we will   also take our y to a sign node then we're going  to take the sign from our Y and connect that to   a combined XYZ node need to make sure that we're  connected to the X input then we're going to take   the X and connect that to the Y input take this to  a multiply node we'll multiply X by 1 and y by -1   then we can take the output from our cosine node  over here we'll go to a multiply node and connect   that up and that's giving us this red is our X  going positive negative positive and the green   is our y-coordinate going positive negative  positive but we don't actually want that to   go negative so we're just going to take this to  another map range we just flip this from Min from   0 to negative 1 now instead of going from -1 to 1  we just have our cosine wave moving between 0 and   1 it just doesn't look quite as nice so now we can  take all of this ctrl+J and we'll call that height   the next thing we need to do is isolate our strips  and create a mask for our height map so I'm just   going to go up here and bring in a group input  and we need to find the start and end of our   woven section so I'm going to connect our width  we'll divide that by two and then we can subtract   that from 0.5 and also add it to 0.5 then we're  going to take our incoming vector to a fraction   node and we'll connect that to a map range now we  can use the start of our woven section as our from   Min and the end of our woven section as the from  Max and we'll take our count through a truncate   node and use that as the to Max now if we connect  this map range output to a fraction node you can   see we've got our strips isolated but now we  just need to be able to control the width of   each one of those strips so we're going to take  our coverage we will divide that by two and then   I'm just going to copy this add and subtract node  shift d bring that over here and we will subtract   this from 0.5 add it to 0.5 and then we'll just  duplicate this map range and use the start of our   strip as the from Min the end of our strip is the  from Max and we're going to have those go from 0   to one now we can connect this to a separate XYZ  and I'll take our X to a compare node now if you   get to this point and everything up here is white  that's because this map range is going from 0 to   one and because it's clamped everything zero and  below is just equal to zero everything one and   above is just equal to one so this compare Node  is finding everything so we just need to unclamp   it and then we can take our y to another compare  node and this is another instance where we need   to swap our X and Y coordinates we're going to  take our y to the X input on a combine XYZ and   then connect our x to the Y input then we can take  the output from that to a multiply node and then   connect the output from our height to the other  side of that multiply node and now we have our   height map isolated to just where those strips are  so I'll just take everything up here ctrl J and we   will call that mask at this point we almost have  our height map calculated all we need to do now is   combine our X and Y coordinates to create a single  value for our height map so we're going to take   our Vector here to a separate XYZ node we're going  to connect our X to a maximum node and connect our   y to the other side of that maximum node and that  actually gives us our finalized height map we're   going to take that and and connect it to our  group output bring out our side panel and I'm   going to rename this to height also drag that to  the top the next thing we want to calculate is our   coordinates and to do that we're going to start  with this separate XYZ in our mask setup you can   see this is already giving us 0 to one across each  one of those strips so I'm going to drag our X up   here to a combine XYZ and we'll also connect our  y to a separate combine XYZ making sure that we're   connected to the X input bring in another group  input and we'll take our vector to a separate   XYZ and I'm going to connect our x to the Y on our  second combine our y to the Y on our first combine   Xyz and then we'll take this to a vector mix  node connect this one to the other side of that   and this is just allowing us to control with that  factor which one of those vectors we're looking   at so we're going to take this mix node go down  here and for that factor all we need is a greater   than node and we'll connect the Y to the other  side of that so now wherever X is greater than   y we're going to use A wherever Y is greater than  x we're going to use B but we do need to isolate   the coordinates to where our strips actually are  so to do that we're just going to take our maximum   we'll connect that to another greater than node  and just check where that's greater than zero you   can see that just isolates to where our strips are  so we'll take our mix node connect that to a scale   node and connect that up and that's going to give  us our coordinates where those strips are so we   can take this and connect it to our Vector here  and I'm just going to rename that to coordinates   and the last thing we need to find is the position  because we need to be able to know which one of   these strips We're looking at at any given time  and to do that we're going to start with this   add node back in our original coordinates this  is the coordinates for the center section and   it's going to be increased by one each time the  overall pattern repeats but keep in mind this is   actually hitting the center point of each one of  those strips so we actually need to add 0.5 to   our coordinates so we're going to take this to an  add node and we're going to add add 0.5 to our X   and Y coordinates and I'm just going to drag this  over here we're going to take this to a floor node   and then we can take that to a separate XYZ now  we can do something similar to what we did below   we're going to take our X to a mix node connect  our y to the other side of that and again this   is allowing us to switch back and forth between  those we can take this mix put it right above our   previous mix node then we'll use the same greater  than node as a factor here and we can take this   to a multiply and connect our greater than to that  and now we have our position isolated to each one   of those strips so now we can take that to our  final output and we will call that position we   Tab out now you can see we've got our finalized  node group I'll take this scale up to four we can   change our width and cover everything we can also  bring our coverage up or make the strips thinner   and we can also increase the count and increase  the number of strips in each one of those sections   next time I'm going to show you how to take the  node group that we just created and turn it into   this amazing six-way woven rattan texture so be  sure to like And subscribe so you don't miss out   on that if you enjoyed this tutorial and you're  looking to take weaving into the third dimension   then you should definitely check out this  tutorial on weaving baskets with geometry nodes

Channel: RenderMoore

Views: 730

Keywords: Blender Tutorial, Node Textures, Digital Art, 3D Design, Blender Weaving, Texture Creation, Six-Way Woven Rattan, Blender Node Setup, Blender Artists, CGI, Texture Mastery, 3D Modeling, Creative Workflow, Blender Magic, Versatile Textures, Blender Tips and Tricks, 3D Rendering

Id: _mDcP16W_Ks

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 21 2023