In this video, I want to share how I've created stylized tentacles with Geometry Nodes in Blender 3.1. Links for download: ko-fi: ko-fi.com/s/5a... itch: retroshaper.it...
That's some kind of magic 4 me. The huge thing is that it's all can be edited if needed at any time. Amazing. Just amazing. Gr8 work! + subscription, of course 👍
One cool thing I found was to change the curve tilt with the spline factor, so it twists a bit. Thanks a lot for the tutorial, Geometry Nodes are still quite intimidating for me, and this helped a lot!
Just wonderful use of geo nodes. Very clear explanation, super easy to follow. One of the best tutorials with geo nodes I've seen on RU-vid. Congrats and keep up, you've got yourself a fan and a subscriber
Thank you so much for this amazing pedagogical tutorial. I learned a lot. This is impressive what geometryNode can brings and how it saves times. I have a suggestion : i wanted to make staggered suckers, to make the tentacles more realistic. So i added a "triangulate node" to the suckers meshe (before the "dual mesh" which is before the first extrude Mesh node) . And... it works :D ! THANK YOU SO MUCH !
It's official, I don't know shit about geometry nodes but this video gets me more confident. How do people even know what to search for when they know they need a particular node? I love this video you made, it's super! Really; it's also the one I picked as my first to watch all the way through. But did you bring knowledge from another software into this? GeoNodes are incredibly powerful but very intimidating. Much appreciation for your clear and direct lesson!
@HelloHiHola Thank you very much for the feedback! I'm very happy to hear that! ;) Regarding the nodes - it is just the matter of time and experiments. Some things you can find in blender documentation , some of them in others tutorials and trying to get the most of them ;) Blender is the only software that I use for 3D modeling ) However, I'm familiar with a few game engines and have a very basic programming skills which helps in problem solving. And that's about it) I'm working on a new tutorial right now, with map ranges and fields in Geometry Nodes - well that was really cool to investigate and experiment with. Hope to upload it within the next few days.
7:46 i just want to point out, that you actually don´t need that switch procedure. You can extrude in negative values. it's just that slider cant be defaulty moved to negative by mouse, but you can tipe it manually. That way you overwrite minimal slider value to the one you tiped and can move it by mouse then. Still great tutorial thought.
Hi Michal! Thank you very much for your feedback! Yes, you’re absolutely correct ) I just thought that it was a great opportunity to show flip faces, face orientation and switch functionality) I hope I didn’t confuse anyone with this 😊
i know you have a Download link but i found it Satisfying to just Rebuild it and understand it. Wow i discover soo many new stuff about Geometry nodes. Such OP your making me want to Learn it now ;-; , and + thats a interesting way of making Textures Using a Mix Node + Texture Node never though about that. Still learning about Texture nodes and ways to get looks that i want. (already know the basics of Textures, but i haven't discover how to mix them Properly yet :P getting there Slowly but surely).
Thank you so much for the feedback! It makes me so happy to see that this format and process helps to improve blender skills! ) This is very inspiring!
Great video. I got lost at 6:30.. Did you just create a new set of nodes off to the side so you could copy/paste as needed, or create an entire new set of nodes, or....? Thanks for a quality video. I didn't mind the3 music, as I used closed captions and slowed the speed down a notch.
Thanks for the feedback and great question! For some reason, negative values are supported only with keyboard input, at least in 3.1.2. So, I considered it an opportunity to introduce flip faces node and face orientation which is a common issue when texturing. But yes, negative scale would be easier 😊
I got a question: what if I want to "clear the tip" from suckers like a real tentacle?... do I have a node to "finish" my suckers area to cero and keep the same texture?... do I have the option to keep sukers on a round shape as the middle suckers?
Hi @Gerko ! As for the tip of the tentacle - definitely. You can make selection of faces/points on X and Y coordinates. To do that, you just need to plug-in captured attribute of the curve line into the Combine XYZ node -> Y coordinate (the one that is used for material and extrude selection (3:39 in the video)). Of course, to make proper selection, you'll have to use compare or math node to specify rows for selection. The deformation of suckers shape is caused by face stretching on bending (as for me it looks pretty natural ;) ), but I assume it can be changed with "accumulate fields" and offset position of each point along the curve to have relative to spline factor quad sizes. But that is only my assumption) Need to experiment ) I hope it all make sense ;)
Hey! Thanks for the comment! Not sure about exact tutorial, but you can look into Geometry proximity node and how to use it. In addition, you can also check Demo file on Blender website (www.blender.org/download/demo-files/). Th Halloween Spider project in particular. I think this is something you're looking for.
Hi there! I'm doing your tutorial right now but I'v got the problem the "Greater Than" node isn't available. If I search for it I can't find it anywhere. Is there something I have to activate in the properties first or what could be the reason for that?
Hi! Try searching for "Compare" node and select Greater Than in the dropdown. Alternatively, you may use "Math" node, "Greater Than" operation is also available there.
Search for "compare", and you'll find a node that defaults to "greater than" but also has "less than", "less than or equal to" and other comparison options.
I got very confused at 6.37 where suddenly all but 4 nodes disappeared. How did you do that? I tried just adding in copies of the Extrude and Scale elements and new inputs and outputs, but after grouping these and then pressing the key you hit at 6.57, I didn't get the result you did.
Hi. I've created a group from the selected nodes with Ctrl+G. Really handy when it comes to re-using the same sets of nodes. If you have sockets connected, they'll remain connected after creating a group. Also. once you've created a group, you may rename it and find it later in the search menu (Shift+A).
Hi, thanks for a good tutorial, but can you tell me what to do if I have a mixed up surface with and without suction cups. With suction cups, the surface is larger and for some reason I can't change it. I will be grateful for the answer
Hi! Thanks for the feedback and for the question! It is hard to tell. However, from the top of my head, it may be because of the extrude node maybe. Try using scale elements for that bigger par. Also, make sure to use proper face selections for scaling. Let me know if that is something that helped))
Amazing tutuorial. I learned a lot from this video. How would you go about extruding a row, instead of a column? I'm trying to use this to make horns like rams and antelope have. What's the best way to go about doing this?
Thank you very much for the feedback! To extrude faces in a column, you just need to make a selection of the points (index and compare nodes) of a curve line (the one that builds your geometry vertically) and plug that into selection of the extrude node. However, to achieve that twisted shape you were talking about, you may try a bit different approach: for the Profile Curve -> instead of using a circle, try using Star and Fillet Curve node to cut the corners of that star. After converting curve to mesh - use Set Position node and rotate each row of the mesh by a small degree based on the index of the Curve Line on z axis with Vector Rotate node (simply multiply Index by a degree). I'm currently working on a video with a lot of twisting, displacement and positioning, hope to upload it soon.;)
Thanks for the feedback! In this particular case (with curves), we can simply convert curve object to mesh (through object menu or Alt+C hotkey) - it will also apply Geometry Nodes modifier. There's one thing with geometry nodes (not in this case), when you instance objects, you need to realize all of those instances (with a node) for them to be real objects and to appear after applying modifier.
This is such a cool tutorial and easy to both follow and customize, but I do have a question, Is it possible to animate these? I've never animated Curves before so IDK if I have to add armature or anything
Hey! Thank you so much for the feedback. Well, there are few ways to animate these. 1. From the geometry nodes - by displacing the points of curves with set position and noise texture. 2. Convert to mesh, apply modifiers and add armature to animate
Excellent video, thank you so much! I had never used blender before but this was easy to follow. Would you consider making a continuation for this where you show how to add some texture to the model itself (not just render it on top) on to the currently smooth side of the tentacle? My goal is to create a 3D printable tentacle model for my dnd character who can summon tentacles, so simply rendering a texture is not really an option. Perhaps some ridges or a sort of a cracked skin type of thing that seems to be common in octopuses? Please🥺
Thank you so much for the feedback! Interesting idea! I guess, for 3D print-compatible model, we would need to build a high poly model with a high level of detail. I will definitely consider something like this in the future! Thanks!
I followed you’re tutorial and the look great, i was wondering if there’s a way to animate the tentacles aswell? I can’t animate curves and when i change it to mesh there’s a million vertices i have to move manually to animate it.
Thank you so much for the feedback! It really depends on what type of animation you want to make. For curve animation, there are a few ways: 1. If Bezier curve, possible to use Set Handle Position Node and experiment with Noise Texture or Sine in the Offset and Scene Time. 2. If Poly Curve is used, the easiest would be to use Set Position node and use Noise Texture or Sine for the Offset with a value driven by Scene Time. 3. Also possible to use 2nd method but with a conversion to mesh, just need to make displacement (Set Position) based on Spline Parameter Factor or Index (captured in the attribute). 4. Finally, it's possible to realize instances and use armature for the animation. Those would be my suggestions. Hope that helps 😊
@@retroshaper thank you so much! I’ll look into to those and try it out! (I made tentacles come out of a broken rum bottle and hold a blade to create a pirate themed sword) i want the tentacles to move around the blade slightly up and down. I thinkni can figure it out now thanks again!
Thanks for the feedback! Some tutorials from other channels + blender manual and experimenting. I always try to challenge myself in creation of something new.
