'guide' Posts:

A screenshot of a shader node network in Blender showing attrbute nodes reading various custom properties.

Controlling Instance Materials With Custom Properties in Blender

Here's a little tip about using custom properties to control materials:[...] One slight oddity, which I feel I should go over again, as it's only briefly mentioned in the video, is why the original cube (not the instance) goes black when the attribute node is connected. The attribute node is set to look on the instancer for the custom property. The cube, not being the instancer, doesn't have the custom property and so, confusingly in my opinion, the attribute node just returns black. You then end up with the odd situation where you can only view if the material is working by looking at the instance of those objects.

A screenshot of a node group in Blender's shader editor.

'Material Booleans' in Blender

This is what I've nicknamed 'Material Booleans', but they're really just masks that can be manipulated a bit like booleans, in that they can be moved like 3D objects and added or subtracted from one another.[...] I've been using them in a project where I have a wall I built with Geometry Nodes, and I want to punch a hole through it for a window. The problem? Well, if I want to use traditional, geometry-based booleans, I've got to convert the Geometry Nodes wall to a mesh, losing all the optimisation I had from using instances. (Even the newer 'Manifold' boolean option doesn't help that much with speed in this case.)

A screenshot from within Blender 3D of Animation Nodes' 'Invoke Subprogram' and 'Loop Input' nodes.

Animation Nodes: An Experiment

I recently made my first foray in learning probably one of the most advanced Blender add-ons that exists: Animation Nodes (AN onwards). And by 'learning' I mean I've done one project in it and don't know when I'll do another.[...] Here is my first, and possibly last, test:

A picture of a blue 3D model of a piece of forearm armour.

The Shrinkwrap Modifier: A Hard-Surface Modeller's Best Friend

This post is mainly about using the Shrinkwrap modifier for modelling, which is below, but there's also a quick update on some of my projects right at the end.[...] Before I started the 'Heartbreaker' project I probably wouldn't have said that the Shrinkwrap modifier is one of my favourite modifiers in Blender (not that anyone had actually asked me, or likely ever would). Maybe in the top 10, but only just. I would probably have gone for one of the classics, like the Subsurf or Mirror, you just can't go wrong with those two. However, that's all changed. If anyone ever asks me*, I will say my new favourite modifier, at least regarding modelling - which is what I'm doing most of the time - is the Shrinkwrap. It has become my go-to, problem solving, reliable friend.

A screenshot from within Blender 3D showing a frame of a video of a bridge that crosses a river. In the river, in the place of the reflection of the bridge, is an upside down 3D bridge, with a rollercoaster coming out from one of its arches.

Inverted Cameras For Vector Blurring Reflections

It's a catchy post title I know.[...] Technically this is the first post on my own site about the vfx rollercoaster project I'm working on, so if you want to catch up have a look at some of the previous posts that I ported over from my other site.[...] At the end of the last blog post I said something about using an inverted camera so that vector blur would work for reflections. I did indeed get this to work and seeing as I can't find much mention of either an alternative method or this method, I'll explain a little further.

A picture showing a grey image with a pink image of a pink ball overlapping it. A green arrow is to their right. To the right of the arrow is a single image with a grey background and a pink ball in the middle of it.

Blender 3D HDRI Background Replacement

This is just a quick post (I hope) with a tip on how to render a different background when using HDRI lighting in Blender 3D. As you can see from the images on my gallery I generally just render a single object and don't really make a scene for it. The downside of this is that if the object is reflective it doesn't have anything to reflect in the empty scene and looks plain and unrealistic.