 Hello, hello, so my name is Chris from Antwerp Belgium I have been known for mostly creating interactive installation and generative design since 2010 I mostly do advertising public spaces and festivals So they I will do a short intro or maybe a longer intro of how I came to use blender and at the end We will do some live noting or coding. So it started in 1993 my first computer and this does computer The team was running 40 megahertz Give you some perspective. It is like 80 times slower than an iPhone 14 Which is important for the story because uh, we had this button on this computer It was a turbo button and I always wondered why do we have this button and Preparing this presentation I looked it up because for my father We could never touch the button because the computer was super expensive and it would it would wear out like too fast because Yeah, we had the mortgage of like four years on the computer so When he was at home, we could never touch a turbo button But when he was off he pushed on turbo always Anyway, the true button. I always thought it was something for overclocking, but it's actually actually The inverse or the opposite So the turbo button was used to slow the computer down So if you Unpress the button it would slow it down so it could run like older games or older time-based systems So that made me think like half my youth. We are running at half speed at home. So it's a bit sad Anyway, fast forward to now. Um, I've been doing a gender design for like multiple years I Didn't use blender. I mostly used things like processing open frameworks Cinder so this is a system to generate the letter M based on a genetic algorithm So I have this system made up with a set of rules. It tries to make the M So the lot of iterations of the same system overnight on multiple computers and these are all the outputs So I'm a big fan of generative design systems because they generate unexpected results I'm not very much of a fan of making things which I already know ahead what it will be Because it feels kind of like work to me. I Don't like to work that much. So I Like to build systems who work for me and make new designs who I can choose of This is also a genetic design system where I put children or adults in a box It's called human pixel. So every box is a pixel and When you enter the pixel, there will be like a recording of you Opening and closing the pixel and I use all these recordings to make a genetic animation Again here. I also have this unexpected results Using unexpected input also funny detail like when you do it with children They they're all over the place with the cardboard but adults they they close like super tight So it's very boring to do it with adults Sometimes we children you also have like like in the real display like dead pixels and then a bit further I am started to get interested in doing 3d scanning and remixing the scans So I was in investing the 3d scanning and I got asked to do a 3d scanning session at the Pucco Pop festival in Belgium music festival So we use the LiDAR scanner On an iPad Trying to scan the people I Say trying because it's very difficult at the festival. Everybody's like super not so stable And you need to be like in a four minute post to be like have a scan without without five arms So that's why we only did it during the day not during the night and then this scan was used in a system for Remix or rematching the the scan with different This my head by the way different all items of color different shapes Then you get a print out. It's one of my favorites Special thanks to the yoga people very impressive to be like that for five minutes And then during the night I could call it the system which remixed all these scans life So it was like ever-changing all real-time so it's ever-changing Effects so never never the same so we defined a bunch of shaders defined a bunch of Yeah, you could call it geometry nose, but it's not made in blend them. So it's Vertex shaders and geometry shaders which were all randomized giving these ever-changing effects or compositions So it's more scanning. That's me scanning It was my pre corona hair Yeah, it also You need to be to be a creative to have interesting poses This was the software I was using before blender, of course, so It was a custom-made system with a shader on the right and then on the left I reloaded the shader all the time when it changed and then I Try to find like interesting effects and like captured them not really a person who likes to make like their own tools, but it's just like a Had to be done. So this was the output of the scan. It was used on this music festival So I find it interesting if you do a scan in a certain position like it was scant like this Then I translated it into something completely different So you get like a different context of the same scan. So more scanning more shaders then finally Blender came on my radar. So I Was using blender for the first time to clean up some meshes some scans And then I thought it would be cool if in blender I could also do some shader coding because that was a thing. I was like very very keen on doing shader coding and Then I looked it up if there was like GL SL Shading which is very common for open GL But it's not in blender which is makes sense because it's very specific Then I discovered there was a thing called OSL Not sure if many people use it, but I found it very interesting in the beginning I thought it was maybe too difficult to learn, but it's actually very similar to Open GL shader code So I start using this OSL. It was very interesting. So I made these Remixes of scans Also small detail that the hand is actually a different hand is from a statue in a Open-air museum in Antwerp because scanning hands is very difficult This is an actual render So you see a lot of small artifacts from the scanning and also some artifacts from actual shader So when I was doing these videos, it was very difficult to render them because it's all on a CPU and Back then thinking it's like two or three years ago. There was no support for OSL on a GPU and I think there is now With optics I tried it like two days ago on one of my old blend files But it didn't work. It gave me this error. So maybe some people who are more technical on that can help me with that but But for one project I need to make a video and I postponed the project already like two times because I was very new at blender and I took the risk of doing everything in blender instead of my own tools and then I Couldn't postpone the project for the third time. So I thought okay. I need except power to render So because I need a lot of CPU power. I rented the Amazon cloud server Because it's quite easy to set up a Linux server with blender headless And I think it's also pretty much affordable like eight dollar per hour for like 192 CPUs seems like a good deal so I did that and a Rendered for a couple of hours to just like speed up the process of rendering and after these hours. I Would just render the rest locally on multiple machines and I don't know how it works with you But for me it's like I'm rendered part on this machine a part on this machine and then this machine is like faster So it's already done. So I managed some frames from the same animation on that machine manually and I have to like juggle with all the PNG sequence. It gets like very messy So I Spent like the whole weekend like doing that like Rendering bit there bit there. It was like a huge mess, but then I discovered I forgot to turn off the the Amazon cloud server So actually I had the Amazon server like for the whole weekend running I didn't use it I only use it for a couple of hours so I got this bill like a In touch we have this expression like Learning money. So it's like the the money you print you pay to learn something Like virtually, but this is like actual money. So I did learn it the hard way So I continued doing a shaders with OSL But this time I used like a predefined model Because it worked like way faster than always you doing the scanning Let's write this more lighter style I think the nice thing is if you make your shader procedurally you can always zoom in and have more details So with this one I learned that there was also depth of field in blender So I exposed a little bit over there My setup still looked like this. So I had these these shader material Which was mostly one OSL Note with all these different inputs and then just outputting the the bump and the color Because at this point I Still thought yeah Note is not some notes based program It's not something for me because I've been programing since my 12 and I'm like 42 now So it's like 30 years that I'm being coding. So I thought yeah coding is really my thing. I'm a coding guy. So So I kept doing coding except here I Started doing for the first time node-based shader because I wanted to have GPU power because the I still had these Amazon build on my mind. So I thought okay. I Need to do it on GPU go faster So that's with this simpler layout a simpler design. I start using a only nodes and there's like a Positive thing about using notes is that you have GPU acceleration But the downside is like sometimes you have some really small part of code and it gets like really big in in notes I must say I was only starting using notes. So I didn't discover that there was also a vector mod node So it could be much smaller. I think This is a function from a in ego Qls trigger pronounce it well. It's a very known shader guy for doing a he's actually the one of the inventors of shader toy Also small side note his name is like It's going to pronounce it again because I'm not Spanish But I always thought his initials on shader toy which are a queue I thought it was just because he's like so smart, but actually it's just his name. So Anyway moving forward Do you know this is all done using node-based system? So shader nodes Then the huge thing for me and I think for a lot of people was geometry nodes So I start experimenting with like the Earlier versions of geometry nodes, especially the splines were very interesting for me And also a thing I don't like to do in blender. It's like manually doing animations with keyframing So I think I'm too lazy for that. So Geometry nodes was really good for me to do motion before that I had no interest of doing motion because you have to keyframe everything So but the first time I could use a Motion but then all procedurally so I like to go fast doing a lot of incremental saves and then Go back to see if there's something interesting or not So I think that personally for me is like a very interesting feature in the new upcoming blender. It's like the incremental saves So these saves are still with the old system So I save it just by number and then I have a folder with all the renders and I go like really fast So I break a lot of things and then I can always go back check Okay, this was nice render and I go back to like the initial blend file and start from there So as I said, I do all almost everything procedurally not because I'm like a I'm like a procedural fan bar something just it works really well for me and I can iterate like very fast So this will be like a sequence of images, which I made I think in two days or something Just showing you like how fast you can go if you make everything procedurally so It's not a matter of like what you're going to design or what you're going to make for me It's mostly like what like keep what will I throw away? That's often how I work. I make a lot of stuff more of output and then I Curate it and then keep one interesting bits and then work on that further. Okay, so like I mentioned before I I Start doing motion because of geometry notes because it's so so convenient. So so Enjoyable so all this motion is is based on a simple mathematical function So these forms on the left. They're all sine waves so all these shapes they they move on a sine wave some have like a Bigger oscillation so they go further That's why they like meet at different stages in their in their animation on the middle and The right is a different function. Not sure if anybody can guess like the mathematical function for the Animation it's very familiar with the sine function Yeah, thankings so because it goes like Slow in the middle and then it accelerates like to infinity Then goes back. Also, you can make like very easily like multiple variations of the same program so the two on the right or actually the same in as in system so it's the same system, but like a different camera angle and Dot on the top It's just like having more faces than the one on the right. We also wanted to show Like the one here on the left. I Have the blend file open. So if I go through it, you'll see it. They're always like have different Points where they meet so sometimes it's interesting. Sometimes it's truly not interesting So often I do like a small Smaller resolution render or sometimes I skip some frames and then render like the whole sequence from frame maybe zero to 5,000 and then check the date Day afterwards like see, okay, this is interesting. I keep this part and I throw away all the other ones So for me, I'm not using blender that that long I think only two two years, but it's it's evolved so fast and so many interesting things for me personally so I think all the things I'm really a fan of it's like it's GPU accelerated shaders Then geometry notes, obviously it's super fun And I also like the connection between the shading and the geometry I know in other 3d software it can be very difficult to like Have this connection because they have to export it to some format and then they lose all the connections So that's really the fun the fun part if you have the good connection, you can go fast make interesting stuff Yeah, obviously simulation notes is fantastic I don't know how to Simulation those two like quickly restart my simulation. So maybe after us if somebody can explain that to me be very helpful So that being said I will do my first demo. Hope it all goes well Yeah, let's let it so this will be like a simplified version of something I Make often So this will be my setup I have like My camera setup I often use trackers to like track the The lights of the camera something I like a lot Then I often call these main nodes or something. It's very scary to do this life So I didn't getting ahead of myself. Actually, I'm going to use a sphere big fan of like round shapes And then these parameters are usually tied to like some kind of value Sometimes I make like a render switch to see like for the render make a better resolution And also something my workflow like things which are really important for the like the output I give it like a yellow color some personal thing. I think the set position is one of my most used nodes This is for like morphing all these shapes So I want this this fear to be like wobbly so I'm going to use the offset of the sphere Probably like the easiest way to like have something quickly would be like having a noise on it. It looks very bad so I Want to have my my shape? symmetrically So how would I do that? first I would make my know my noise like a 1d noise and now I have my My noise just in one dimension I'm going to use that on the on the vertices So so you could either like have the displacement on the on the normals But then if for instance you have like a face things will like collide so I for this I just want to have it from the center So I take the actual position of the point and normalize it and then this value I will multiply it by the noise So it was a vector math. It's not doing much for the moment. Okay. It's working Yeah, it's actually it's logical. That's not doing that much because I'm doing it on the whole Shape I'm not giving it any different number All right for all the vertices that will have the same number So I have to differentiate it. I Could use and I will use the position in the set axis So I can like use that from the bottom to the top and then I have like symmetrical Displacement all sides that looks more interesting already This is a matter of taste. I can like small scale big scale Let's make you go for three and what I always do is Using the time so the frame so the easiest way is to just add it on top of the the set value Because it's a noise. It's just infinite. So you can like add whatever number you want I don't use a vector mat. Just a normal mat. I take the frame So now we should have already like animation It's not very enjoyable to watch for the moment. So I will slow it down by I think maybe something this It's still too fast because I made a mistake. So I'm doing I didn't make a mistake It's just too fast. I think there's too much detail Yeah, it was a bit glitchy because my my mesh is like not dense enough To have like smooth effect So a lower scale would be better. I could use a high scale, but then I should like Increase my mesh density But it looks already like a nice a sea creature. So if I want some extra rhythm In it because now it's like very statical rhythm. I could use like a sine wave or something else But I think I go for the sine wave at it as well. Yeah, I must say this is not like a best practice in doing notes today I'm pretty messy at doing notes So I have this sine wave, which is like too heavy for now. Oh, yeah, should use The time which is already slowed down So now if I increase my timeline, I should already like have different variations. Oh, no, I'll use a multiplier That's actually nice because the sine wave is so heavy dominance in this one. It's actually reverse the animation because the sine wave goes from minus one to zero to Plus one it was not not intended for me to do it this way, but it's interesting. So I keep it Then to make it even more interesting. I can like rotate it a bit at the end the whole shape It's always always interesting to do this at the end because then all your transformations has be done in the beginning And then you have to do it's like in local space and then at the end you can transform the whole thing Here I've also used my time Probably have to Multiply it as well. It's too fast. Yeah, I think it's still a bit too janky to slow The sine wave down or maybe like have it have less impact Okay It's not perfect, but I will keep it like this So now comes my favorite part is like doing the shading For that it's interesting. I think to To use your geometry or whatever you're doing in geometry and Exposing that to the shader as well. I think it's also in nature like leaves. They at the end there will be they change colors So it's a nice thing if you're creating the geometry yourself Then you know what's what the impact will be on the geometry. So you should share that with your shader So actually here where I'm pushing these offsets That's the value I need Not this one, but it's the oh I see why it's not working My thing my goal was actually to add the noise and the sine wave together I'm actually pushing the sine wave into the Slot of the noise So should be like this. Yeah, that's more what I wanted. So let's increase the sine wave also important this part is where I Where I use the the position that the Z To determine where the noise should like a sample So if I make this smaller or bigger it will have like an impact on the the details of noise So if I copy this you get like this So that's definitely for me also a yellow one. So this is also nice. Maybe a bit less five Just Going to push my camera a bit Closer, okay tweak this forever, but we'll start doing the shading So like I said before I need to have this value where I'm actually doing the deformation. I should share it with my shader So I'm So it's the noise value combined with the sine wave This value at the end here which I used to make the offsets that's the volume I'm going to save So I can do store attribute named attributes. Oh, yeah, I have to do it on the geometry So here the value goes in here restore this I Call it push. So this will be saved on every point. It's actually the value that it's pushing So now if I go to my shader Which doesn't exist yet. Oh, yeah, it's a default one. I Think it's not used so I will need to set it set material Here we go. So then I'll go back to Shader editor So a quick test would be like to have this new value attributes with the name push I Think it's working, but it's not super clear. So I use a color ramp like color ramp is definitely one of my favorite things to use Coming from like a coding only environment like doing this color ramping in in coding will be a mess Or very very unreadable So this is like perfect That's some yellow. What also can do is Have the same one, but then in black and white and use that for the roughness so when being at the edges it will be White Don't want any reference, but I want roughness at the at the ends. I mean like More specular so less roughness. So now it starts to getting Changes at the end. I also think I'm going to add some extra material some glass then do Shader mix and the factor I will use the same push Actually, I want to have the materials be intertwined like now it's going from one material to the other one It's because my my sine wave is like too dominant or it doesn't the Oscillation is like too slow So I will go back to my geometry notes and then Here the sine wave. Oh, yeah, it's because the sine wave doesn't intake doesn't take into account the position So I should add that as well. I will share the file at the end of the Okay, I can imagine it's too messy now. Yeah, that's better. So previously the sine wave was just going on The time so it's like always like going up with the time But doesn't make any difference if you're with your position here or there. So now it's taking into account the position It's involving like that. So I'm pretty satisfied with that Going back to the and maybe also add some color for the Glass so this would be normally a good time to like for me to have like a safe increment And start experimenting more before I break it down and then I cannot get to this anymore. Yeah, I think it's nice So because I use glass I should think just as some HDRI I have my favorite one I have this theory that everybody Here probably has his favorite HDRI which uh And I want to do some kind of event where you have to show your HDRI or something like like There's this expression you are what you eat. I think you're also You are what your HDRI is or something? Also note on that also want to go there one day today to this HDRI which I'm using all the time Lastly, I just want to hide the HDRI By using a simple mesh as you can see I'm only using blender like two years. I don't know any shortcuts Yeah, I think it's it. I could like tweak this forever But it's almost time. So I'm pretty happy with the results I also hope you are happy with it and uh, that you learned something. So, uh, oh, yeah one thing. I forgot No, I don't see It's also something I learned with blender. It's super cool that there's like these autosafes Also while doing this presentation, of course, I spent like multiple days Procrastinating on the presentation making these renders while I should actually doing the presentation So I thought to give it like some value of my wasted time, I'll just add them at the end of my presentation Okay, thank you