Hey! I'm having an incredible learning experience, not only learning how Blender works (yes, still learning), but also about Open-Source and the incredible software available. Stick around!
Posted by Marius Oberholster on Saturday, October 27, 2018 Under: Tutorials
Hey all!
Recently I got to share some seriously awesome node groups with you guys and today I get to share a tutorial about how some of them work (based on how a few works, you'll get how I was led to build them and be able to use them easily).
GOD is so amazing!! (^^,)
Because I know a lot of you are new to nodes, I would like to make a short FAQ here about what they are and why they are what they are. There was a time in my life when I opened the node editor and promptly closed it, hahaha, so I know there are some of you out there that have that same experience.
- What are node groups?
Node groups are a very underrated feature in Blender. Basically, whatever works with nodes can have collections of nodes grouped to form something that looked like a hard-coded node. This enables you to, like with legos, build all sorts of things that the maker didn't really specifically design them for. For example, there is no conversion for 2D to 3D in Blender, but with the nodes, you can build it, because we have all the needed tools in pieces that we can combine to form that feature.
It's often a very arduous and difficult task, but very much worth the time and effort the LORD had me put into it. Whatever I've put in, I've gained back easily in shorter render times.
- What is their purpose?
They have multiple purposes. You could state it in three categories:
- Practical
- Spiritual
- Social
They are practical, because they meet a practical need of the community (and it came out of a specific need I had).
They are spriritual, because GOD is meeting a need of the community to show them that HE is very aware of their needs and that HE knows what they do intimately and HE's drawing them with these. Of course, they come with no strings attached. Meaning, if you don't receive HIM now, HE's not going to revoke them, but HE is making an appeal to you through these.
They are also social, because the LORD is using them to inspire more people to develop all manner of things for Blender through nodes and through coding! It is such an awesome consequence of sharing these!! GOD is so good!
- Why these specifically
Like I mentioned, these come from the needs that I had in Blender and just couldn't find 3rd party solutions that were free and did what I wanted. For example, G'Mic has 2D to 3D conversion, but it works exactly like the warping feature, without the ghost reduction. It's not horrible, but it's not what I am looking for ito quality and speed.
Long before I even knew of G'Mic's existence, GOD already had me on starting to work on the 3D. Years and years of development you could say.
- Will there be more?
Short answer - I don't know. When I first shared the nodes with a friend, that was one of the first things he asked me. That was before quite a few were added and I honestly didn't have an answer. I didn't know of anything else that would make a useful group node. Today we stand at 32 group nodes. GOD is good! :D
So there you have it! A short FAQ on the nodes.
I believe you guys will find these useful and to just add to the usefulness, here are the same links that are found in the description to help you guys look into these things further:
Hey! I'm having an incredible learning experience, not only learning how Blender works (yes, still learning), but also about Open-Source and the incredible software available. Stick around!
