Hey, I just saw your tutorial, by far the best ones on the subject. I'm a newbie to animation nodes, so I'm very grateful for your videos. Btw, I found another way to show the vertex index, using animation nodes! I just created a loop that takes an integer(an integer range between 0 and the length of the vertices list), vector (vertices position from mesh info), and object(an object instancer of a text object with deep copy enabled) lists as iterators, then apply the vector transforms to the text objects and lastly take the integer list and output it as text on the text object output node. Hope someone finds it useful (and that I explained myself clear enough). Anyways, Cheers & keep' em coming!
Thank you, dear teacher! I tried to do a similar effect in the Houdini program, but, with a pleasant surprise, I was convinced that the same thing can be reproduced in a Blender! Bravo, thanks for the decent information!
Thank you very much Chris. I am still working on this node tree. Would have been much further along if I hadn't switched off Always in the tool bar whilst disabling auto execution. Took me an hour to work out why nothing was happening. I am an idiot but thanks to you less of a Muppet than I used to be. This is great and thank you once again.
@ Flyashy and all that had the same problem ... if you look carefully, or slow down your RUclips play speed, you will see (3:59) that Chris changes the Wrap index to 2 on the Get list element node, I missed it too, even downloaded vc_redist.x64.exe thinking I'ed need it as it stands written on the addon node on GraphicAll, probably spent 3 Hrs downloading the new animation node, deleting and installing, trying Blender 2.8x, reading about vc_redist.x64.exe and much more :-/ but in the end all worked out well ☺
Follow Up Video: Get Index of Selected Vertices => ruclips.net/video/jl-ms4r9BrA/видео.html Big THX to twitter.com/3DSinghVFX for implementing this and much more in Animation Nodes!
I look at some of the stuff going on in this video, and even in some material building videos I've seen, and I just feel like like I'm never going to understand how to use nodes for anything because there's always nodes being used that sound like they wouldn't do anything and yet the final effect just wouldn't happen without them. It's so intimidating and there just doesn't seem to be a lot of useful info for beginners to help them reach some level of understanding. :-( I know I need to give it time, but it just seems impossible right now. hehe.
Really cool! makes some great stills! .Trying to do the animation, but in mine, all the splines are appearing at once instead of starting at a single point (and I have only a couple active in the selection).
Another method for getting vertex index list: 1. assign vertices to a vertex group 2. connect Weights output of a "Vertex Group Input" node to "Search List Element" node. "All Indices" output will contain the vertex indices from the group.
You can also enable MeasureIt addon in Blender to see vertex indices. There's an option called Mesh Debug and by clicking it you will see all the vertices numbered. I'm still quite puzzled why vertex indices aren't an option in the overlays.
hey Chris !! thats a wonderful tutorial. I am pretty new to blender.. Some of the options are working differently perhaps due to an update in the animation node compile. For example, connecting create integer list and the get list element nodes at 4:14 automatically adds a Get List length node in between which spoils the whole thing henceforth. Any help??
don't forget to enable the little "1 2" button next to the "Wrap" button on the "get list element" node so you can plug in a list of indices and not just a single index
hey sir, can you make please newer version, when its possible with blender 3.4. I would love to know how to make this red dots i front of the spline, thank have nice day ciao
Wow there’s so much potential with this technique !! Can’t wait to play with it. Too bad there’s a spline for each vertex, it can have its use, but it would be perfect to have the option to have them merged. What do you advise to ´bake ´ the layered paths ? Merge all vertices by distance maybe ? Also, how do you get the geometric paths in the end on the blue globe ? What modifier can subdivide the mesh in this way ? Thank you please keep on exploring this addon !
Merge: you would have to keep only the paths going to leafs if you want to animate them. For stills: convert to mesh and merge. Modifier: decimate planar!
Chris Prenninger great! Thanks for the info, keeping only the paths going to selectef vertices would be cumbersome I guess. I'll look for a way to trim the merged paths. I'll share with you the results of my experiments!
Is it me or what? I downloaded the nodes. Latest version on blender 3.2.2. When I am connecting the create "Create integer List" to the "Get List Element" I get a "Get Length" node added in between. Therefore nothing works because the indices (called index on my screen) is always the length of the list and not the actual integer in the box. I tried to use 2.92 but it didn't work because of Python 3.9 or 3.10 and the Blender 3.0 have the same problem than the 3.2.2 with both versions. Any tips on that?
I am running 2.83 alpha on macOS. and have installed the latest animation nodes build from graphic-all. But I don't see the find shortest path node. Does it not exist on Mac?
In the current AN implementation animating the start and end of splines with trim spline recreates the edge splines in parallel and not sequentially as you show starting from the source vertex and moving forward. Is this correct and how to go about in order to get the results you get?
Sorry, I found why... it's spline per branch you need to make and animate the end... I missed that, obviously. Keep it up Chris. I'm mostly watching your videos these days, ever since YT proposed you to me to watch..
so with blender 2.90 and the most recent animation nodes the trim spline start and end seem to be reversed when you set it to .5 on my screen nothing happens but if i set the end to .5 it will show exactly as yours does is this due to the update or have i messed up at some point
the only thing you can do is to check graphicall or github for the latest builds and make sure your blender version matches (I always just get the latest builds)
Hi Chris, I'm trying to do this in Blender 2.92 with Anim.Nodes 2.2.2, I get an extra nodecalled Get Length automatically created between Create Integer List & Get List Element and I get only on vertex (and it won't change with any numbers) even tho I have two elemetns in the create element list. What can I do to I can get around this?
if you look carefully, or slow down your RUclips play speed, you will see (3:59) that Chris changes the Wrap index to 2 on the Get list element node, I missed it too, even downloaded vc_redist.x64.exe thinking I'ed need it as it stands written on the addon node on GraphicAll, probably spent 3 Hrs downloading the new animation node, deleting and installing, trying Blender 2.8x, reading about vc_redist.x64.exe and much more :-/ but in the end all worked out well ☺
15:30 now we need tutorial how to make this tubes into sausages to create a perfect meatwoman xD It's awesome tutorial, but is there any way to make target spline more smooth? Subdiv generates mess, curve resolution doesn't work any try ends with bunch of geometry intersecting more and more ;/
Windows users may encounter errors due to missing runtimes or DLL load failures, in that case, try installing vc_redist.x64. I found this after about an hour of trying to install enable animation nodes. Check it out here (animation-nodes-manual.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_guide/install/install.html#how-to-uninstall) . I do love all your tutorials. I still have so much to learn.
Yes, I got errors like this: i.imgur.com/2eOzSHq.png When enabling the suggested AN version 2.1.7 from GraphicAll in blender 2.82.7. Though I already had vc_redist.x64 installed. But I installed it again (seems the installation file was different from the one I had installed earlier) and that seems to have resolved the problem.
This tutorial doesn't work with AN 2.1.7 (latest from website as of now) and Blender 2.82a (same for Blender 2.83.9 alpha). Now, I get an error saying that "Find Shortest Path" is undefined - last successful execution using Blender 2.81.16 and AN v2.1.6" when I load a blend file (that I created from this tutorial with Blender 2.81.16 and AN version 2.1.6). I re-saved the blend file with no luck.
Thanks for the great tutorial, Chris! Question for you -- My character model has a walking animation, but the splines are only following the vertices from the T-pose. Is there any way to apply this technique to an animated characters where the vertices are moving every frame? Thanks so much for your help!
not quite sure what you mean because the verts of a T-pose are the same as the rigged/posed character ... but maybe you just want to randomize the source verts of the find shortest path???
for reason its not working for me, its says theres multiple animation nodes after trying to install in the settings and tells me to uninstall, is this a bug?
@@chrisprenn ok it doesnt say that theres multiple files of animation nodes anymore yeaaah, now it says DLL load failed when installing, the specified module could not be found, not so yeaaaaah, its been day 2 already
yes, the latest AN build improved the normal way of animation rendering drastically, BUT i found that 1 out of 5 render jobs still crashed on my system ... that's why I didn't recommend or even mention it yet... but of course, I will keep testing it ;)
@@chrisprenn I usually render each frame to file so the odd crash is not too bad I can just start again from where it gave up. I am running another animation later so will see.
Thanks again Chris, I am getting there with this thanks to all your hard work. This is far from perfect but does work. ruclips.net/video/i6Rvy-rIHmc/видео.html I am trying to make the tubes taper as they grow and waft about a bit like seaweed under water. The HDRI is Blue Grotto from HDRI Haven. If you pick the right bit it looks underwaterish. I'll animate it with a noise modifier. Keeps me amused so thanks again.
![Car transformation animation nodes tutorial [BLENDER 2.8]](/img/1.gif)
Great video! Vertex index: turn on Preferences -> Interface -> Developer extras. Then at Viewport Overlays -> Mesh Edit Mode -> Developer -> Indices
Or, use the MeasureIt add-on which has a debug mode that you can easily turn on/off.
thank you
Thank you so much Chris.
Hey, I just saw your tutorial, by far the best ones on the subject. I'm a newbie to animation nodes, so I'm very grateful for your videos.
Btw, I found another way to show the vertex index, using animation nodes! I just created a loop that takes an integer(an integer range between 0 and the length of the vertices list), vector (vertices position from mesh info), and object(an object instancer of a text object with deep copy enabled) lists as iterators, then apply the vector transforms to the text objects and lastly take the integer list and output it as text on the text object output node.
Hope someone finds it useful (and that I explained myself clear enough).
Anyways, Cheers & keep' em coming!
Thank you, dear teacher! I tried to do a similar effect in the Houdini program, but, with a pleasant surprise, I was convinced that the same thing can be reproduced in a Blender! Bravo, thanks for the decent information!
Thank you very much Chris. I am still working on this node tree. Would have been much further along if I hadn't switched off Always in the tool bar whilst disabling auto execution. Took me an hour to work out why nothing was happening. I am an idiot but thanks to you less of a Muppet than I used to be. This is great and thank you once again.
Amazing Chris! Couldn't find any other reflecting word to describe what you've shown 👍
thx!
this is insane! so glad i found your tutorials!
@ Flyashy and all that had the same problem ... if you look carefully, or slow down your RUclips play speed, you will see (3:59) that Chris changes the Wrap index to 2 on the Get list element node, I missed it too, even downloaded vc_redist.x64.exe thinking I'ed need it as it stands written on the addon node on
GraphicAll, probably spent 3 Hrs downloading the new animation node, deleting and installing, trying Blender 2.8x, reading about vc_redist.x64.exe and much more :-/ but in the end all worked out well ☺
Thank you Chris! You make complex things so easy to understand
Thx ☺️
great tutorial , very clear ! thx Chris, keep it up 👍
Follow Up Video: Get Index of Selected Vertices =>
ruclips.net/video/jl-ms4r9BrA/видео.html
Big THX to twitter.com/3DSinghVFX for implementing this and much more in Animation Nodes!
This is fantastic! Thank you for sharing this tutorial
I watched Mr Singhs video yesterday, very awesome, first thing I thought was to do a character and then you go and do it, great minds and all that :)
😁
thank you so much sir for the knowledge 🙂
Amazing tut and addon!
I look at some of the stuff going on in this video, and even in some material building videos I've seen, and I just feel like like I'm never going to understand how to use nodes for anything because there's always nodes being used that sound like they wouldn't do anything and yet the final effect just wouldn't happen without them. It's so intimidating and there just doesn't seem to be a lot of useful info for beginners to help them reach some level of understanding. :-( I know I need to give it time, but it just seems impossible right now. hehe.
So cool! thanks for sharing!
That is just too damn cool. Thank you
😁
Really cool! makes some great stills! .Trying to do the animation, but in mine, all the splines are appearing at once instead of starting at a single point (and I have only a couple active in the selection).
Hi, have you found a solution?
Thank you so much for this!!
Another method for getting vertex index list:
1. assign vertices to a vertex group
2. connect Weights output of a "Vertex Group Input" node to "Search List Element" node. "All Indices" output will contain the vertex indices from the group.
I have a problem) if I connect Object Instancer to Trim Spline then I get a lot of big icosphere. 663 pieces. Who knows what the problem is?
Cool trick!
Полет фантазии и не иначе..Мог бы, поставил 1000 лайков +++++!!!!!.....!!!!!
You can also enable MeasureIt addon in Blender to see vertex indices. There's an option called Mesh Debug and by clicking it you will see all the vertices numbered. I'm still quite puzzled why vertex indices aren't an option in the overlays.
If you enable "Developer Extras" in preferences/interface, you will see indices in edit mode overlay option
@@higgsas i was sure i had seen them in edit mode at one point :D nice to know i wasnt just dreaming! :D
hey Chris !! thats a wonderful tutorial. I am pretty new to blender..
Some of the options are working differently perhaps due to an update in the animation node compile. For example, connecting create integer list and the get list element nodes at 4:14 automatically adds a Get List length node in between which spoils the whole thing henceforth. Any help??
don't forget to enable the little "1 2" button next to the "Wrap" button on the "get list element" node so you can plug in a list of indices and not just a single index
Oh Yeah !
a really great tutorial, thanks. is there any way to start the path from only one vertex ?
yes, but it really depends on the overall shape/mesh if that looks good ... in my tests a few source points looked most interesting
Nice
hey sir, can you make please newer version, when its possible with blender 3.4. I would love to know how to make this red dots i front of the spline, thank have nice day ciao
Great ♡♡
Wow there’s so much potential with this technique !! Can’t wait to play with it. Too bad there’s a spline for each vertex, it can have its use, but it would be perfect to have the option to have them merged. What do you advise to ´bake ´ the layered paths ? Merge all vertices by distance maybe ? Also, how do you get the geometric paths in the end on the blue globe ? What modifier can subdivide the mesh in this way ? Thank you please keep on exploring this addon !
Merge: you would have to keep only the paths going to leafs if you want to animate them. For stills: convert to mesh and merge. Modifier: decimate planar!
Chris Prenninger great! Thanks for the info, keeping only the paths going to selectef vertices would be cumbersome I guess. I'll look for a way to trim the merged paths. I'll share with you the results of my experiments!
Is it me or what? I downloaded the nodes. Latest version on blender 3.2.2. When I am connecting the create "Create integer List" to the "Get List Element" I get a "Get Length" node added in between. Therefore nothing works because the indices (called index on my screen) is always the length of the list and not the actual integer in the box. I tried to use 2.92 but it didn't work because of Python 3.9 or 3.10 and the Blender 3.0 have the same problem than the 3.2.2 with both versions. Any tips on that?
I am running 2.83 alpha on macOS. and have installed the latest animation nodes build from graphic-all. But I don't see the find shortest path node. Does it not exist on Mac?
It should be there (at least it says so on graphicall for the Mac build)... You could ask right there!
@@chrisprenn it is there. when I did a ctrl-a and searched it was there, just didn't show up in the menu. thanks!
@@DaleCarman same....Thank You!
@@DaleCarman same...Thank You!
In the current AN implementation animating the start and end of splines with trim spline recreates the edge splines in parallel and not sequentially as you show starting from the source vertex and moving forward. Is this correct and how to go about in order to get the results you get?
Sorry, I found why... it's spline per branch you need to make and animate the end... I missed that, obviously.
Keep it up Chris. I'm mostly watching your videos these days, ever since YT proposed you to me to watch..
so with blender 2.90 and the most recent animation nodes the trim spline start and end seem to be reversed when you set it to .5 on my screen nothing happens but if i set the end to .5 it will show exactly as yours does is this due to the update or have i messed up at some point
haven't tried that in a while but YES, could be they reversed the spline direction (since it was kind of backwards before)
Chris Prenninger thanks for the reply and the tutorial learnt a lot 100% subscribed and ready to learn more
Hi Chris, short question: my Blender don't take the installation from the animation Nodes! ps i have a macbook pro
the only thing you can do is to check graphicall or github for the latest builds and make sure your blender version matches (I always just get the latest builds)
@@chrisprenn thank you so much for the quick reply and help !
Thank you so much you’re so sick
Wow! This is great vfx! Can I use this animation in Unity?
Hi Chris, I'm trying to do this in Blender 2.92 with Anim.Nodes 2.2.2, I get an extra nodecalled Get Length automatically created between Create Integer List & Get List Element and I get only on vertex (and it won't change with any numbers) even tho I have two elemetns in the create element list. What can I do to I can get around this?
if you look carefully, or slow down your RUclips play speed, you will see (3:59) that Chris changes the Wrap index to 2 on the Get list element node, I missed it too, even downloaded vc_redist.x64.exe thinking I'ed need it as it stands written on the addon node on
GraphicAll, probably spent 3 Hrs downloading the new animation node, deleting and installing, trying Blender 2.8x, reading about vc_redist.x64.exe and much more :-/ but in the end all worked out well ☺
15:30 now we need tutorial how to make this tubes into sausages to create a perfect meatwoman xD
It's awesome tutorial, but is there any way to make target spline more smooth? Subdiv generates mess, curve resolution doesn't work any try ends with bunch of geometry intersecting more and more ;/
Windows users may encounter errors due to missing runtimes or DLL load failures, in that case, try installing vc_redist.x64. I found this after about an hour of trying to install enable animation nodes. Check it out here (animation-nodes-manual.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_guide/install/install.html#how-to-uninstall) . I do love all your tutorials. I still have so much to learn.
Yes, I got errors like this:
i.imgur.com/2eOzSHq.png
When enabling the suggested AN version 2.1.7 from GraphicAll in blender 2.82.7. Though I already had vc_redist.x64 installed. But I installed it again (seems the installation file was different from the one I had installed earlier) and that seems to have resolved the problem.
so 82 bit doesnt work? cause ts not working for me, is it only 64 bit
Hi Chris. What addon did you use to create the charater?
"MakeHuman"
@@chrisprenn Thank you
a
This tutorial doesn't work with AN 2.1.7 (latest from website as of now) and Blender 2.82a (same for Blender 2.83.9 alpha). Now, I get an error saying that "Find Shortest Path" is undefined - last successful execution using Blender 2.81.16 and AN v2.1.6" when I load a blend file (that I created from this tutorial with Blender 2.81.16 and AN version 2.1.6). I re-saved the blend file with no luck.
спасибо, очень cool
Thanks for making a an awesome tutorial :D
Can you tell how can i get same rbg color effect similar to final mesh of character ?
different color lights, metallic material on the curve ;)
YOu have to press change direction on find shortest path node now
Thanks for the great tutorial, Chris! Question for you --
My character model has a walking animation, but the splines are only following the vertices from the T-pose. Is there any way to apply this technique to an animated characters where the vertices are moving every frame?
Thanks so much for your help!
not quite sure what you mean because the verts of a T-pose are the same as the rigged/posed character ... but maybe you just want to randomize the source verts of the find shortest path???
@@chrisprenn Thanks, Chris! It was the "Use modifiers" checkbox. I simply had to check it!
is this the same [ 3.5 geometry node ] ?
Animation Nodes are NOT Geometry Nodes
mesh ^ ^
is it possible to use this while the character is animating, because when i try it everything is ok but the character is not animating anymore
combining keyframes/drivers with AN is challenging ;)
There isn't a 'find shortest path node' in my mesh-operator panel. Has it changed?
Actually, i downloaded the newest version from the link you showed and i have it too. Thanks and greetings from Greece!
Drip drip drip drip drip
for reason its not working for me, its says theres multiple animation nodes after trying to install in the settings and tells me to uninstall, is this a bug?
Uninstall, delete files, reinstall... Check my trouble shooting video at chrisp.zone
@@chrisprenn ok it doesnt say that theres multiple files of animation nodes anymore yeaaah, now it says DLL load failed when installing, the specified module could not be found, not so yeaaaaah, its been day 2 already
Forgot to mention that Animation Nodes now render using Render and not Viewport. Probably have done for ages but it was news to me.
yes, the latest AN build improved the normal way of animation rendering drastically, BUT i found that 1 out of 5 render jobs still crashed on my system ... that's why I didn't recommend or even mention it yet... but of course, I will keep testing it ;)
@@chrisprenn I usually render each frame to file so the odd crash is not too bad I can just start again from where it gave up. I am running another animation later so will see.
@@adrianward102 if it keeps crashing check out my tips at chrisp.zone
@@chrisprenn It doesn't seem to crash now but is very slow. I'll try your script and see how that goes.
@@chrisprenn It doesn't crash now but is very slow. Cycles slow. I'll try your script. Many thanks.
why in my animation nodes i cant find the find Shortest Path
check chrisp.zone
You need to reinstall the script and then you'll be able to find it.
i didn't found 'Find Shortest Path'
check chrisp.zone where to download the latest AN build
* puts apple on your desk *
Thanks again Chris, I am getting there with this thanks to all your hard work. This is far from perfect but does work.
ruclips.net/video/i6Rvy-rIHmc/видео.html
I am trying to make the tubes taper as they grow and waft about a bit like seaweed under water. The HDRI is Blue Grotto from HDRI Haven. If you pick the right bit it looks underwaterish. I'll animate it with a noise modifier. Keeps me amused so thanks again.
PS. No bother with rendering. I think it is sorted.
Nice!