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In our artistic efforts, we often find that working with a large number of shapes can be challenging when relying only on manual and repetitive techniques. Through the exploration of instancing, we'll gain precise control over a wide-ranging collection of shapes. This helps us to craft mesmerizing artworks, that exude both coherence and complexity.

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Inspired by the work in the #36daysoftype challenge, this project takes thousands of shapes to form letter shapes.

Lesson 01

Welcome to Negative Space

Inspired by the work in the #36daysoftype challenge, this project takes thousands of shapes to form letter shapes.

We've done this a few times now, so let's run through this quickly! Let's make a 3D shape and render it to a 2D texture.

Lesson 02

Setting up a 3D to 2D environment

We've done this a few times now, so let's run through this quickly! Let's make a 3D shape and render it to a 2D texture.

Instancing is the ability to copy and paste our geometry based on some kind of data. Here we are copying our sphere to every point within the grid SOP.

Lesson 03

What is instancing?

Instancing is the ability to copy and paste our geometry based on some kind of data. Here we are copying our sphere to every point within the grid SOP.

We don't have to be defined by our grid though! We can use the incredibly useful Sprinkle SOP to spread some randomness to our geometry.

Lesson 04

Using a Sprinkle SOP to randomly assign points

We don't have to be defined by our grid though! We can use the incredibly useful Sprinkle SOP to spread some randomness to our geometry.

A normal is a 3-directional vector that tells our shapes and points which way to face. Think of an airplane's directional heading. Here we give each point a normal so we can tell it what direction to face.

Lesson 05

Adding a rotation to every box with a normal vector

A normal is a 3-directional vector that tells our shapes and points which way to face. Think of an airplane's directional heading. Here we give each point a normal so we can tell it what direction to face.

Now that we have a normal, we can move our point in that direction away from where it usually would be by applying some noise to each point!

Lesson 06

Adding noise to the position of each point

Now that we have a normal, we can move our point in that direction away from where it usually would be by applying some noise to each point!

Not only does noise work on positions and normals, but we can apply many types of noise such as color channels too.

Lesson 07

Adding a color noise

Not only does noise work on positions and normals, but we can apply many types of noise such as color channels too.

Using an S Curve CHOP, we can change how large the position noise's amplitude is. A large amplitude means our points can move very far, a small one means they can only move a tiny distance, and of course, zero means no moving!

Lesson 08

Adding animation to our noise pattern

Using an S Curve CHOP, we can change how large the position noise's amplitude is. A large amplitude means our points can move very far, a small one means they can only move a tiny distance, and of course, zero means no moving!

We can use S Curves across our animation to achieve smooth, natural movements.

Lesson 09

Using S Curves to animate

We can use S Curves across our animation to achieve smooth, natural movements.

Just like on previous projects, we may not like the final color scheme so here we take the rendered texture and apply our own color scheme to it, then a touch of noise to make it look more natural.

Lesson 10

Adding Lookup, Ramp and Noise TOPs

Just like on previous projects, we may not like the final color scheme so here we take the rendered texture and apply our own color scheme to it, then a touch of noise to make it look more natural.

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