DATAMAPPING –

PHOTOSHOP & BLENDER

This project originates in my exploration of data visualisation using tools that were originally intended for creative and expressive purposes. I knew that Houdini is highly valued for its creative rendering of data, and I wanted to see whether the latest update of Blender (3.2 at the time of writing this) allowed procedural modelling based on data as it did in the past with the animation nodes. The new geometry nodes unfortunately do not (yet!) have the script node. Therefore this 3D data mapping is procedurally modelled using geometry nodes fed with a greyscale height map created in Photoshop based on 2D coloured data maps.

This way of doing lacks mathematical accuracy and the precision is heavily dependent on the image editing of the coloured data map.

However, geometry nodes allow for very interesting rendering and animation of static maps, making the maps more engaging and pleasing to view. This project will be continued if and when a script node is added to the geometry nodes, enabling Blender to read and process data input from csv files, for example, turning the 3D datamapping into a mathematically correct data visualisation output.