Fish Scales in Blender: How to Cover Any Object With Scales (Geometry Nodes)

Got mesh? Let's put scales on it.

Whether you're modeling a snake, fish, a crocodile...or possibly the coolest leotard the world has ever seen.

Learn to swap attributes like a pro and make complex selections with ease. If you've wanted to unlock the true power of geometry nodes, this tutorial is for you!

00:30 What do scales look like?
01:30 Geometry nodes
03:20 Offsetting the scales
10:40 Attribute Node
13:00 Making the scales
19:15 Transfer Attribute Node

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[_evildoer]

You can also use the "mesh to points" node to get the face centers

[Layston]

Would really love a followup tutorial on how to scale the 'scales' to each face like mentioned in the video. I feel like that'd be useful for adding scales to characters

[CaptSanchez]

I love your tutorials. You not only show how to do something, you also explain why you are doing it that way. I learn more from the "why" than the "how" (though they are both imoortant!) Great work as always!

[abdulshabazz]

Demonstrating the Why and Why Not. Clear and concise. As if a master in software and the semantics of superior code design, or a master in mathematics and the art of theorem proving. Instant Subscribe.

[husainmadraswala]

Chris Bailey - The man of the hour!! Always coming up with the most beautiful tutorials. You've been a great teacher. I've learnt a lot from you and I thank you. This was a masterclass. Some advanced stuff, keep it coming. Love your work!! Truly!!

[wilhelmeniabilliedoherty]

Would this work well on an animated mesh? A fish swimming or a snake... snaking? Or would they go all crazy

[StephenJK]

Thank you so much I’ve been trying to do this for weeks 😂

[rusticagenerica]

Fabulous tutorial !! Watched all of it in 2x and understood. Now is time to practice !

[simoneiorio]

Very instructive for geonodes and more.

[xaviervicens]

Great, I learned a lot. thanks...amazing use position in selection to move vertices...

[garrysalisbury]

Thanks for this. At 6:10 in the video, why not use the 'merge by distance' node after Join Geometry? That gets rid of extra vertices from the join.

[atlas]

damn calling out right now. Hey, when you're passionate about sotNice tutorialng it makes you actually want to study it!

[tweak_squeak]

Setting the scale based on the distance between points is actually exactly what I want to know 😬So if I apply it to a fish/snake/dragon basemesh the scales will be sized to to fit each face. Do you cover how to do that in another tutorial?

[chedagoz]

Thank you very much for sharing something so useful.

[palpytine]

That seems a very roundabout way to duplicate the behaviour of "dual mesh"

[jeffg]

Really cool. Was thinking about how the scales would be applied to actual fish. Is there any way to apply geometry node output to a vertex group only? Some way to merge with a portion of another model? or would that part best just be done by-hand.

[Dozer]

Great tutorial! My only critique is that "Euler" is pronounced `oy-ler`

[aleksanderk]

What about Dual Mesh node - faces to points - so it is done without all this introduction?

[neerajbhatt]

Cannot understand the " Drag this all the way up" instruction at 26.12. Please help

[eriknelson]

Thank you. I learned a lot from this but I am not there yet. In general I am having a very hard time making instances of flat objects tile on a surface. I can't get the normal rignt and I do not know wha tI am doing wrong.