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I am looking for a way to create procedural weld joints in Blender. Here are some reference images showing what I am looking for:

enter image description here

The basic approach I have been taking is to create a base mesh then use a Skin Modifier followed by a Subdivision Modifier with a bunch of displacements after that. However I am not happy with the result, I think that the displacement textures need to be different (in this case I am using two cloud textures). This is the result that I got so far:

weld joint

One thing that you might notice in the reference pictures is that weld joints tend to have a beaded look to them due to how the individual drops of metal fell into the seam and overlapped each other. I am not sure how best to replicate this with a displacement. I thought about using Metaballs but those are hard to work with and getting some kind of displacement or randomization on them would be very hard (not saying that they are not an option though).

What are your thoughts? Dose anybody know of a good way to quickly and easily create a procedural weld joint?

Harry McKenzie
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Isaac
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    If you use an image texture for the weld, you can get a very nice look. – GiantCowFilms Sep 06 '14 at 23:07
  • I've been testing some Geometry node examples that uses this tutorial with a little bit more of a modified material https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmn6R5RehBc&list=PLxK2RplIuKtdRyxI-gEtch2Uwp5NCqcPC&index=32 Here are my results https://i.stack.imgur.com/SBkY9.jpg – user157570 Jan 06 '23 at 20:37

3 Answers3

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You said you wanted a to do this procedurally, but I personally would recommend using an image texture like this one.

This image was created by me, and is in the public domain. Use it however you want :) Click for larger size
enter image description here

This displacement map produced a result like this:

enter image description here

gandalf3
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GiantCowFilms
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  • did you make that image? – David Sep 07 '14 at 04:25
  • Yes, took a while to figure out how... Fell free to use it how ever you wan't. – GiantCowFilms Sep 07 '14 at 06:18
  • I will make it tillable. :) – GiantCowFilms Sep 07 '14 at 16:45
  • Wow! That produces a really good result. It is limiting though. For example, it would be very hard to get two weld joints to join like in the first two images. That is the main reason I wanted to do this procedurally. – Isaac Sep 07 '14 at 19:20
  • @Isaac You mean like this? – GiantCowFilms Sep 07 '14 at 19:59
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    @GiantCowFilms Actually I meant like in a 'T' where there are two weld lines coming together at an intersection point. – Isaac Sep 07 '14 at 22:33
  • You can just sculpt a custom joint, shouldn't be to hard. Looking for a 100% procedarl method can often just end in wasted time. – GiantCowFilms Sep 08 '14 at 02:34
  • That is two bad because the model I am working on has a lot of unique weld joints :( I might try to create a script that converts Grease Pencil strokes to Meta Balls(which actually give a very good result). Or I'll just have to do a lot of sculpting. – Isaac Sep 09 '14 at 15:59
  • @Isaac You can create a library of weld joints, and re use them. Just remember that the more time you put in, the better result you will get. – GiantCowFilms Sep 09 '14 at 17:17
  • @GiantCowFilms I just remembered this add-on: http://www.emptygraphics.com/scripts/details/1/ It might come in handy for reusing joints. I'll give it a try. – Isaac Sep 09 '14 at 18:25
  • You should only need about 8 or so for all rotation of T and + as well as L joints. You can use modifiers to bend the the weld strips to conform to a surface. You only need custom details when they join. – GiantCowFilms Sep 11 '14 at 15:03
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If you want to do this procedurally, you could try using a lattice modifier to distort the displacement:

enter image description here

In the above screenshot I use a wood texture for the displacement:

enter image description here

And a distorted lattice for the distortion:

enter image description here

gandalf3
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  • Could you post a better version of the final result, it is rather hard to see. – GiantCowFilms Sep 07 '14 at 19:46
  • @GiantCowFilms Is this clearer http://www.pasteall.org/pic/76710? – gandalf3 Sep 07 '14 at 21:19
  • A lattice modifier! I never thought of that. If you added a curve modifier after the lattice modifier you could control the weld joint around curved surfaces... or any other surface. However you can't control the twisting of a curve :(

    If you change you answer to include the curve then I will mark it as the right answer(for the sake of people later viewing this question). Thanks!

     – Isaac Sep 07 '14 at 22:20
  • @Isaac You can, press Ctrl T in edit mode. – gandalf3 Sep 07 '14 at 22:22
  • @gandalf3 I didn't realize that, thanks for the advice! – Isaac Sep 07 '14 at 22:25
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I've been testing some Geometry node examples that work pretty well.

Its starts with finding the intersection of 2 meshes.

  • Creates a new mesh
  • Gets the curve along that mesh
  • Put instances along the curve
  • Make instances of a icoshere look like a bead weld
  • add randomization to the scale

Geometry nodes setup enter image description here

Here are my results enter image description here

user157570
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