3D Object
Add an imported 3D mesh to the scene.
3D Object
Method #
This node renders a 3D object that has been imported from an external file in one of the supported 3D object file formats. As well as being rendered directly, 3D Object nodes may also be used as an input for various other nodes, including Particle Mesh Emitters, Field 3D Object Emitters, Clone To Mesh, Clone To Volume, Collision Affectors and numerous others.
The supported formats are:
- LightWave (.LWO)
- Wavefront (.OBJ)
- Cinema4D (.C4D)
- FBX (.FBX)
- Alembic (.ABC)
The 3D Object resource must be set via the Object property dropdown. If a resource contains multiple separated meshes, the Layer Index parameter can be used to select a specific mesh from that scene. The material properties and inputs will adapt to whichever mesh is selected, allowing each material’s properties to be edited independently. A Material Node can also be input to control the objects material properties.
The 3D Object node supports the LightWave Fertilizer plugin, which allows meshes to be grown outwards from a specified source point as defined by a suitably named weight map. Alternatively, the Generate Fertilizer Times Deformer can be used to generate these values in Notch instead for any imported mesh.
The 3D Object node may be used as a rigid body in a physics system via the Physics Attributes properties. It must be parented under a Rigid Body Root node for physics to be applied.
Smoothing and subdivision is interleaved with deformation so deformers may be applied to a certain subdivision level.
Subdivision, smoothing and deformation may have a noticeable memory and processing overhead.
This node outputs the normal transformation and translation values, but it also outputs geometry which can be modified with Deformer nodes, or used as a mesh sources for nodes which accept mesh connections, such as the Field 3D Object Emitter or the Procedural 3D Object.
Parameters
These properties control the 3D transforms of the node. Transforms will generally be inherited by child nodes, although they can be ignored through the Inherit Transform Channels attributes.
Parameter Details
Position X Move along the local x-axis.
Position Y Move along the local y-axis.
Position Z Move along the local z-axis.
Rotation Heading Rotate around the local y-axis.
Rotation Pitch Rotate around the local x-axis.
Rotation Bank Rotate around the local z-axis.
Scale X Scale along the local x-axis.
Scale Y Scale along the local y-axis.
Scale Z Scale along the local z-axis.
Toggle which transform channels should be inherited from the parent node. By default, all transforms will be inherited.
Parameter Details
Position X Toggle inheritance of the X Position from the parent.
Position Y Toggle inheritance of the Y Position from the parent.
Position Z Toggle inheritance of the Z Position from the parent.
Rotation Heading Toggle inheritance of the Rotation Heading from the parent.
Rotation Pitch Toggle inheritance of the Rotation Pitch from the parent.
Rotation Bank Toggle inheritance of the Rotation Bank from the parent.
Scale X Toggle inheritance of the X Scale from the parent.
Scale Y Toggle inheritance of the Y Scale from the parent.
Scale Z Toggle inheritance of the Z Scale from the parent.
World Position Only Inherit the world position from the parent only, rotation and scale will be ignored. Overrides above properties.
Inherit Time Toggle inheritance of time from the parent.
These properties control the core behaviours of the node.
Parameter Details
Object Select a mesh from the resources as the object source.
Layer Index Select a specific mesh from a larger 3D scene.
Collision Layer Index Select from the 3D scene to use for collisions, if applicable.
Object Dissolve Dissolves or disables the object from being rendered.
Visible Control whether the node is visible or not to the scene.
Seen By Rays Allow the mesh to be seen by the raytracer. When set to 0, the mesh will still render in camera but will be ignored by any raytracing nodes.
Per Object Composite Alpha Overwrites the alpha channel beneath the object, giving simple effect of transparency. Best used when the mesh won’t overlap with other objects, as other meshes will not be seen through the mesh.
Fertilizer Value Controls an erosion effect on the mesh surface. This data can be exported from LightWave, or generated using the Generate Fertilizer Times Deformer.
Fertilizer Back Value Controls an erosion effect on the mesh surface starting from the opposite direction from the Fertilizer Value. This data can be exported from LightWave, or generated using the Generate Fertilizer Times Deformer.
Motion Blur Velocity Scale Scales the velocity vectors used in the motion vector pass, primarily used for motion blur effects. Useful for exaggering or removing motion blur on specific objects in the scene.
Lit Toggle whether the object can be lit by scene lights.
Cast Shadows Toggle whether the object can cast shadows.
Render Z Only When enabled, the 3D object is only rendered to the depth buffer in the main camera render, i.e no colour data is rendered. Useful for virtual production and AR, where you need a virtual object to sit in front of an actor in the scene.
Culling Enabled When enabled, camera-based culling is disabled for the 3D object.
Render to Shadows Only When enabled, the object is only rendered to shadow map passes, not to the main camera render.
Flip Polygons When enabled, the normals of the polygons in the mesh are inverted. This can be useful if the camera view is intended to be inside the object, but can also be done within the material node.
Subdivision Levels The number of subdivisions to be applied to the mesh. Subdivisions may be done before, after or mixed in with deformation, and subdivision is done before rendering. Each level multiplies the number of polygons in the object by 4, which can greatly increase rendering time and memory overhead.
Smoothing Iterations Iteratively smoothes the meshes vertices by the number of levels specified, averaging out all the vertices in the mesh and producing a smoother result. Smoothing is done before rendering. High values can impact performance greatly, and may not be temporally stable if the underlying mesh changes.
Deformer Temporal Smoothing Smooths the resulting vertex positions after deformation over time, reducing erratic motion from heavy deformer setups.
Deformer Normal Mode Deformation and smoothing requires mesh normals to be regenerated for the new vertex positions. These properties control how the mesh normals are regenerated after deformation.
- Smooth : Polygons are all treated as smooth, with the normal angle in the material controling where edges are hardened.
- Flat : Polygons are all treated as flat, and all edges are hardened.
Tessellation Enabled Enables GPU hardware tessellation, which subdivides the mesh efficiently at render time on the GPU, allowing the mesh to become denser when close to the viewer. Tessellation does not consume memory resources, is more efficient than subdivision, and is adaptive based on distance from the camera. Tessellation is often useful in conjunction with displacement mapping, enabled by setting a displacement map on a material.
Max Tesselation Factor The maximum tessellation factor for hardware tessellation. Controls the maximum number of polygons generated from each source polygon in the mesh.
Subdivision Near Distance The near distance from the camera at which tessellation is at its highest.
Subdivision Distance The distance from the camera at which tessellation falls off to the original mesh polygons.
Lightmap Width The width of the object’s lightmap, if required.
Lightmap Height The height of the object’s lightmap, if required.
Reload Materials From LWO Reload the material used from the original 3D object file.
Show Weightmap Select which weightmap should be shown on the objects mesh. By default, none is shown.
These properties control the which uvsets to use for the material channels.
Parameter Details
Colour Texture UV Set Change the UV set to use for the most of the material texture types.
Diffuse Texture Set Change the UV set to use for the diffuse texture, used for baked lighting.
These properties add options for drawing all the edges of the mesh as lines. Useful for rendering wireframe effects.
Parameter Details
Lines Visible Control whether lines are rendered to the scene from the geometry.
Lines Alpha Change the alpha transparency value of the lines, making them appear see-through.
Colour Change the colour value of the lines.
Use Vertex Colours Colour lines based on the vertex colours of the geometry.
Blend Mode How the object lines blends with the rest of the content in a 3d scene. See Blend Modes for details.
- Solid : The line rendering is treated as a solid object, and does not blend with anything behind it.
- Blend : The line rendering is blended with the rest of the content in the scene, with a subtle gradient over the line edges.
- Additive : The line rendering adds onto the rest of the content in the scene.
- Subtractive : The line rendering subtracts from the rest of the content in the scene.
- Multiply : The line rendering multiplies with the rest of the content in the scene.
- Max : The max value between the lines and the content behind it is used.
- Min : The min value between the lines and the content behind it is used.
- Light : The line rendering is blended using the light blend mode with the rest of the content in the scene.
- Screen : The line rendering is blended using the screen blend mode with the rest of the content in the scene.
- Pre-Mul Blend : The line rendering mis premultiplied before blending with the rest of the content in the scene.
Thick Lines Allow the lines to rendered with thickness, for line effects which can be accurately anti-aliased.
Hide Back Face Lines Hide the lines generated from polygon faces facing away from the camera, where only the back faces of geometry can be seen.
Lock Width Lock the line width to be a consistent width regardless of distance from the camera. Only functions with Thick Lines enabled.
Thick Line Width Control the thickness of all the lines. Only functions with Thick Lines enabled.
Show Silhouette Lines Draws lines along the edges of the object relative to the camera.
Show Normal Difference Lines Draw a line along the edges of the mesh, depending on the angle difference between their mutual faces.
Show Unshared Lines Draw lines along all edges of the shape.
Show Other Lines Show all the lines for each edge of the mesh.
Unshared Lines Weight Control the strength of the unshared lines.
Silhouette Lines Weight Control the strength of the silhouette lines.
Normal Difference Lines Weight Control the strength of the lines generated along the normal angles.
Other Lines Weight Control the strength of the lines for each edge in the mesh.
Line Normal Difference Angle Change the threshold angle between two face normals that will generate a line along their common edge. Only functions with Show Normal Lines enabled.
Line Normal Fade Sharpness How much the drawn normal lines will fade away the closer the edge angle is to the Line Normal Difference Angle.
Line Depth Bias Exaggerate the width of the lines based on the distance to the camera. not functional with Lock Width enabled.
Line Silhouette Fade Sharpness How much the drawn silhouette lines will fade away based on the size of the edge angle to the camera.
These properties allow any Point Level Animation stored within the imported mesh to be played back.
Parameter Details
Use Point-Level Animation When enabled, Point Level Animation contained within the object file will be used to deform the mesh.
Point-Level Animation Blend Amount Blend between the imported Point Level Animation vertex positons and the vertices original position. The blend is a simple linear interpolation, so
Point-Level Animation Speed Control the speed that the Point Level Animation should run at.
Point-Level Animation Offset Offset the beginning time of the Point Level Animation.
These properties control how the UVs of the mesh are transformed when output for the UV camera. Useful for arranging multiple objects to be output for the same UV Camera.
Parameter Details
UV Scale X Scale the mesh UV along the x axis.
UV Scale Y Scale the mesh UV along the y axis.
UV Offset X Move the mesh UV along the x axis.
UV Offset Y Move the mesh UV along the y axis.
These properties control the behavious of the object in a Physics System.
Parameter Details
Friction How much other rigid bodies will be able to slide along side this rigid body. When two rigid bodies of different frictions interact, the minimum value is used.
Bounciness How much this rigid body will bounce off of other rigid bodies in the scene.
Density The density of the rigid body. The density is scaled by the area of the shape to determine the mass of the body.
Spin X The spin of the rigid body on the X axes. This scales the inertia tensor on this axes, making the body spin faster or slower in that direction when torque is applied.
Spin Y The spin of the rigid body on the Y axes. This scales the inertia tensor on this axes, making the body spin faster or slower in that direction when torque is applied.
Spin Z The spin of the rigid body on the Z axes. This scales the inertia tensor on this axes, making the body spin faster or slower in that direction when torque is applied.
Dynamics Mode How the object is used in a physics simulation. Parenting to a Physics Root node must be done for any physics simulations to occur.
- Static : A static rigid body does not move and can’t be moved by physics, but will act as a collider for other dynamic objects. An example could be a floor or wall.
- Kinematic : A kinematic rigid body is not moved by physics but has a velocity that can affect dynamic bodies. An example could be a moving platform or rotating collider.
- Dynamic : A dynamic rigid body has its initial position set by its transform, but transform control is taken over by physics as soon as the simulation starts.
- Disabled : Physics will not be applied, and the object will be ignored for simulation.
Dynamics Transform For Rendering Only (Faster) If selected, the transform of the body is maintained on GPU only. This reduces latency and increases performance but means that parenting to the object, e.g. using it to transform lights will not work.
Rigid Body Shape The shape of the rigid body used for physics simulation. Often times, a simpler approximation of a mesh can be used for significantly improved performance.
- Sphere : A sphere, useful for emulating balls or roundish objects.
- Box : A box, useful for emulating boxy objects.
- Plane : A flat infinite plane, useful for setting up solid walls. May only be static or kinematic.
- 3D Object (Convex Hull) : A convex hull derived from the geometry of the node, with its own modes to set the convex hull generation below.
- 3D Object (Use Original Geometry) : The original triangle geometry of the node, if applicable. Best used with low poly meshes.
Rigid Body Sphere Radius The radius of the rigid body if Sphere is selected in the Rigid Body Shape.
Rigid Body Box Size X The width of the rigid body shape if Box is selected in the Rigid Body Shape.
Rigid Body Box Size Y The height of the rigid body box shape if Box is selected in the Rigid Body Shape.
Rigid Body Box Size Z The depth of the rigid body box shape if Box is selected in the Rigid Body Shape.
Rigid Body Convex Hull Mode Determines the convex hull shape generation used to wrap around the node’s geometry. only functions if the Convex Hull shape is selected in the Rigid Body Shape.
- 10 Faces (Cylinder) X-Axis : A simplified cylinder with 10 sides pointing along the X axis.
- 10 Faces (Cylinder) Y-Axis : A simplified cylinder with 10 sides pointing along the Y axis.
- 10 Faces (Cylinder) Z-Axis : A simplified cylinder with 10 sides pointing along the Z axis.
- 14 Faces (Capsule) - X-Axis : A simplified capsule with 10 sides pointing along the X axis.
- 14 Faces (Capsule) - Y-Axis : A simplified capsule with 10 sides pointing along the Y axis.
- 14 Faces (Capsule) - Z-Axis : A simplified capsule with 10 sides pointing along the Z axis.
- 18 Faces (Rounded Box) : A simplified beveled box with 18 sides.
These properties control how the surface of the generated mesh reacts to light in the scene. See Materials for a breakdown of all these properties individually.
Inputs
These properties control the 3D transforms of the node. Transforms will generally be inherited by child nodes, although they can be ignored through the Inherit Transform Channels attributes.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Position X | Move along the local x-axis. |
| Position Y | Move along the local y-axis. |
| Position Z | Move along the local z-axis. |
| Rotation Heading | Rotate around the local y-axis. |
| Rotation Pitch | Rotate around the local x-axis. |
| Rotation Bank | Rotate around the local z-axis. |
| Scale X | Scale along the local x-axis. |
| Scale Y | Scale along the local y-axis. |
| Scale Z | Scale along the local z-axis. |
Toggle which transform channels should be inherited from the parent node. By default, all transforms will be inherited.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Position X | Toggle inheritance of the X Position from the parent. |
| Position Y | Toggle inheritance of the Y Position from the parent. |
| Position Z | Toggle inheritance of the Z Position from the parent. |
| Rotation Heading | Toggle inheritance of the Rotation Heading from the parent. |
| Rotation Pitch | Toggle inheritance of the Rotation Pitch from the parent. |
| Rotation Bank | Toggle inheritance of the Rotation Bank from the parent. |
| Scale X | Toggle inheritance of the X Scale from the parent. |
| Scale Y | Toggle inheritance of the Y Scale from the parent. |
| Scale Z | Toggle inheritance of the Z Scale from the parent. |
| World Position Only | Inherit the world position from the parent only, rotation and scale will be ignored. Overrides above properties. |
| Inherit Time | Toggle inheritance of time from the parent. |
These properties control the core behaviours of the node.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Object | Select a mesh from the resources as the object source. |
| Layer Index | Select a specific mesh from a larger 3D scene. |
| Collision Layer Index | Select from the 3D scene to use for collisions, if applicable. |
| Object Dissolve | Dissolves or disables the object from being rendered. |
| Visible | Control whether the node is visible or not to the scene. |
| Seen By Rays | Allow the mesh to be seen by the raytracer. When set to 0, the mesh will still render in camera but will be ignored by any raytracing nodes. |
| Per Object Composite Alpha | Overwrites the alpha channel beneath the object, giving simple effect of transparency. Best used when the mesh won’t overlap with other objects, as other meshes will not be seen through the mesh. |
| Fertilizer Value | Controls an erosion effect on the mesh surface. This data can be exported from LightWave, or generated using the Generate Fertilizer Times Deformer. |
| Fertilizer Back Value | Controls an erosion effect on the mesh surface starting from the opposite direction from the Fertilizer Value. This data can be exported from LightWave, or generated using the Generate Fertilizer Times Deformer. |
| Motion Blur Velocity Scale | Scales the velocity vectors used in the motion vector pass, primarily used for motion blur effects. Useful for exaggering or removing motion blur on specific objects in the scene. |
| Lit | Toggle whether the object can be lit by scene lights. |
| Cast Shadows | Toggle whether the object can cast shadows. |
| Render Z Only | When enabled, the 3D object is only rendered to the depth buffer in the main camera render, i.e no colour data is rendered. Useful for virtual production and AR, where you need a virtual object to sit in front of an actor in the scene. |
| Culling Enabled | When enabled, camera-based culling is disabled for the 3D object. |
| Render to Shadows Only | When enabled, the object is only rendered to shadow map passes, not to the main camera render. |
| Flip Polygons | When enabled, the normals of the polygons in the mesh are inverted. This can be useful if the camera view is intended to be inside the object, but can also be done within the material node. |
| Subdivision Levels | The number of subdivisions to be applied to the mesh. Subdivisions may be done before, after or mixed in with deformation, and subdivision is done before rendering. Each level multiplies the number of polygons in the object by 4, which can greatly increase rendering time and memory overhead. |
| Smoothing Iterations | Iteratively smoothes the meshes vertices by the number of levels specified, averaging out all the vertices in the mesh and producing a smoother result. Smoothing is done before rendering. High values can impact performance greatly, and may not be temporally stable if the underlying mesh changes. |
| Deformer Temporal Smoothing | Smooths the resulting vertex positions after deformation over time, reducing erratic motion from heavy deformer setups. |
| Deformer Normal Mode | Deformation and smoothing requires mesh normals to be regenerated for the new vertex positions. These properties control how the mesh normals are regenerated after deformation.
|
| Tessellation Enabled | Enables GPU hardware tessellation, which subdivides the mesh efficiently at render time on the GPU, allowing the mesh to become denser when close to the viewer. Tessellation does not consume memory resources, is more efficient than subdivision, and is adaptive based on distance from the camera. Tessellation is often useful in conjunction with displacement mapping, enabled by setting a displacement map on a material. |
| Max Tesselation Factor | The maximum tessellation factor for hardware tessellation. Controls the maximum number of polygons generated from each source polygon in the mesh. |
| Subdivision Near Distance | The near distance from the camera at which tessellation is at its highest. |
| Subdivision Distance | The distance from the camera at which tessellation falls off to the original mesh polygons. |
| Lightmap Width | The width of the object’s lightmap, if required. |
| Lightmap Height | The height of the object’s lightmap, if required. |
| Reload Materials From LWO | Reload the material used from the original 3D object file. |
| Show Weightmap | Select which weightmap should be shown on the objects mesh. By default, none is shown. |
These properties control the which uvsets to use for the material channels.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Colour Texture UV Set | Change the UV set to use for the most of the material texture types. |
| Diffuse Texture Set | Change the UV set to use for the diffuse texture, used for baked lighting. |
These properties add options for drawing all the edges of the mesh as lines. Useful for rendering wireframe effects.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Lines Visible | Control whether lines are rendered to the scene from the geometry. |
| Lines Alpha | Change the alpha transparency value of the lines, making them appear see-through. |
| Colour | Change the colour value of the lines. |
| Use Vertex Colours | Colour lines based on the vertex colours of the geometry. |
| Blend Mode | How the object lines blends with the rest of the content in a 3d scene. See Blend Modes for details.
|
| Thick Lines | Allow the lines to rendered with thickness, for line effects which can be accurately anti-aliased. |
| Hide Back Face Lines | Hide the lines generated from polygon faces facing away from the camera, where only the back faces of geometry can be seen. |
| Lock Width | Lock the line width to be a consistent width regardless of distance from the camera. Only functions with Thick Lines enabled. |
| Thick Line Width | Control the thickness of all the lines. Only functions with Thick Lines enabled. |
| Show Silhouette Lines | Draws lines along the edges of the object relative to the camera. |
| Show Normal Difference Lines | Draw a line along the edges of the mesh, depending on the angle difference between their mutual faces. |
| Show Unshared Lines | Draw lines along all edges of the shape. |
| Show Other Lines | Show all the lines for each edge of the mesh. |
| Unshared Lines Weight | Control the strength of the unshared lines. |
| Silhouette Lines Weight | Control the strength of the silhouette lines. |
| Normal Difference Lines Weight | Control the strength of the lines generated along the normal angles. |
| Other Lines Weight | Control the strength of the lines for each edge in the mesh. |
| Line Normal Difference Angle | Change the threshold angle between two face normals that will generate a line along their common edge. Only functions with Show Normal Lines enabled. |
| Line Normal Fade Sharpness | How much the drawn normal lines will fade away the closer the edge angle is to the Line Normal Difference Angle. |
| Line Depth Bias | Exaggerate the width of the lines based on the distance to the camera. not functional with Lock Width enabled. |
| Line Silhouette Fade Sharpness | How much the drawn silhouette lines will fade away based on the size of the edge angle to the camera. |
These properties allow any Point Level Animation stored within the imported mesh to be played back.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Use Point-Level Animation | When enabled, Point Level Animation contained within the object file will be used to deform the mesh. |
| Point-Level Animation Blend Amount | Blend between the imported Point Level Animation vertex positons and the vertices original position. The blend is a simple linear interpolation, so |
| Point-Level Animation Speed | Control the speed that the Point Level Animation should run at. |
| Point-Level Animation Offset | Offset the beginning time of the Point Level Animation. |
These properties control how the UVs of the mesh are transformed when output for the UV camera. Useful for arranging multiple objects to be output for the same UV Camera.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| UV Scale X | Scale the mesh UV along the x axis. |
| UV Scale Y | Scale the mesh UV along the y axis. |
| UV Offset X | Move the mesh UV along the x axis. |
| UV Offset Y | Move the mesh UV along the y axis. |
These properties control the behavious of the object in a Physics System.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Friction | How much other rigid bodies will be able to slide along side this rigid body. When two rigid bodies of different frictions interact, the minimum value is used. |
| Bounciness | How much this rigid body will bounce off of other rigid bodies in the scene. |
| Density | The density of the rigid body. The density is scaled by the area of the shape to determine the mass of the body. |
| Spin X | The spin of the rigid body on the X axes. This scales the inertia tensor on this axes, making the body spin faster or slower in that direction when torque is applied. |
| Spin Y | The spin of the rigid body on the Y axes. This scales the inertia tensor on this axes, making the body spin faster or slower in that direction when torque is applied. |
| Spin Z | The spin of the rigid body on the Z axes. This scales the inertia tensor on this axes, making the body spin faster or slower in that direction when torque is applied. |
| Dynamics Mode | How the object is used in a physics simulation. Parenting to a Physics Root node must be done for any physics simulations to occur.
|
| Dynamics Transform For Rendering Only (Faster) | If selected, the transform of the body is maintained on GPU only. This reduces latency and increases performance but means that parenting to the object, e.g. using it to transform lights will not work. |
| Rigid Body Shape | The shape of the rigid body used for physics simulation. Often times, a simpler approximation of a mesh can be used for significantly improved performance.
|
| Rigid Body Sphere Radius | The radius of the rigid body if Sphere is selected in the Rigid Body Shape. |
| Rigid Body Box Size X | The width of the rigid body shape if Box is selected in the Rigid Body Shape. |
| Rigid Body Box Size Y | The height of the rigid body box shape if Box is selected in the Rigid Body Shape. |
| Rigid Body Box Size Z | The depth of the rigid body box shape if Box is selected in the Rigid Body Shape. |
| Rigid Body Convex Hull Mode | Determines the convex hull shape generation used to wrap around the node’s geometry. only functions if the Convex Hull shape is selected in the Rigid Body Shape.
|
These properties control how the surface of the generated mesh reacts to light in the scene. See Materials for a breakdown of all these properties individually.
Default Material won’t always appear under this name, as it will always take the name of the imported object’s material.
| Name | Description | Typical Input |
|---|---|---|
| Default Material | Override the default material with a material node. | Materials |
| Transform Modifiers | Apply the transforms of another node to this node. | Null |
| Target Node | Modifiy the rotations of the node to always direct the z axis towards the input. | Null |
| Local Transform Override | Apply the transforms of another node to this node, relative to its parent. | Null |