Instance on Points node: controls, inputs and a free patch

Instance on Points

Stamps a copy of one mesh onto the points of another, turning a single object into a scattered crowd drawn as GPU instances — one draw call for thousands of copies. Points can come from vertices, edges, faces, or a point cloud, with per-instance scale/rotation randomization and normal alignment.

What it does

Instance on Points is a 3D node: it builds, changes or lights geometry that Render 3D turns into a picture. It takes 3D shape in and gives 3D shape out.

Try it

Scatter thousands of tiny cubes across a sphere's surface with align-to-normal on so they bristle outward like fur.

Distribute Points on Faces Instance on Points Render 3D

Inputs and outputs

Inputs

3D shape points
3D shape shape
3D shape cloud

Outputs

3D shape out

Controls

Every control with a range can be driven by a modulator, a note, an audio level or a sketch.

Control	Range or options	Default
points from	Vertices, Edges, Faces	2
max points	1 to 20000	2000
scale	0.005 to 1	0.119999997
scale random	0 to 1	0.400000006
rotation random	0 to 1	1
align to normal	on or off	on
normal offset	-0.5 to 0.5	0
seed	0 to 100	0

Example patch

This patch wires Instance on Points to what it needs and shows the result. Download it, then use File, Open in Infinite, or read it here: it is plain text.

infinite-patch 1
rev 2
# Instance on Points: a starting patch for the Instance on Points node
node 1 3D Instance on Points
  id node
  pos 520 300
end
node 2 3D Cube
  id in0
  pos 0 220
end
node 3 3D Cube
  id in1
  pos 0 510
end
node 4 3D Cube
  id in2
  pos 0 800
end
node 5 3D Render 3D
  id view
  pos 1080 300
end
node 6 Utility Output
  id out
  pos 1640 300
end
geo node 0 in0
geo node 1 in1
geo node 2 in2
geo view 0 node
cable out 0 view