Eric Charles - DIGITAL PRODUCTION https://digitalproduction.com Magazine for Digital Media Production Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:41:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 236729828 Procedural sawdust: EC Wood Grain hits Blender https://digitalproduction.com/2026/01/19/procedural-sawdust-ec-wood-grain-hits-blender/ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://digitalproduction.com/?p=246231 An illustration showcasing the process of creating wood grain textures in Blender 3D. It displays a circular object on the left transforming into a square, with variations including geometric nodes and container designs. The Blender logo appears in the bottom left.

Eric Charles releases EC Wood Grain, a Geometry Nodes setup that adds procedural 3D wood detail directly in Blender.

The post Procedural sawdust: EC Wood Grain hits Blender first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

]]> An illustration showcasing the process of creating wood grain textures in Blender 3D. It displays a circular object on the left transforming into a square, with variations including geometric nodes and container designs. The Blender logo appears in the bottom left.

Independent Blender developer Eric Charles has released EC Wood Grain, a Geometry Nodes setup that procedurally generates volumetric wood patterns inside Blender. The system uses a single reusable node group that can be appended to any scene and applied as a modifier without manual node editing.

EC Wood Grain operates fully inside Blender’s Geometry Nodes system, creating volumetric detail rather than surface textures. This allows 3D artists to carve realistic rings, displacements, and orientation patterns directly into geometry, rather than relying on bump maps or shaders. The modifier exposes several parameters, including ring spacing, wobble, displacement depth, and mask controls. Orientation can be switched along the X, Y, Z axes or spherical coordinates, offering flexible control over directional wood grain. Masking options enable users to exclude flat bases or selectively apply grain patterns.

Once baked, the resulting mesh can be exported for rendering or physical output, including 3D printing. Because the grain exists as actual geometry, not shader detail, prints retain visible and tactile wood structures. Artists can even vary ring density or axis direction to simulate natural imperfections, producing a more organic surface in FDM or resin prints.

r/blender - Geometry Nodes Wood Grain Effect (for 3d printing)

Non-destructive control, print-ready results

The node setup is entirely procedural and non-destructive until applied, allowing parameters to be fine-tuned in real time before committing the geometry. Once baked, the resulting mesh can be exported for rendering or physical output, including 3D printing. Charles notes that the tool has been tested in Blender 4.0 and newer, including versions 4.5.1 LTS and 5.0.1 at the time of publication. The file ships as a .blend scene containing the complete Geometry Nodes network, ready for direct use or appending into existing projects.

Pricing and availability

EC Wood Grain is distributed via Gumroad on a name-your-price model, with a minimum contribution of 3 Dollars. The package includes the .blend file and full node setup. No licensing restrictions or installation dependencies beyond standard Blender functionality are mentioned. As always, users are advised to test the tool in a controlled environment before deploying it in production pipelines.

The post Procedural sawdust: EC Wood Grain hits Blender first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

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