--- title: "Geometry In-Depth QuickStart" canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VRAYNUKE/110625207/Geometry%20In-Depth%20QuickStart" format: markdown --- This page provides a detailed QuickStart guide to using V-Ray geometry formats in Nuke. ** ** ## **Overview** --- This tutorial will show you ways to load in new geometry file formats and how they compare to the original file formats that are provided within Nuke. We'll also take a look at the vrmesh and V-Ray proxy node. To follow this tutorial, you will need to have the V-Ray for Nuke plugin installed. This tutorial is a companion to go along with the QuickStart video posted on our YouTube channel. Want to follow along but don’t have a license? > Macro (ui-button) > Macro (iframe) ## **Tutorial Assets** --- To download the files used in this tutorial, please click on the button below. > Macro (refined-button) > ⚠️ Due to licensing issues, the Road_A.hdr file used in the tutorial video is not included in the downloadable assets. Instead, please use one of the provided HDR images in its place. ## **Tutorial Steps** --- **1) Create the starting scene** > Macro (inline-media-image) Create a scene and name it **Main**. Create a **VRayLightDome** and connect this to the scene **Main**. Under the light's properties, check **Invisible** so the light is not visible in our scene. Create a **VRayRenderer** node and connect this to the scene **Main**. Then create a **VRayCamera** and connect this to the **VRayRenderer** node. This creates the **VRayCamera** at the (0,0,0) origin. You will need to move the camera so you can see the geometry. > Macro (inline-media-image) *VRayCamera Settings* **2) Load geometry using standard file formats** Press the **[R]** key and load the file *sphere_all.fbx*. In **Properties**, check **All Objects** so all meshes in the FBX file are visible. Press the **[R]** key again and load *sphere_all.obj*. Press **[R]** to create another **ReadGeo** node to load the Alembic file *sphereAll_animate_02.abc*. Click the **Create all-in-one** node at the bottom of the panel that pops up. This allows the entire Alembic file to be accessible from a single node. Arrange these nodes in your Nuke script side by side so that you can switch between them more easily later. > Macro (inline-media-image) **3) Apply material** Create a **VRayMtl** node, then create an **ApplyMaterial** node and connect it to the **VRayMtl** node. Connect the **ApplyMaterial** node to the **ReadGeo** node containing the *sphere_all.fbx.* Copy this **ApplyMaterial** node and connect a copy to each of the other two **ReadGeo** nodes. We now have our material applied to all three **ReadGeo** nodes. Let's see what the output is like from the *sphere_all.fbx* **ReadGeo** node by disconnecting the **ApplyMaterial** node that is connected to it, and connecting the **ApplyMaterial** node to the scene instead. > Macro (inline-media-image) *FBX connection* > Macro (inline-media-image) *FBX render* * * Then change the connection from the *sphere_all.fbx* **ReadGeo** node to each of the other two **ReadGeo** nodes in turn. You will see that the output from each **ReadGeo** node is currently exactly the same. > Macro (inline-media-image) * * *OBJ Connection* > Macro (inline-media-image) *OBJ Render* > Macro (inline-media-image) * * *Alembic Connection* * * If we wanted to apply our material just to the sphere part and not to the other parts we can do this through the **ApplyMaterial** nodes. Under the **Properties** for the node, change the filter option to **name**, and click **choose**. Then you can pick the objects to apply the material to. The files *sphere_all.fbx* and *sphere_all.obj* don't give you any objects to select using the **ReadGeo** node, but the Alembic file read from *sphereAll_animate_02.abc* will show you the different parts. By choosing the sphere part from the Alembic file, you'll see the VRayMtl applied only to the actual sphere part of the model. > Macro (inline-media-image) > Macro (inline-media-image) *Alembic Render* **4) Loading in geometry using V-Ray nodes** V-Ray for Nuke has multiple ways to read in geometry. These different methods give us then the ability to load geometry with far higher polygon counts while keeping our scene fast to navigate. While the standard **ReadGeo** nodes will show every polygon in a file, a **VRayProxy** node is optimized for faster navigation in our 3D view. Change the Alembic file node from a **ReadGeo** node to a **VRayProxy** node. The same polygons are there for the final render, but an optimized version is used in the viewport. With a mesh with a very high polygon count, we would still be able to navigate our scene just as easily with 20 million polygons as with 2000 polygons. > Macro (inline-media-image) *VRayProxy* > Macro (inline-media-image) *VRayProxy Alembic Properties* > Macro (inline-media-image) * * *Standard read node 3D View of Alembic File* > Macro (inline-media-image) * * *VRayProxy 3D View of Alembic File* * * Change the **VRayMtl** node's color to red so it is easy to discern. Note that the **VRayProxy** node also supports the native Vrmesh format as well. > Macro (inline-media-image) *VRayProxy Alembic Apply Material Popup pane* * * Now that we are using the **VRayProxy** node to read in the *sphereAll_animate_02.abc* Alembic file, the way the **ApplyMaterial** node works has changed. Our scene graph now has actual named geometry. So if you once again select the **ApplyMaterial** node connected to the Alembic file and click the **Choose** button, you'll notice that we can now filter by either **sphere_VRayMtl1** or **frames_VRayMtl2**. > Macro (inline-media-image) *VRayProxy Vrmesh Apply Material Popup pane* * * Although the Alembic files read the actual named geometry, the vrmesh format lists the materials that were assigned to the mesh. Select the sphere by selecting **sphere_VRayMtl1**. You should now see the sphere part of the mesh with the red V-Ray material applied. > Macro (inline-media-image) Vrmesh V-Ray render