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Geospatial Visualization  - Summer of 2022 

   (Scripting, Geometry Nodes)


This project was a small part of a class assignment where I had the choice to present a geospatial visualization in any way I wanted. I chose to use Blender python scripting and geometry nodes to present data about bicycle collisions in Toronto.

  1. Scripting

My first task was to write a script for blender to read a csv file, index the data i needed, then connect it to blender geometry node system.


First I got the filename. Then I extracted the latitude, longitude, and severity data from their matching columns on the CSV file.

I set the number of vertices to be the length of the csv file by referencing one of the columns I had already defined

Since the severity column in the csv file was text data I needed to convert them to numbers. so I made an array to store these new integers and then I also made an array to store the latitude and longitude coordinates as floats.I stored this data as attributes on the selected object.

  1. Geometry Nodes

Blender has a visual scripting system called geometry nodes that lets people create procedural geometry similar to other more VFX and motion graphics focused software.

The last thing my script did was apply the geometry node I'm about to go through.


Pictured above in top down view. Setting each vertex position based on the lat/lon attributes I stored earlier. Then using a bounding box to recenter.



Next I instanced a curve on each point, applied it, then joined it with a circle. Filling between all the curves creates this triangulated pattern collapsing at the location of the set vertices.



Finally I extruded the faces. To do this I need to insert the severity data from earlier, and combine it with a sample of the vertex positions. Using a combination of different techniques I flattened the data a little and made it subtly more varied.



Finally I applied two procedural modifiers: subdivision surface and remesh


Pictured below was my final render. With more time I would’ve added color varied materials and a more atmospheric composition.

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