EPIC: Various improvements to the Blender visualization (Hackathon results)

[maarzt]

During SciView hackathon we experimented with various techniques to visualize Mastodon datasets in Blender. Here are the results:
mastodon-sciview-hackathon-results.zip

• A workflow for rendering a Mastodon dataset as cells with tails in Blender:

  • a Mastodon CSV export plugin (GraphToCsvUtils.java, ExportGraphAsCsvPlugin.java)
  • a CSV to mesh script for Blender (read_csv_to_vertices_and_edges.py)
  • a geometry node workflow that renders a mesh as colored cells with tails (blender-render-cells-and-tails.blend)
    Here is a screenshot of the result:
    

• material that renders cells darker if they are further away from the camera
  (render-material_cells-distant-to-the-camera-darker.blend)
  

• a geometry nodes setup that renders 100k instances of differently shaped curves.
  This can potentially be used to render cell division in a metaball like fashion.
  (many-curves_prototype-for-cell-division-animation.blend)