ASSET: Auto-Generated Shipping Container
Added 2020-03-05 22:58:57 +0000 UTC
So this was just me being delighted by the "random" input- but here's a shipping container that you can just keep duplicating, and you'll never get the same one twice (I mean- technically. It's just toggling between a few different logo options (with different wear patterns) and shifts in hue and such.)
CC0, use it for whatever you want!
Works in Blender 2.82 and above (because it implements the white noise node).
NOTE: so, you can just download "Auto Shipping Containers" blend and have a good time- but if you add like thousands and thousands of containers, you might notice your computer start to lag.
A lot of times this isn't because blender isn't able to handle that much geometry (these things are stupid low poly) as much as it's blender being unable to handle that many objects. And if you just select all the containers and hit "Ctrl+J" to join them into one object, blender doesn't have any more problems.
The difficulty was that the random seed is tied to the objects ID (or something like that), so then all of the joined containers would be the same. They recently added a new node input, "Random Per Island", which gives every separate mesh chunk a different value.
All that means is, if you want a TON of containers, use the "Per Island" blend file, and duplicate all the containers in edit mode.
If you just want to mess around and maybe only have a few hundred containers, use the regular file in regular ol' object mode. Let me know if that doesn't make sense.
Also, huge thanks to Simon Thommes, the node wizard, for helping me figure out the logo offset!

Comments
all your thumbnails are overexaggerated, can you put the actual blend file please?
Kirin Hushino
2022-10-25 01:18:11 +0000 UTCWow... This is all I can say :D This asset is an absolute game changer for me ! Thanks a lot Ian
2021-04-09 08:42:45 +0000 UTCThis is sooo useful!! I am planning on making a car scene in a shipyard docking port and this is perfect!
bluefire
2020-09-01 17:43:44 +0000 UTCThis is somewhat similar to the rooms generator, right? I think I understand the basics of what it does, but still can't wrap my head around HOW it does it... I'll have to try harder. This stuff is so cool for character t-shirt designs, imho.
Mornarion
2020-08-26 22:20:35 +0000 UTCMan it IS confusing- I want to make a thing soon. The "random variance in hue and stuff" is pretty straightforward- I can do a breakdown on that pretty quick here- but the random logos ended up being pretty darn tricky, and works in this instance, but I want to figure out a more elegant solution for the long term.
Ian Hubert
2020-03-13 01:17:27 +0000 UTCthis looks great can you make a breakdown how to make shaders like this node spaghetti looks confusing
2020-03-12 12:57:05 +0000 UTCLooks fabulous! Much to learn from this one.
Chipp Walters
2020-03-06 23:06:06 +0000 UTCAwesome thank you!
Phillip Park
2020-03-06 16:02:17 +0000 UTCChipp Walters
2020-03-06 11:50:08 +0000 UTC