SDF – The Future of 3D Modelling

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SDF, Signed Distance Fields or Signed Distance Functions are a relatively new approach to computer graphics. Described on Wikipedia as:

Let Ω be a subset of a metric space X with metric d, and ∂Ω{\displaystyle \partial \Omega } be its boundary. The distance between a point x of X and the subset ∂Ω{\displaystyle \partial \Omega } of X is defined as usual asd(x,∂Ω)=infy∈∂Ωd(x,y),{\displaystyle d(x,\partial \Omega )=\inf _{y\in \partial \Omega }d(x,y),}

where inf{\displaystyle \inf } denotes the infimum.

The signed distance function from a point x of X to Ω{\displaystyle \Omega } is defined byf(x)={d(x,∂Ω)if x∈Ω−d(x,∂Ω)if x∉Ω.{\displaystyle f(x)={\begin{cases}d(x,\partial \Omega )&{\text{if }}x\in \Omega \\-d(x,\partial \Omega )&{\text{if }}\,x\notin \Omega .\end{cases}}}

In much simpler terms, SDF’s are a fast way in computer graphics to describe the boundary or shape of an object and how it interacts with other nearby objects. This has been used early on by Valve in 2007 for font rendering, as well as in the Godot game engine in SDFGI or Signed Distance Field Global Illumination(learn more).

Recently we have seen more and more CG applications using SDF for 3D modelling. In the video below we cover the following applications that utilize Signed Distance Fields.

Dreams – Media Molecule Games | Unique Gaming Experiences

MagicaVoxel (ephtracy.github.io)

CLAVICULA

Womp: Free 3D design software

SDF Modeler (notion.site)

ConjureSDF for Blender 3.3

Adobe Substance 3D

Learn more about SDF usage in the world of computer graphics in the video below.

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