Bubbles Along Curve

Inputs

Main Sliders

Slider	What it changes	Default
Number of points	How many bubbles are scattered over the surface. More points means smaller, denser bubbles.	1000
Bubble Scale	The size of the largest bubbles, as a share of the spacing between points. Around 0.5, bubbles on the curve just touch.	0.45
Smallest radius	The size of the bubbles furthest from the curve.	0.01

Also try: reshape the Graph Mapper to change how quickly the bubbles shrink, or change the seed of Populate 2D for a different random arrangement.

Notes

• Keep Bubble Scale at 0.5 or below if the bubbles must not overlap, for example when you laser-cut them as holes.
• For a perforated panel, bake the circles as cut lines and set the smallest radius to what your fabricator can cut.
• To gather the bubbles around a point instead of a line, replace Curve Closest Point with Distance to that point.

Design Logic

How the script builds the pattern. The groups on the canvas follow the same order.

Step	How the script does it
1. Scatter points over the surface	Populate 2D spreads points evenly but randomly across the surface. Each point becomes the centre of a bubble.
2. Work out the largest bubble size	Closest Points finds each point’s nearest neighbours and Average gives the typical spacing. Multiplication scales it by Bubble Scale, so the biggest bubbles fit between their neighbours.
3. Measure each point’s distance to your curve	Curve Closest Point measures the distance. Bounds and Remap Numbers turn the distances into values from 0 to 1.
4. Turn distance into bubble size	A Graph Mapper shapes the gradient and Remap Numbers maps it from the largest size (on the curve) down to the smallest (far away).
5. Draw the bubbles	Circle CNR draws a circle at each point, facing the surface’s normal from Evaluate Surface, with the radius from step 4.

Want to learn how to build scripts like this on your own? Check out the Grasshopper Pro course.