The setup requires only two nodes.

Freelance Illustrator Ben Voldman has recently demonstrated a quick and convenient way of turning real-life large-scale cities into 3D models using Houdini's geometry nodes and map data taken from MapBox, a website that provides methods to browse and download data in a variety of formats.

Utilizing just two nodes, Labs MapBox, which allows you to generate color, height, and Open Street Map (OSM) curves using data from the aforementioned website, and Labs OSM Buildings, required to generate buildings from OSM data, the creator managed to recreate the entirety of New York City's Manhattan borough in 3D.

And here's the project the map was used for:

You can check out more of Ben's works by visiting the artist's Twitter page. Also, don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform, our Reddit page, and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.