3D Artist Bao-Thinh Dinh unveiled a free Blender tool for glass distortion and refraction effects, the Patterned Glass Compositor, which creates the effects without requiring complex 3D glass geometry or long render times.

The set includes a Patterned Glass Node Group, the core system for creating custom glass distortion effects, along with five ready-to-use sample patterns: vertical, horizontal, square, circular wave, and dot. Artists can also plug in any black-and-white or grayscale texture to generate custom glass shapes, and apply the effect to the full render or a specific area using a mask.

It also includes an interactive Circle Mask node that lets artists control a circular mask using a 3D Empty Object, adjusting its position and size directly in the Compositor by moving and scaling the Empty in the viewport. The tool is compatible with Blender 5.2 and later, works with both Eevee and Cycles, and can even be applied in post-production to pre-rendered images or videos.

Also, check out a tutorial from 3D Artist and Software Developer Curtis Holt on creating prismatic glass in Blender and an add-on from PeakDreams Studio for crafting vitrage glass with light caustics:

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