How to grow a tree like organic structure from a solid?

Hi everyone,

I'm want to understand how I can take a curtain amount of volume out of a solid and transform it into a organic tree like structure. The drawing below shows should give an idea of what the it should look like. The are a few key conditions to this design:

- The tree branches should at some points merge and diverge from each other;

- The volume of the branches should be constrained to the volume taken from the surface.

The objective is to learn how to morph a part of a simple geometry into a complex structure.

I am not asking anyone to give the complete solution, just strategies on how I can come to a solution for this.

Thank you in advance

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Daniel González Abalde on November 23, 2016 at 3:12am

Hi Ranj,

Developing organic growth is a difficult task. On the one hand, you have to create a method of curve growth (this is already a project in itself) and on the other hand a way to wrap the geometry in real time. If you have experience programming, we can delve into this, since I have been working on something similar, although growing the mesh directly (instead a curve) by adding faces at the ends of the branches (simulating the meristematic tissue) and with growth algorithms such as spatial colonization or directed growth (towards light) with restrictions of the environment.

The other option I can give you is to create the geometry directly (without growth) and wrap it with Coocon. It can give you the result you are looking for.

There might be another option, like making a growth method with Hoopsnake and wrapping the curves with Coocon, though I do not think it's in real time. But if you need it to be animated, maybe it's your best bet.

Using Cocoon, you can to merge the branches with other branches and with the solid organically. The branches have the same volume as the space they remove from the solid is only a numerical issue. The application depends on the data that your algorithm. But basically, know the amount of volume that is removed from the solid, for example being a parameter chosen by you, you can approximate the thickness of the branches with a rule of three. And I say, approximate, because when merging branches you will have a problem in knowing the amount they share.

Permalink Reply by Ranj on November 23, 2016 at 4:45am

Thank you for your reply. I am familiar with programming in python, but I have not used it in combination with Grasshopper for complex projects. I very much like to collaborate on this, but I think I need to learn more about the methods that are possibly involved.

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