L_systems _General Thoughts

[Justin K]

           Hey all, I posted earlier to get some help on l-systems and was quickly given some advice--- thanks on that.  My question here is a bit more general, and it is more about the long term potential of dedicated l system studies within houdini itself.  I am about a month into my research, and I understand that l systems can be incredibly powerful, having uses far beyond trying to replicate the flora of nature by way of breaking down growth patterns, or generating fractals of established or new types.    

Main focus within research for TD work as of now is optimizing a pipeline for plant growth --that is, for the generation of plants coming into flower, for fruits growing on trees, and the like.  This is a complicated area, and as far as animation goes l systems core architecture is vital to this--which is why I am working in l systems in the first place.  

 

 As of now there are many programs designed specifically for  generating plant life quickly---plant factory, onyx, and several others.  I have concerns about their workability in the long term though, for instance: 

                                     --lets say the target goal was a photoreal daylily growing to full scale and then coming into bloom--front and center 4k resolution.   I feel that the more of this process I can keep in Houdini the better off I will be, considering the subtle nuances that will be required for the animation will be linked so strongly to the mesh propagation procedures.   The thing is, it will make my process at times more difficult on the modeling side, largely because designing the structure for the plant itself will be more challenging the more complex the plant and the flower.  And for some occasions if I could set something up off of useful presets in another package it would admittedly, be easier (if less satisfying).  

 

Any thoughts on this?   Again this is general not specific---hoping this can be more about conjectures and ideas than anything else, and perhaps an interesting topic for debate and thoughts at the very least-- an example area of interest within this overall context --- methods for connect an l system for the main stems to another for the roots-------- the list is really endless (in a good way).  

 

 

As an aside,  I don't want to get too far into the study of something that may not in the end get us to the results we are looking for down the road anyway.   If anyone could point me to any resources or material that would be appreciated as well.    Again, if the goal was more iterative large scale propagation precepts --- a combination of onyx and Houdini's amazing environment generation tool sets would be feasible, but we are looking for 'hero assets' and as much work will go into the growth, and final render of that growth as anything else.       

 

It has been fascinating journey so far, though there is admittedly no much to show for it as of now.     

 

Thank you all

 

By the way---as an artist who as only lately transitioned to  Houdini, I can honestly say that there is no 3d package I enjoy using more.

Houdini 16 is coming......

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 8, 2017 by JKeil

[acey195]

In general I think it depend on how deep of a level of control you need.

If you are working on botanical research and you can afford to spend a lot of time on getting stuff exactly right,
or you for example need a lot of control over how it would animate, go with Houdini.

If you just need a good-looking mostly static mesh as end result, which is generally right, I would go with something with an interface more specifically designed for the task.